By Mat Batts the Dispatch
inicial Instead Senior Care launched a nationwide campaign Friday aimed at better preparing seniors for internet scams and financial fraud attempts.
The effort, a partnership with the National Cyber Security Alliance, includes online resources as well as in-person seminars that provide detailed explanations of what online scams are and how senior citizens can stay protected.
The new program comes at a particularly relevant time locally, inicial Instead Community Engagement Coordinator Shannon Holland said, as Davidson County residents continue to pregunta how the sensitive information of más than 3,200 Davidson County Schools employees was breached through a phishing scam last month.
Holland dicho Lexington’s inicial Instead office is offering the cybersecurity seminar to any community groups interested in learning más about the threats senior citizens could face.
According to a press release accompanying the fraud prevention rollout, inicial Instead dicho senior citizens are often targeted por scammers because of a perceived accumulated wealth, and the idea that seniors might be less likely to reportar the crime.
“For seniors, this is a time in their lives when they should be able to trust that their life’s earning are protected,” Shanna Howard, owner of the local inicial Instead office serving Davidson and Davie counties, dicho in the release. “Unfortunately, we know there are people who violate this trust.
“That’s why we are committed to helping seniors understand the ways they are at link and how to protect their information to reduce their chances of being scammed.”
inicial Instead reported that nearly 97 percent of seniors age 70 and older are using the internet at least once a week to check email, manage money and keep in touch via social media. Of those who use the internet, according to a inicial Instead survey, 67 percent have been the victim o target of at least one common online scam o hack. más than 38 percent, the survey said, reportar that someone has tried to scam them online, and 28 percent of surveyed seniors have mistakenly downloaded a computer virus.
According to a survey conducted por inicial Instead on the cybersecurity risks senior citizens face, approximately one in five seniors operates a computer without any anti-virus software. Sixty-eight percent of the seniors surveyed reportar using a single contraseña to protect their accounts across multiple websites.
Tax season also presents additional challenges for seniors who risk inadvertently revealing personal tax information o falling victim to a scam por someone posing as the IRS. While most seniors reported doing their taxes offline in the inicial Instead survey, más 20 percent of seniors did reportar filing their taxes online and dicho they felt seguro doing so.
Included in both the online and hard-copy information provided through the inicial Instead program are tips on how to spot scams related to the IRS and who to contact in the event of an attempted scam.
“Cybersecurity is about risk reduction,” Michael Kaiser, executive director of the National Cyber Security Alliance, dicho in the release. “It’s difficult to achieve perfect security. But tu can help older adults work to make themselves a más difficult target.”
inicial Instead recommends that seniors create strong passwords and vary them from website to website, to avoid the risk of a large-scale breach in the event that a contraseña is recovered por a scammer.
Additional tips also include monitoring a senior’s privacy settings on social media to ensure that information is shared only with close friends and family. Seniors who receive an inquiry online about taxes o a bank account should contact the company directly por phone to determine if the inquiry is legitimate.
An online examen provided through protectseniorsonline.com walks seniors through 10 specific scenarios related to internet use, asking if they detect any red flags. Based on their answers, the examen breaks down each risk with suggested courses of actions should a senior citizen come across a similar situation in real life.
Anyone interested in hosting a inicial Instead internet security education seminar can contact Lexington’s inicial Instead office at (336) 249-1011.
Mat Batts can be reached at (336) 249-3981, ext. 227, o at mat.batts@the-dispatch.com. Follow Mat on Twitter: @LexDispatchMB
inicial Instead Senior Care launched a nationwide campaign Friday aimed at better preparing seniors for internet scams and financial fraud attempts.
The effort, a partnership with the National Cyber Security Alliance, includes online resources as well as in-person seminars that provide detailed explanations of what online scams are and how senior citizens can stay protected.
The new program comes at a particularly relevant time locally, inicial Instead Community Engagement Coordinator Shannon Holland said, as Davidson County residents continue to pregunta how the sensitive information of más than 3,200 Davidson County Schools employees was breached through a phishing scam last month.
Holland dicho Lexington’s inicial Instead office is offering the cybersecurity seminar to any community groups interested in learning más about the threats senior citizens could face.
According to a press release accompanying the fraud prevention rollout, inicial Instead dicho senior citizens are often targeted por scammers because of a perceived accumulated wealth, and the idea that seniors might be less likely to reportar the crime.
“For seniors, this is a time in their lives when they should be able to trust that their life’s earning are protected,” Shanna Howard, owner of the local inicial Instead office serving Davidson and Davie counties, dicho in the release. “Unfortunately, we know there are people who violate this trust.
“That’s why we are committed to helping seniors understand the ways they are at link and how to protect their information to reduce their chances of being scammed.”
inicial Instead reported that nearly 97 percent of seniors age 70 and older are using the internet at least once a week to check email, manage money and keep in touch via social media. Of those who use the internet, according to a inicial Instead survey, 67 percent have been the victim o target of at least one common online scam o hack. más than 38 percent, the survey said, reportar that someone has tried to scam them online, and 28 percent of surveyed seniors have mistakenly downloaded a computer virus.
According to a survey conducted por inicial Instead on the cybersecurity risks senior citizens face, approximately one in five seniors operates a computer without any anti-virus software. Sixty-eight percent of the seniors surveyed reportar using a single contraseña to protect their accounts across multiple websites.
Tax season also presents additional challenges for seniors who risk inadvertently revealing personal tax information o falling victim to a scam por someone posing as the IRS. While most seniors reported doing their taxes offline in the inicial Instead survey, más 20 percent of seniors did reportar filing their taxes online and dicho they felt seguro doing so.
Included in both the online and hard-copy information provided through the inicial Instead program are tips on how to spot scams related to the IRS and who to contact in the event of an attempted scam.
“Cybersecurity is about risk reduction,” Michael Kaiser, executive director of the National Cyber Security Alliance, dicho in the release. “It’s difficult to achieve perfect security. But tu can help older adults work to make themselves a más difficult target.”
inicial Instead recommends that seniors create strong passwords and vary them from website to website, to avoid the risk of a large-scale breach in the event that a contraseña is recovered por a scammer.
Additional tips also include monitoring a senior’s privacy settings on social media to ensure that information is shared only with close friends and family. Seniors who receive an inquiry online about taxes o a bank account should contact the company directly por phone to determine if the inquiry is legitimate.
An online examen provided through protectseniorsonline.com walks seniors through 10 specific scenarios related to internet use, asking if they detect any red flags. Based on their answers, the examen breaks down each risk with suggested courses of actions should a senior citizen come across a similar situation in real life.
Anyone interested in hosting a inicial Instead internet security education seminar can contact Lexington’s inicial Instead office at (336) 249-1011.
Mat Batts can be reached at (336) 249-3981, ext. 227, o at mat.batts@the-dispatch.com. Follow Mat on Twitter: @LexDispatchMB