| Becca Andrews was on a work trip in Georgia when she got a call from her father. Her mother had fallen prey to a phone scam and they needed her help. She set to work undoing the damage—calling the bank, contacting the IRS, figuring out which personal finance apps her mom had installed and how to shut them down. Andrews had gotten pretty deep into her to-do list before she thought to call her mom. So she dialed her up and asked her for more details on what the scammer had said and done. Her mom's answer was simple: "I did a stupid thing. I'm so stupid." Andrews stopped cold. She'd been so focused on her mission, she realized, that she'd forgotten to ask how her mom was doing. The answer was not well. As it turns out, the psychological toll of a scam can be significant. Long after an incident, victims can feel overcome with shame, unsafe in their own homes, and unable to return to their normal activities. This week in Backchannel, Andrews explores the emotional landscape of a scam. She spent months trying to close down all of her mother's compromised accounts—months in which her family couldn't put the pain of the experience behind them. Every year, millions of people get manipulated by scammers. Billions are stolen. The toll on society, though, may be far greater than we've been able to calculate. Sandra Upson | Features Editor, WIRED | 
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