The scam that cost Jeanette Voss her life savings began with alarm bells. In 2021, the 67-year-old Bennington woman opened her laptop to watch Netflix. A siren-like screech blared from the speakers, and a message appeared: Her computer had been hacked, and Voss needed to contact Microsoft for help. Voss called the phone number that appeared on her screen. The man who answered was able to silence the shrieking. Then he explained to Voss that hackers had already obtained her Social Security number. To protect her financial accounts, Voss would need to transfer her funds into what he called a secure digital wallet until the U.S. government could issue her a new Social Security number. He and another man could walk Voss through the process, but they had to work discreetly; the hacker's identity was unknown. "Trust no one," Voss recalled the man saying, "for your safety." For the next six months, Voss talked to the two men almost every day, using a prepaid cellphone that they told her to buy because hers had been compromised. She dubbed the burner device her "batphone." During each call, Voss would scribble their detailed instructions across three spiral notebooks. And, as instructed, she would painstakingly move her savings — retirement funds, stocks, certificates of deposit — into the bank accounts and cryptocurrency wallets they had provided. Then the men vanished. So did her money, all $950,000 of it. Cyber scams have flourished since the pandemic as transnational crime rings leverage cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence to advance their increasingly sophisticated, ever-shifting schemes. Older adults such as Voss are prime targets, experts say, because they may have nest eggs to plunder, are perceived as less tech savvy and are more likely to be isolated. Americans who are 60 and older lost nearly $3.5 billion to scams last year, according to reports filed with the Federal Bureau of Investigation's cybercrime center, up from less than $1 billion in 2020. More than 150 older Vermonters told the FBI that they'd been scammed last year for a collective $4.8 million. The true tally is almost certainly much higher. Cyber scams often go unreported by victims who feel shame or humiliation. As Vermont continues to grow older, more residents will enter the target zone. The crimes can devastate victims, and not just financially. Many confront hopelessness and feel that they've been stripped of their dignity. Some spiral…