My 80+-year-old mother, being 80+ years old, still has a landline, which she still answers when there’s an unfamiliar number. However, she’s also alert enough that she apparently enjoys toying with the scammers. She got a call from someone who addressed her as “grandma” and said that he needed money because he was stuck overseas. “O⸻?” she asked using the name of my son who was in kindergarten at the time. “Yes!” the scammer asked. “Why aren’t you at your kindergarten?” she asked. The scammer hung up.

I learned about the above story when I sat down to have the “the talk” with her.