Middle-aged and elderly people in Vietnam have become targets of criminals because compared to younger generations, this age group has many loopholes that are easily exploited by criminals, especially mistakes in using digital devices such as smartphones, social networks, and messaging applications.
According to the WeAreSocial 2024 Report, Vietnam currently has 79% of its population using the internet, focusing on the age group from 16 to 64, of which 97% of users connect to the internet via mobile phones. A very large coverage of online users. Notably, data recently released by Google shows that 49% of people over 55 have been victims of online fraud.
According to Google, unsafe online habits are the biggest cause of falling into scams, with 90% of users having been exposed to online scams and more than 70% having been victims. The over-55 age group is particularly vulnerable, with 49% having been scammed. Accordingly, the Information Security Department under the Ministry of Information and Communications has also coordinated with Google to warn and provide methods to help older people recognize and protect themselves from online scams.
Here are some mistakes that make seniors easy targets for cyber scammers, and suggested solutions:
Feel free to share information on social networks
Smartphones and the internet help seniors stay connected with friends and integrate into the world of their children and grandchildren, but they also come with many unforeseen risks from the online world. Most seniors easily share moments of their personal or family life online, such as clear pictures of the whole family, or schedules of daily activities, personal habits, etc. All of this content is useful information for scammers to synthesize and analyze, from which they can easily carry out tricks that make victims fall into traps.
How can a scammer cheat?
- Impersonating family members, calling or video calling with both the face and voice of children or friends , along with information that only the person involved knows. The images and content are so real that the victim easily believes them and follows the request, such as transferring a large amount of money urgently. The solution is quite simple, do not immediately believe any money transfer request even if you see your child on the video call. Turn off the video-call, call the right person to confirm.
- A fairly common scenario recently is to fake a shipment. "Your son just bought 5 liters of wild honey, pay this amount", "He works at company A, phone number B, husband of Ms. C...". The information provided by the scammer is all correct, making the victim easily believe that their son has actually ordered and paid. However, the solution above is to call the son to confirm.
- Impersonating officials, requesting to send personal documents. This form is very popular in 2023, scammers pretend to be officials of ministerial management agencies, prosecutors, court officials or police to request to send photos of ID cards, household registration books, personal documents... From there, personal information can be used to create fake loan contracts, fake credit contracts, virtual loans. The solution to this scenario is to absolutely not trust and not send any documents or content.
- Impersonating a bank employee. Through information collected from social networks, the scammer pretends to be a bank employee and calls the victim, informing them that there is a problem with the bank account that needs to be handled urgently, urging the victim to provide account information or login code, thereby taking control of the bank account and withdrawing all the money in the pension account. The solution is very simple: never trust or follow the instructions because the bank never proactively contacts the customer to request personal information related to the account.
Fraudsters use the collected information to trick victims into providing card or bank account information.
A huge risk from the online world is also a danger to the elderly when accessing the internet, which is fake news. With the current flood of information, fake news in all forms threatens the ability of the elderly to receive information and knowledge, making them easily trapped and led astray. False rumors related to an attractive event, or unscientific health treatments but related to their health problems are often of concern to the elderly.
The solution to fake news is to not believe it too quickly, and to look for real sources, reliable sources, and official references.
Young people should be the emergency hotline
Young people need to become a strong layer of protection for their parents against the risks of the internet and technology fraud, becoming a hotline that their parents can call at any time they feel "strange" or suspicious or "scared" by people approaching them online. This will help older people to redirect the risks of fraud to experienced young people to eliminate them.
In addition to the above solutions, the elderly should regularly improve their knowledge to avoid new scams from scammers. A channel providing very useful information for the elderly to understand scams and ways to protect themselves has just been introduced by Google in coordination with the Department of Information Security in early 2024 at http://g.co/TrungTamAnToan , along with a series of programs on " Online safety for the elderly ". This is a very useful community support activity of Google to help supplement knowledge for "young people" to help "old people" stay safe when using technology.
Source link
Comment (0)