Betsy Sundquist of Finance and Commerce has a cautionary tale of telephone fraud.

Her profile of Amber Stojevich, an intelligence analyst for the Anti-Fraud Unit of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, notes that one scheme -- the grandparent scam -- is so worrisome that Stojevich immediately alerted her own family members.

In the grandparent scam, someone makes a phone call to an older person and pretends to be that person’s granddaughter or grandson, Stojevich says.

“They say something like, ‘Grandma, this is your grandson, and I’m in trouble.’ They don’t even have to use a name; often the grandparent will say, ‘Oh, yes, John! What’s wrong?’”

The scammer tells the victim that he or she is in jail in Canada, or has had a car accident somewhere, and asks the victim to send money by wire transfer. They say they’re embarrassed and ask the victim not to tell anyone, particularly their parents. And it often works.

Stojevich also gets to see lots of the Nigerian e-mail scams, lottery scams and phony charitable solicitations.

The story says:

When Stojevich started her job, she remembers being perplexed that anyone would still fall for e-mail or phone scams in an age when they are widely – and persistently – debunked.

“That was the way I felt in the beginning,” she says. “I wondered if anyone would realistically fall for this stuff.”

But she’s since come to the conclusion that yes, people would, and they do – and the vast majority of those who fall victim to scams are older, vulnerable adults.

So far this year, her office has received 19,256 e-mail complaints, compared to only 1,004 direct-mail complaints and 450 phone scam complaints.

“It can be overwhelming,” she admits. “There’s so much out there that it can seem completely insurmountable.”