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- As our world becomes increasingly digital, so too does the risk of online scams and cybercrimes.
- While anyone can fall victim to these types of crimes, the elderly are often particularly vulnerable due to their lack of experience and knowledge of technology.
- We take a look at seven steps you need to take to protect the online safety of the elderly around you.
As our world becomes increasingly digital, so too does the risk of online scams and cybercrimes.
While anyone can fall victim to these types of crimes, the elderly is often particularly vulnerable due to their lack of experience and knowledge of technology.
"When it comes to the elderly, they are often easy targets for a number of reasons, including the fact that they aren't well-versed in technology and they often tend to trust very easily, especially when someone pretends to be an expert or someone that wants to help them," said Billy Petzer, the research group leader for cybersecurity systems at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research.
"There's also the assumption that older people have money saved up and pensions available, so they're often seen by these criminals as easier targets with higher payoffs."
As the people in our elders' lives, we should take on the responsibility to educate and prepare them on the dangers that exist online and how they are usually executed so they can recognise the red flags.
How are they targeted?
Some of the biggest attacks the elderly face are usually online scams through social engineering, which typically refers to an attacker pretending to be someone trustworthy, establishing a trust-based relationship with the victim and then tricking them into clicking on a dangerous link or installing malware or stealing their personal information.
Stellenbosch University's chairperson of computational thinking for AI and director of the centre for AI research, Professor Bruce Watson, said these criminals often pretended to be family, an insurance company representative, someone from the doctor's office - all characters that would be believable and perhaps important to an elderly person.
"The scams typically have the same kind of structure where a victim is lured to share some personal information and it's typically made to like it's very urgent," he added.
"A lot of the time, elderly people are embarrassed if their account is overdue or if there's some other issue with their banking, so they feel compelled to take action very quickly in an attempt to solve the supposed problem."
The most common themes:
Pretending to be from an IT company
Petzer said one of the most common ways the elderly were targeted was via their phone or email, where an attacker would contact them pretending to be calling from an IT company claiming they have detected a virus on their computer.
"They would then talk the elderly person through specific steps to take on their laptop to remove the virus, essentially giving themselves remote access to the victim's computer," he added.
Romance scams
Watson said romantic scams against the elderly happened a lot more than one would think.
A lot of the online scams against the elderly are attackers preying on their loneliness.
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"Sometimes, the elderly do feel lonely, and criminals often capitalise on this by striking up seemingly genuine friendships or relationships with them through social media or email; this often eventually leads to either identity theft, money theft and/or installing a virus on a device and taking control of it," he added.
Petzer said some online scammers could take this quite far, building the relationship over weeks or months with their victim to eventually extort large sums of money.
"Eventually, the scammer would pretend to be in some kind of emergency or ask for money for flights so they can visit, and they would disappear with this money," he added, saying there were various kinds of stories the scammers would tell.
Email health scams
Health scams are also a popular method that online scammers use.
This will usually be through an email that purports to sell some kind of health product specifically tailored to the needs of the elderly.
"This could be medication for erectile dysfunction, high blood pressure, arthritis and so on; or some kind of wonder drug," Petzer said.
Interestingly, these drugs often do get delivered but they are not real medication, they are just empty capsules.
Seven key ways to support the elderly to protect their online safety:
Both Petzer and Watson shared some important tips on how you can help the elderly around you protect themselves against these crimes.
Have a conversation
The first thing Petzer advised was to have a conversation with them about all the dangers that lurk on the internet, their phones, WhatsApp, Facebook, etc.
"We need to be sure they're aware that they can't trust people on the internet; that they should know every person they engage with online, and that they steer clear of strangers and not assume a stranger is who they say they are," he said.
Beware of urgency
A common red flag for these types of crimes is a sense of urgency when approached.
"The elderly should know that when someone phones them or sends them a message trying to force them into making a fast decision using scare tactics, they shouldn't react to that and should rather take a step back and reach out to a trusted person to ask for help," Petzer said.
Watson added anything that felt like it was moving too quickly should immediately be considered suspicious.
He said:
Don't click!
As far as Watson is concerned, we should encourage the elderly around us to never click on any link they receive from an external source. Phishing emails and messages have become sophisticated and often look extremely real.
If it seems they cannot seem to help but click on links, then Watson suggested they should learn to do so on a different device that did not have any kind of banking linked to it.
Password hygiene
"When it comes to securing accounts, we know that the elderly often uses very simple passwords like dates or names of loved ones and they are usually quite short," Petzer said.
"Help them secure their accounts by teaching them things like using passphrases, which are sentence-like passwords and are much more difficult to crack."
He added we should also help them set up two-factor authentication on all their online accounts.
"As far as possible, the elderly need to be aware that if they didn't ask anyone for help, they shouldn't trust any help that's being offered to them; that they should always question the intention of strangers no matter how nice they appear," Petzer said.
Watson added a lot of elderly people also tended to use one password for a range of different platforms and this was dangerous and should be discouraged.
Avoid desktop if app available
He advised helping the elderly around you download and navigate apps, especially for products they usually accessed on desktop but could be done through an app.
"Apps are often safer than inputting your personal information into a desktop or laptop browser," Watson said.
Social media hygiene
When the elderly sets up social media accounts, we should assist with making sure their accounts are as protected as possible, and public accounts should be discouraged.
"We should be helping the elderly around us set their accounts to private so that they're not easily accessible to potential online scammers and cyber criminals," Petzer said.
"I can't stress this enough, but they should refrain from talking to unknown people on social media."
It is also important they know we are in an era of fake news and about the capabilities and potential negative impact of artificial intelligence in disseminating fake news, images, and videos.
Nominate a tech savvy person they trust to support them
Last, Petzer advised elders in the family or community should have at least one tech savvy person they fully trusted they could always go to someone to ask for help when they were not sure about something.
He said:
All in all, it is important to remember the best defence against online scams and cybercrimes is often simply being aware of the risks and staying vigilant.
Encouraging the elders around you to trust their instincts and be cautious when interacting with strangers online can go a long way in preventing them from falling victim to online scams and cybercrimes.
