Scams Happen, But This One?

I ran across this article/story/whatever a few weeks ago. It is a first person account from a woman who got scammed and it's called 'The Day I put $50,000 in a Shoe Box and Handed It to a Stranger'.

As I was reading it, I couldn't believe how gullible the woman who fell for the scam was. She is supposedly smart, wealthy, highly educated... I'm sure crooks claim to be Amazon as a way to start scams, and I'm also sure that everyone's personal details have been released on the dark web, and are just waiting to be used. But, I'm still not entirely sure the story is true, there are aspects to it that seem unreal.

Pic illustrating the article in the New York Mag (from the magazine article)