Every year, cybercriminals steal approximately $40 billion from senior citizens in the United States. Cybercriminals with access to an older adult person’s information via a computer, smartphone or other networked device can easily exploit it for nefarious intent.

The scope of bad actors targeting senior citizens can be explained by the lack of experience and skills in using computers and technology among the elderly, as well as the growing popularity of computer systems held by people of the same age, and the fact that most of them have credit cards. In the past, people in their 70s and 80s hardly ever used computers. Nowadays, people of the same age have social media accounts, surf the internet and of course use smartphones.

Unlike their younger counterparts, seniors are less aware of cyberthreats and, in many cases, lack the tools and experience to identify attacks and fraudulent attempts. Even elderly people with no access to computers or smartphones can fall victim to cyber-related crime such as in the case where their personal details have been leaked from a database and sold to criminals who can then exploit them. Seniors also give bad actors the highest hit rates from phone phishing scams, frequently through attempts to use personal information and news of harm or captivity of the elderly’s children.

Familiar fraud

Most of the crimes against the adult population use a similar pattern as fraud against the elderly with no connection to computers, such as telemarketing of unnecessary services by highly aggressive sales reps. The criminals will reach out to those people in a unsuspicious manner — sending a legitimate-looking email, offering to connect on Facebook or by using a legitimate website that offers them some vacation or other prize.

The criminals will then try to obtain the details of those people. In particular, they will seek credit card and identification details that allow them to use these cards. Another tactic is impersonating a person in need and requesting a transfer of funds.

Recently, the FBI arrested a network of criminals impersonating other people (Captain Garcia of the U.S. military stationed in Syria, for example) who persuaded their victims — many of whom were elderly- – to transfer money to various causes, all of which were fictitious.

Another favorite method of criminals is impersonating “official” entities, such as government officials, municipalities and various authorities, while exploiting the trust or innocence of those citizens and fraudulently obtaining their details.

In addition, this population is exposed to “normal” cybercrime — phishing, infection by malware and theft of personal information. The only difference is that the likelihood of this population recognizing such an attack is extremely slim, since the ability of people in this age group to understand that they have been compromised and to seek assistance is minimal.

It should be noted that such attacks can also be carried out against people through their smartphones, which are very popular with this age group. These devices are usually not installed with protection software that could alert the user to malicious websites or warn them of attempts to exfiltrate personal details from the device.

What can be done?

It all starts and ends with education, but this time it is the younger generation who need to educate their parents. We should remember the warnings they repeatedly told us when we were younger, and echo similar messages back to them, though in a slightly different way:

• Know your friends and enemies: Research shows that the elderly are oblivious to cyber-risks, so it’s worthwhile explaining to them some basic concepts and providing them with some examples of criminal or fraudulent online activities for them to learn from and avoid.
• Do not open the door to strangers, and do not receive anything from strangers: Any communication from a party that they do not know personally should be treated with caution. It’s wise to assume all profiles on social networks are fake until proven otherwise.
• Don’t tell anyone any personal information, even if you are convinced that you are in contact with an official or a real person. And do not provide credit card details, residential address or social security number, certainly not by email or text message.
• If there is any suspicion, seniors should call someone who knows about computer and smartphone risks. If requests are made to provide contact information, it is advisable to consult a person who is well-versed in security to see that the site is genuine. Yes, that person could be a 13-year-old grandson!
• If something looks too good to be true, it’s probably not true. The old adage is just as true in the online world as it is in the physical world. Seniors should resist those tempting offers that pop up while browsing for weird apps that install themselves on the mobile device, and avoid those people who offer big, congested “if only” details or say they will send money.
• For more, check out this report from the Aspen Institute on protecting older people online.

Unfortunately, today’s elderly will continue to be the victims of cybercrime. This phenomenon will likely become worse before it gets better as more elderly dabble in technology and their generation adopts digital means of payment and banking through smartphones.

It will probably take years until the generation who “grew up using computers” come of age, and are more used to such scams with their decades of built-in experience and suspicion of every poor girl from Nigeria who needs a hundred dollars a month to buy dresses for school.

Until then, they should out for their parents and help guard them against those they cannot guard against themselves.

Yotam Gutman has filled several operational, technical and business positions at defense, homeland security, intelligence and cybersecurity companies and provided consulting services for many others. He joined SentinelOne six months ago to oversee local marketing activities in Israel and contribute to the global content marketing team. He wrote this article for SiliconANGLE.

Photo: Sabine van Erp/Pixabay