At the risk of being seen as a heartless barsteward...
Villain X decides to run a scam that cons elderly couple A & B out of their retirement savings of $Q00,000.
Why should the sentence be any different to what would be given from the bench if X had held up a store/bank/broken into their home and taken the $Q00,000?
It's premeditated robbery no matter which way you look at it.
Needless to say, IANAL.