Tens of hundreds of senior citizens every year are reported to have been deprived of their hard-earned savings by cyber scams. One of the major reasons for such thefts is the fact that the senior citizens are too naive in cyber technology and as such fall easy pretty to cyber thugs. The welfare states are taking serious notice of the increased number of cybercrimes where senior citizens are being robbed of their savings by the cyber thugs.
After the senior citizens get retired, they love to read books and newspapers to stay in touch with the rest of the world and be aware of the day to day happenings. Also, thanks to a lot of free time, they love to talk to their friends and family using social media. Besides, getting medical information and keeping up with their medical appointments, updated prescriptions and access to their medical records is among some of the fair reasons to use internet. Here is the point where they are likely to fall easy prey to cybercriminals.
Apart from that, the internet is a modern and cost-effective tool for those senior citizens who aspire to launch their career as a self-employed business person. Such senior citizens seem to be pretty fit for going online for new business opportunities or even to look for new romantic relationships offered by different online dating websites. But you can search online and read about online safety guide for elderly. And it can help you and you will be safe from online scams and robbers.
Reasons behind Senior Folks on Internet
The following are some of the prime reasons that drive the senior folks to the internet. The reasons have been stated by themselves and they seem to be pretty valid.
- Playing a positive role in social and cultural activities
- Chatting with their near and dear ones
- Making new friends or love partners
- Corporate dealings like banking, shopping and investment activities
- Making online travel arrangements
- Getting medical updated information from their doctor, including reports and tests
- Exchange of pictures with friends and family
- Keeping in touch with day to day political news
- Getting to know about sports activities if they are pro sporty
- To explore the entertainment world if they are into movies
I am a big fan of paintball game. And my grandpa buy a lots of paintball guns for me. But he knows well about online security and the scammers now. According to a study, the use of the internet among senior citizens has increased by 65%. This is a huge figure that puts these naive souls as the most vulnerable folks for the cybercriminals. Since they are unaware of the latest hacking tricks, so they easily trust the online friends that in fact, online predators whose only purpose is to hack the accounts of these senior citizens. Through friendship, they get to know all the private data of the senior citizens, now their so-called online friends. After they have received all the login and password information of the senior citizens, the cyber thugs use their genius skills of hacking and deprive their online friends of their life long savings. So it is highly suggested for the senior citizens to not to share their login or passwords details of their social media accounts such as Skype, Apple FactTime, Google Voice, Facebook, and so on.