Nowadays senior citizens are easy prey for scammers.

Those scheming guys often conduct ‘lectures’ on health management, 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 sales pitches in disguise. Once the senior folks attend them, they are cajoled into buying all kinds of glossily packaged health-related books, food supplements or medical gadgets.

The fraudsters often treat the retirees sweetly. So persuasive are their honey tongues that a lot of their targets fall under their sway. They act patiently and charmingly—like the pensioners’ children and then some. Often at the lectures, the grey-haired are offered 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, myriad 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, “Oh, they were complimentary copies some kind guys offered me at a lecture. They were 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 therapies. 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 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’ pills and devices do more harm than good.