STOP AND THINK FOR A MINUTE: WOULD A U.S. GOVERNMENT AGENCY ASK YOU TO PAY A TRANSACTION FEE WITH ITUNES GIFT CARDS?

I really don’t mean to be critical or demeaning toward the people who are victimized by these scammers.  I just can’t help thinking that if the victims would stop and think for a minute, they would realize that they were being scammed.  In this story, the caller said he was calling from the “U.S. Government Grant Department,” and had $9,000 in federal grant money for the victim.  All she had to do was pay a $150 “transaction fee.”  The scammer told her to get $150 worth of iTunes gift cards and give him the card numbers, which she dutifully did.  
The scammer then decided to go for more, telling the victim that since it was an “out of state transaction” she would also have to pay $900 for “insurance.”  When she said that was beyond her means, the scammer reduced the price to $425.  Perhaps because at that point she was starting to catch on, the victim called her bank, who told her she had been scammed.  
Are there enough red flags in that script?  I’m not sure how you could get many more in there without the integrity of the scam falling apart completely.  Stop and think: if something sounds too good to be true, then it probably is too good to be true.