simpsonsshitposting

If I had to guess it's closer to two decades. They used to do it (may still) with reloadable Visa and MasterCard. Due to TV shows making getting audited by the IRS a huge deal and being told the government is coming for their money for decades, old people fall for this scam. Most of them have taken the standard deduction their whole life and have had someone else doing their taxes for years, but they're terrified that the tax man is gonna throw them in the hoosegow. It's the same reason a lot of children are frightened that they'll catch on fire a lot as an adult or that quicksand was going to be a huge deal. Stop, drop, and roll was beaten into us. Quicksand was a problem in an episode of almost every cartoon and many live action comedy shows we watched.

That's in the states. I have to assume it's the same in at least some other countries with shit tax laws. If we'd update to a better tax system that scam would go away in just a few years.