Sadly these scams work. My sister's mother-in-law who is 83 got a phone call saying that her grandson was in a Nigerian prison and would be executed within X hours if she did not wire money to an offshore account ($4800.00, irc) to start an appeals process.
Being older, she panicked and ran out of the house. She transfered the money. THEN thought about calling her grandson, who doesn't travel out of state and lives in Ohio. This was just a couple months ago.
I don't fault her because she was retired before PCs and this type of thing even existed. I blame the tools who prey on the elderly and mentally inferior.