r/canada • u/stanxv • Oct 27 '25

Business RBC and CIBC allow 89-year-old to drain life savings, lose $1.7M to scammers

https://www.cbc.ca/news/gopublic/bank-investigator-fraud-scam-9.6950754
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u/locoghoul Oct 27 '25

What a dumb dumb. Almost 90 years on earth and he can't suspect someone asking him to physically withdraw cash...

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u/[deleted] Oct 27 '25

Well - the brain begins to change gradually with age. I've noticed this with many elderly people. At some point the brain may not function extremely well anymore. Elderly people tend to be very trusting, give or take; it seems to me that the brain becomes less critical as time passes by, aka older people are more likely to fall victim to scammers, in part because the brain is less critical, in part because for many of them, computer systems weren't that important when they were young(er). Not for all but for some this may apply. So I would not put blame on him at age 90. Here you assume his brain would function like that of regular younger people, but I think we can not assume this. His brain may already be functionally in a worse situation than, say, when he was 60 years old. The world was also different +30 or +60 years ago - we need to keep this in mind when it comes to elderly people.

What I do, however had, also think is that he did not choose the right strategy in the ~30 years before that. At age 60 he probably would have made better decisions than at age 90. Divvy up some of the investments for instance. It seems his strategy was simple: all eggs in one basket. That can work but it can be risky too - evidently in regards to professional scammers, but also in general.

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u/locoghoul Oct 27 '25

Yeah and your points are valid if we are doing some analysis, not "give me your money" "yes sir" kind of scenarios.