¡°Hi it¡¯s me listen I¡¯m in trouble big trouble need money fast oh please Mama ¡ª HELP!¡¯

Somehow it won¡¯t go away, this infamous ore-ore telephone scam. It preys primarily on the well-to-do elderly. A fast-talking con artist pretending to be the target¡¯s son, daughter, grandson, granddaughter or some other family connection or connection of a connection (at first it was usually a son or grandson; ¡°ore¡± is an informal masculine first-person pronoun) relates a tale of woe (pregnant girlfriend, trouble with gangsters, heavy debts, car accident) in such rapid-fire speech as to be scarcely comprehensible, then, in tears, begs for a cash bailout ¡ª typically to be transferred into a specified bank account.

Variations have proliferated over the years as practitioners hone their techniques, but it¡¯s all fruit from the same tree, and you have to wonder, considering the huge amount of publicity the scam has received and the dire warnings so widely broadcast: Why are people still falling for it?