The scammer just has to catch the victim at their worst moment. Tired? Drunk? Undergoing a personal crisis? Maybe the scam just hit exactly the right formula to trick you-- you'd just been on the phone with comcast and then a scammer pretending to be comcast just happens to call back at the right time.
Sure, some of their victims would always for it, though I suspect they're a small minority. But everyone can be scammed.
Sure maybe a one off for a moderate sum say <$500. However these bigger ones like over $10K are almost always over a long period of time with many transactions. At some point you have to make a choice to go with the delusion of the scam rather than face reality.
I've been a bit interested in this and have seem many interviews with the scammed people. Almost all of them admit after the fact looking back they made the choice to go along with it and at least were partially to blame from their own perspective.
I find the entire social dynamic interesting.
Give me money I will maybe give you something. Ok here is the money. <repeat forever>
How have we gotten to a point where this very obvious psychological dynamic is such a huge problem? What can be done to mitigate it?
Sure, some of their victims would always for it, though I suspect they're a small minority. But everyone can be scammed.