My wife has been in the banking industry for some 18 years and the last 5 in retail banking. Despite the widespread info. about the "Please remit $1000 to me so I can send this $100,000 estate money to you" kind of scam and many others, people still fall for them, believe it or not.
Most victims or potential victims are older folks (70+), but she came across a case in which a young fellow (in his late 20s or early 30s) came to her bank to pay an email notice from the taxman to avoid late charges!!!
The most common scam that some people do fall for: A victim receives a cheque or money order to deposit, with the instructions that the victim keeps portion of it (say, $300 out of a $2500 cheque or bank draft) and remits the rest to a local bank account (acct number and address given) IMMEDIATELY. Most folks thought it was safe as long as the bank accepted their deposits and sent out the money out of the same account the cheque was deposited into. A week later (much longer if it was a foreign bank draft), the deposited cheques bounced and they became a victim statistic.
It is true that the majority of people will not fall for scams, but if only 1% of the population believed a good deal was to be had, it was a still a lot money to the crooks. In the internet age, the cost of pulling a scam is very low.
