An apparently Bay Area-based con artist was on the verge of scamming an elderly Atherton man out of $15,000, but fortunately his caregiver and family intervened, and the would-be con artist was taken into custody.

It’s not news to anyone that scammers love to target older people, who are perhaps a little more trusting, and often a little less sophisticated when it comes to modern-day apps and digital tools. KRON4 brings us the story of the latest attempted tech scam that targeted an elderly man in Atherton, in which a woman nearly scammed the man out of $15,000, until a caregiver and the man’s daughter were able to intervene and put the swindle to a halt.    

The scheme started with a phishing email, telling the man that “funds had been transferred out of his PayPal account without authorization,” according to the Atherton Police Department. That managed to get his phone number, and a woman called him posing as a PayPal representative. She convinced him to withdraw $15,000 out of his bank account, to supposedly pay for the unauthorized withdrawal, and instructed him to give that money to a representative that would come to his house.

“Fortunately, an alert caregiver contacted the elderly resident’s daughter who contacted the Atherton Police,” the City of Atherton said in a statement. “Our officers immediately responded to the location, intercepted the female suspect and took her into custody without incident.”

The suspect is not named in the announcement. But it sounds like she was apprehended at his home, and in the Bay Area.

There are a few other common scams going around these days. One that preys on older people is known as the “grandparent scam,” faking a young family member's voice and trying to get the victim to wire them a huge sum of money to get a kid out of fictional legal trouble. Scammers are also impersonating government agents, posing as computer tech support, and of course there are those fake FasTrak texts and bogus ‘unpaid parking tickets’ texts.

Law enforcement suggests not sending money or transfers to people you don’t know personally, to not click on links or open the attachments in unsolicited emails or texts, to call people directly if they to receive calls from them align a financial crisis, and to not pay agencies who send texts or phone calls claiming you owe the government money. If you’re caring for older people, urge them to talk to family members or friends if prompted to enter a large financial arrangement.

Related: Beware: Those ‘Unpaid Parking Invoice’ Tickets Texts Are a Complete Scam, Everybody [SFist]

Image: Marques Thomas via Unsplash