At Hands on America, it’s our mission to empower individuals to continue living where they’re most comfortable: at home, and when we achieve this, through affordable services. When we connect, we care like family. We have to educate our clients about common scams targeting older adults, such as phishing and computer support scams.
As services become more digitalized, cybercrime and online/digital fraud and scams are increasing simultaneously. It is our duty to educate our clients and older adults about online frauds and scams in addition to providing routine services.
As we care like family, it is our responsibility to teach older adults about the common scams and cybercrimes targeted at them. We have listed some scams and their preventive measures below:
FYI: We highly recommend watching THE BEEKEEPER movie to get clear concept on how the victim of the scammer one can be.
Most And Common Scams Targeting Older Adults
Cyber criminals use phishing and malware to steal information.
- Phishing scams involve impersonating legitimate companies or organizations to trick victims into clicking on malicious files or sharing sensitive information.
- Signs of phishing scams include typos, pixelated images, and misspelled web/email addresses.
- Malware is hidden in attachments, downloads, and links found on the web or in messages. To protect yourself, install and use anti-virus software from a reputable source and be cautious of what you download online.
- Gift cards scam, prepaid phone cards scams, and scams related to romance.
- Cyber criminals exploit social media and dating platforms to gain access to your personal information or money in Romance Scam.
Older Adults frequently become targets for fraudulent activities. Fraudsters are clever and persuasive, and their schemes are crafted to surprise their victims.
Typical frauds targeting the elderly include:
- Scams impersonating government officials, like someone pretending to be a government agent, USPS agent requesting personal details.
- Some scammers send text messages pretending to be FedEx, UPS or USPS agents. They include the fake delivery details and vulnerable link in the message.
- Some scammers send you emails, text or messages in social media outlets informing you that you have won the grand prize or lottery. They use this technique to get your banking details and personal identifiable information (PII)
- Computer support scams, where a fraudster claims your computer is malfunctioning and demands payment for technical assistance.
- The “grandparent scam,” where a caller pretends to be a grandchild or another family member in trouble.
Preventive Measures to Avoid fraud targeted at Older Adults
- To stay safe, remain alert and avoid sharing personal details with individuals you’ve just met online or don’t recognize in person.
- If someone requests money or seems suspicious early in a relationship, it might be wise to end the conversation and block them. Reach out to your bank directly if you’re uncertain.
- Protect your identity by being cautious of how much personal information you share online and staying vigilant against common scams like phishing.
- Use strong and unique passwords with a password manager and enable multi-factor authentication on your accounts.
- To improve device security, update software, turn on multi-factor authentication, back up important files, use a passphrase, and be cautious of scams.
- Updating software improves device performance and makes it more secure.
- Backing up files provides peace of mind if something goes wrong with your device, or you get hacked.
- Passphrases are stronger and more secure versions of passwords and should be at least 14 characters long, unpredictable, and unique.
- Use a password manager if you struggle to remember all your passwords.
- Be cautious of messages that look too good to be true and report scams quickly.
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