They’re out there looking for their next target.
The goal of scammers is to separate their unwitting victims, often those that are not technically savvy, from their PII, including names, addresses, social security numbers, financial data, and other such information. Given this information scammers will seek to drain the victim’s bank accounts and run their credit cards up to the limit, often moving such funds out of the country where they cannot be recovered easily.
It is good to bear in mind that the highly skilled scammer will be considerably more careful and subtle, and we may not even realize that anything has happened until after they are long gone. Scamming is becoming increasingly sophisticated.
A report published on the AARP website identified the Top Five scams to be on the watch for in 2025. There are plenty more of course but these were determined to be the ones most frequently used. The list can be found here.