QCOSTARICA – Cybercrime does not forgive social rank or age and therefore, older adults have become easy prey for antisocials, who use increasingly convincing social engineering techniques to access sensitive information.
And it is that the theft of financial information can occur due to ignorance or overconfidence, which leads to the execution of modalities such as “phishing” or “twinning” of websites.
Likewise, the use of fraudulent phone calls (Vishing) or sending text messages via WhatsApp have become very useful tools for criminals.
By September of this year, there were a total of 1,200 complaints of fraud against the elderly, according to data from the Organismo de Investigación Judicial (OIJ) – Judicial Investigation Agency.
“In the case of older adults, telephone scams are common, in which cybercriminals pose as officials or family friends in order to request personal information, money or some type of collaboration for charitable activities that end up being false,” says Marvin Jiménez, a cybersecurity expert at the Colegio de Informáticos (Computer Science College).
Advice and support for older adults is essential so that they can safely take advantage of technological platforms; which is possible with proper training regarding the applications they use frequently such as email, electronic banking and even social networks.
This population group has migrated to digitalization to a considerable degree in the last two years, precisely as a result of the increasingly constant use of technological tools as a result of the pandemic, increasing the risk of becoming an easy target for criminals who take advantage of your vulnerability.
“Now more than ever we have to advise and accompany our older adults so that they take advantage of technological platforms with adequate training, always with basic security measures, to reduce the possibility of being a victim of cybercrime,” says Jorge Iván. Arroyo, manager of Information Technology at Coopecaja R.L., which has a social program called ‘Momentos Dorados’ (Golden Moments), through which this population is trained in the use of digital services in order to provide them with basic security tools and mitigate the risk of being victims of cybercrime.
Five forms of prevention
With the support of the family, it is possible to help older adults to avoid falling into the hands of cybercriminals, following these recommendations from cybersecurity experts.
- Help them identify the official websites of public institutions
- Show them simulations of fraudulent messages that they could receive through messaging applications or social networks
- Guide them in the use of banking applications
- Guide them on how to deal with a call from a supposed public official
- Do fraudulent email recognition exercises that include links to unknown websites.