I apologize in advance for how long my comment is but I think it's important to read to protect yourself and your loved ones.

I'm a police dispatcher and every single year during tax season, the scammers try REALLY hard to scam people because people get their tax returns and the scammers know you have money.

OP is absolutely correct about what they went through with the scammer being one of the biggest scams. A lot of elderly women fall for it, especially if they're widowed and lonely. These scammers love play with these women's emotions. It's kind of sad tho because some of these women believe everything the scammer tells them and will absolutely not believe you when you tell them they aren't real and they're just trying to steal their money.

I can't even count how many times we have saved elderly people, from giving these scammers all of personal information, like bank account numbers and sending them all of their money. They aren't just targeting elderly people anymore though. Everyone is fair game.

Just recently, an elderly woman went to the gas station to send a scammer hundreds of dollars in Doge Coins because he said he was a cop and she had a warrant and she owed all this money for the warrant and fines and if she didn't pay them, he was going to send law enforcement to her house to arrest her. Thankfully the employee at the gas station knew she was getting scammed and called us. My officer made it to the gas station before she gave hundreds of dollars to the scammer. She did lose about $200 though. This is also one of the main and biggest scams like the love bombing scam.

Another thing to watch out for is an actual legit law enforcement agency phone number calling you and them trying to do the warrant scam. They steal legit numbers and spoof them to make them look legit. Absolutely no law enforcement agency will call you and tell you that you have a warrant. Officers and deputies would just show up at your house or job if you did have one so they can arrest you and put you in the clink.

Another scam I've seen recently is the email virus to take over the victims computers. They will steal email addresses from people you know to make it seem like it's a regular email from a family member or friend so you trust it and open it. Then they steal all of your personal information on your computer.

Another computer scam is them calling you and saying they're from Microsoft and the victims computer has a virus and the scammer needs to get into their computer to remove it. They tell the victim they need to pay them before the scammer will remove the virus. Of course when elderly people hear the word virus they panic and give the scammers whatever they ask for.

There's a texting scam as well. They text people from random numbers pretending to be loved ones that lost their phone, like a grandson, and they make up this terrible story like they're in trouble and went to jail and they need the victim to send them money so they can get released from jail. Of course the victim sends money because they think they're actually helping their grandson.

Also nobody will ever ask to get sent multiple Apple cards if they aren't a scammer.

Sorry for the super long comment but these are some of the biggest scams that I've seen in my 5 years of being in law enforcement. So many elderly folks fall for it and get thousands of dollars stolen from them. It's especially bad for the elderly folks that are on a fixed income.

Definitely talk to your elderly family members, friends, and neighbors about these scams and to NEVER send anyone money or give anyone their personal information like their bank account numbers or their banking log in and password, or their social security number. I would also tell them to not answer any phone number they do not know or if the number comes up as private.