A frequent TV commercial features Dr. Rick teaching the Millennial generation how to not become their parents. I always laugh at the silliness describing me.

My widowed mother developed an “Everybody is trying to separate me from my money,” attitude. She suspected car mechanics, plumbers, insurance companies, and others of trying to cheat her.

I saw Mom herself separate money from not a few others in her antiques shop. That was in the heyday of old-stuff acquisition and eclectic collectors. But Mom’s customers had opportunity to examine every item. If they wanted yard-sale junk, so be it. Mom never made false claims or cheated anyone.

My email inbox averages several scams a day. Scammers are becoming more sophisticated and frequently pose as actual companies or people I trust. Older people experience declining cognitive ability and can find technology unfathomable. Older Americans reported being scammed of $3.8 billion in 2023 up 11% from 2022. Most victims of fraud don’t report. Scamming is a growth industry.

More seriously, a thin line separates clever advertising by legal companies from duplicity. Kit’s phone gets dozens of calls a day offering dubious products.  An imaginary line separates duplicity from fraud. Businesses make false claims or use tricks trying to get me to purchase something worthless. Quack medical treatments and placebos are touted by those supposedly cured. Dire warnings try to generate fear and urge me to buy protective products I don’t need. Daily I struggle to tiptoe through complex websites that have imbedded and deceptively described links to unrelated products.

Kit and I lost $50,000 on a publicly traded stock (highly rated by professioinals) which had filed misleading earnings reports. We recovered $500 in the ensuing lawsuit. Nobody went to jail and the lawyers got rich.

So, I’m proud to have become like Mom. I look at every offer skeptically. And I don’t cheat anybody.

Drew