Nowadays senior citizens are easy prey for scammers.

Those scheming guys often conduct ‘lectures’ on health keeping, to which they lure the elderly by offering ‘free’ gifts, such as a dozen eggs, a packet of toilet rolls or a can of cooking oil. Those lectures are disguised sales pitches. Once the senior folks attend them, they are cajoled into buying all kinds of glossily packaged health-related books, food supplements and medical gadgets.

The cheats often treat the retirees very sweetly. Their honey tongues are so persuasive that a lot of their targets fall under their sway. They act patiently like the pensioners’ children and even more so. Often at the lectures, the grey-haired are offered free medical check-ups, whose results will invariably show some problems with their physical condition. Once the tricksters win the seniors’ trust, selling expensive books and equipment to them will become a matter of course.

A lot of guys my grandparents’ age stock up health products at home, which could last them for several lifetimes. In extreme cases, some older people are swindled out of their life savings. A lot of people feel sympathetic to the silver-haired, but they are helpless, seeing the poor guys readily hand over their money to the con artists, day in and day out.

During the National Day holidays, my parents and I paid a visit to my grandparents. I found, in their living room, a lot of health-related brochures, which Grandad had not been interested in before. Curious, I leafed through the literature only to find that most of the info was false or nonsense. When asked about the pamphlets, Grandad said, “I got them from some kind guys. They are really considerate.”

Hearing that, I realised Grandad might have fallen for their wiles. I hastened to warn him to be wary of the ‘kind-hearted’ guys. Later playing a game on his phone, I found that almost all the texts in the device were from those chaps who pitch anti-ageing products. There were more than 100 of them!

At the dinner table, I tried to talk some common sense into Grandad’s head. “Don’t you worry, girl,” Gran chimed in. “Your grandad is frugal. He will not let the swindlers lay a finger on him.”

To be honest, I am terribly concerned about Grandad being hoodwinked. I do wish he could spend his hard-earned pension on things worthwhile. Those trash ‘miracle’ products do more harm than good.