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According to a 2024 Statista study, 90% of US adults aged 65 and older use the internet. That’s a lot of people with varying degrees of comfort with technology and online fluency. Many elderly people are very comfortable online, but scammers often target the elderly with online scams first.
Giulia Porter, a vice president at Teltech (the company behind RoboKiller, a robocall-blocking app), confirmed this. “Scammers tend to target areas that have an older population,” said Porter. “So, for example, Florida, Texas, and more southern states tend to have a higher volume of spam calls.”
I discussed ways to protect elders and other vulnerable people from scams with Jessica Johnston, senior director at the National Council on Aging’s (NCOA) Center for Economic Well-Being. The following six tips can't guarantee protection, but they're a step in the right direction for you and your loved ones.
1. Listen and Build Trust
If you think your loved one is communicating with a scammer or is in the process of being scammed, take time to listen to what happened before you rush to judgment. “Allow them to tell their story and really hear and understand what they're going through,” said Johnston.
Afterward, ask the person if they even want your assistance. Remember, you can't help someone who doesn't want it, and it's important to respect their personal agency. If they accept your help, gather all the hard data you can, like screenshots of emails, financial documents, and text messages, and use it to report the incident to the authorities (more on this later). Make sure your loved one is as involved in the process as they want to be, and resist the temptation to do it all for them or make them uncomfortable just to get back at a scammer.
(Credit: SDI Productions)2. Remind Them There's No Hurry to Respond
Scammers love nothing more than scaring someone into acting against their best interests, and to do so, they often use threats or promises of time-sensitive financial gains. I recently spoke to Michael Bordash, senior vice president of Research and Development at Syniverse, about tax season texting scams. He told me that senior citizens are targeted for many reasons, one being that older people are more likely to respond to threatening texts.
With that in mind, embrace the power of silence. When dealing with a possible scammer, the best action is usually inaction. Encourage your loved one not to respond to calls or messages from unknown phone numbers, or better yet, block them entirely. In most cases, the fraudster loses interest and moves on to the next victim quicker than you can say, “Limited-time opportunity.”
Johnston’s suggestion for combating these urgent-sounding threats is to offer yourself as a trusted person to whom the older person can talk about a possible scam. Offer to let them forward you the messages or emails the scammer sends them so you can review them before they do anything. That way, you can help them verify who is contacting them and why.
3. Contact Anti-Fraud Organizations for Help
Similarly, if you notice that your loved one is deep into what looks like a romance scam or a crypto fiasco, don’t be surprised if they react negatively when you voice your suspicions. Instead, encourage them to get a second opinion from a peer, online or in person. If that's not enough, get the experts involved. Law enforcement agencies like the FBI, local senior centers or community groups, and other organizations like the AARP often do outreach specifically to seniors to help them avoid getting scammed. Sometimes, it takes more than one person to change someone’s mind.
It’s natural for our social circles to shrink as we age, but that doesn’t mean we are helpless or alone, and scammers love targeting lonely people. Johnston recommended taking your loved one to scam prevention events at local senior centers.
For immediate scam-spotting assistance, you can call the AARP’s Fraud Watch helpline. It’s free for everyone, and you’ll receive support from trained professionals. For online assistance, Johnston’s organization, NCOA, has a comprehensive scam prevention section on its website.
4. Use Security Tools
You should also encourage your older family members to use antivirus tools with built-in phishing detection features. This software will send alerts whenever it encounters insecure websites or if the person clicks on possible phishing links.
Google also recently rolled out scam prevention measures for its Android messaging service, so everyone will get alerts when a text message looks suspicious. Ask your older loved ones to tell you whenever they receive these alerts, and make sure you both know how to block spam messages and phone numbers on all devices.
5. Stay in Touch
None of the experts I interviewed for this article thought that using monitoring software to keep an eye on older relatives online is helpful. “I would never recommend surveilling someone without them knowing it,” said Johnston. “That is certainly not a great way to build trust with someone that you're trying to care for.”
Instead, she recommends using video conferencing apps to check in with loved ones regularly to get some face time with them. Ask questions about their online activities and friendships. Stay clued in to their online lives so that if a situation starts to look scammy, you can squash it before it leads to financial (or personal) devastation.
If your loved one has cognitive issues or is facing other circumstances that may impair their judgment, get their consent before monitoring any of their devices. The major mobile device manufacturers all offer some basic parental control settings or add-ons.
6. Report Scams and Sign Up for Identity Monitoring
Finally, if you or someone you love does fall victim to a scammer, report the incident to law enforcement promptly and seek recovery assistance from the affected banks and services.
We test identity theft protection services, and many offer scam support and guarantees against financial losses due to identity theft. That means if your loved one gets scammed, they may be eligible for help from a real human to fix the damage and even cash to help them get back on their feet. Check out that list and sign up for a service that works best for you and the elder person in your life.