You Might Ask, How Could Someone Be That Gullible?

[Rana Goodman]

I read, with great interest in the morning Sun newspaper, a story about seniors falling for scams that tricked them into actually becoming unwitting drug mules. 

Think about the Nigerian scam that we have been warned about, when I receive any email starting out “my dearest” or anything where the grammar is not what we are used to, I hit delete right away.

When I asked Dan, “how can anyone fall for these things expecting them to travel from one county to another picking up packages, envelopes and such.”  He pointed out that a person with even slight dementia and no family around to intercede might just walk right into a scam like this believing what they were being told.

In the Sun story this plan, called Operation Cocoon, was hatched by ICE and Immigration & Customs Enforcement in 2013 and they work in conjunction with other countries agencies.  Many senior American citizens land in Spanish and other European jails when caught carrying drugs, in packages,  sewn into clothing, in suitcases  etc. Some serving for several years.

The idea it seems is that seniors are less likely to appear “the type” to smuggle drugs, however wouldn’t you think that someone planning on carrying drugs through customs would make sure they “didn’t look the type“

These government agencies claim that they do try to warn seniors so they know about this type of thing but, having worked with several agencies regarding scams and such I have to ask myself how much effort they put into “trying.”?

Over the last few years I have personally reached out and reported dozens of phone numbers to the Federal agencies that tell us to report scam and harassing  phone calls, but nothing ever seems to be done about it since the very same numbers, in spite of a block placed on those numbers call over and over again.

You might want to check out this story online in the Sun, page 1 and 4 of the June 9, 2021 paper it is well worth the read.

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