Yes, the tone of that comment certainly says a lot about the people in these scams - not that it's surprising that they'd dehumanize the people they're stealing from in order to sleep at night. My grandmother has been victimized by these sorts of people, both before and after the dementia took her. She was born back when girls didn't 'need' education. She got to grade 2 and then they removed her from school to help take care of the rest of the family. She grew up ignorant and uneducated, but raised that family plus one of her own, plus held down a good job as head chef at an institution - all that while barely being able to read (and her math was dismal!) My grandfather, fortunately, was a very smart man. He also raised his own family after his father killed himself at the beginning of the depression - at 12 years old, he got his family through the depression. For obvious reasons, that affected him for the rest of his life. After raising a family of 9, he managed to save a decent chunk of money to take care of their retirement - and then, tragically, Alzheimer's took him first. This was a disaster as far as my grandmother's continued quality of life was concerned. While grandpa was alive and healthy, he took care of everything financial. Grandma didn't know how much they had, and she took the opposite route of grandpa after the depression - she became addicted to shopping. He'd let her have a certain amount but the vast majority of it was out of her reach - until he died, and suddenly she was left with a lot of money she had no comprehension of how to take care of, and an uncontrollable urge to spend. She was already displaying signs, we didn't know yet whether of dementia or Alzheimer's, but even with a power of attorney it's very difficult to stop someone from spending their own money, even when they're spending it on what are clearly scams. This is understandable, you don't want to let people just take over someone else's life at the drop of a hat, but on the other hand it's very distressing to watch a woman who has absolutely no defense against people like that have the savings her husband deliberately saved for the both of them drained by people that will never be caught or punished. Eventually the dementia got worse, but still wasn't bad enough that her doctor would agree that she needed someone else in full financial control. By the time the damn doctor did agree, a big chunk of that money was gone, and my grandmother, who should have been able to afford anything she wanted, from the most expensive home to a private care nurse if she preferred to stay in her own house, had to depend on government assistance to get into a somewhat dumpy home where we were perfectly aware that the people running the place didn't give a shit. It was bad enough that they had planned to travel when they got older and that the Alzheimer's took grandpa before they ever managed more than one or two trips - something they damn well deserved after the lives they lived - my grandfather also fought in WWII and to the day he died, wouldn't tell us anything about it. But having to watch my parent and siblings fight their own mother trying to save her from her own lack of self defense, on top of losing both parents to their own minds years before they actually die, has been the most heart wrenching thing I have ever experienced - it has actually made me glad I've never had children, and won't have to worry about putting them through all this - no, all I have left to worry about is this same thing happening to my own parents.