By Mat Batts the Dispatch
home pagina 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, home pagina Instead Community Engagement Coordinator Shannon Holland said, as Davidson County residents continue to vraag how the sensitive information of meer than 3,200 Davidson County Schools employees was breached through a phishing scam last month.
Holland zei Lexington’s home pagina Instead office is offering the cybersecurity seminar to any community groups interested in learning meer about the threats senior citizens could face.
According to a press release accompanying the fraud prevention rollout, home pagina Instead zei senior citizens are often targeted door scammers because of a perceived accumulated wealth, and the idea that seniors might be less likely to meld 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 home pagina Instead office serving Davidson and Davie counties, zei 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.”
home pagina 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 home pagina Instead survey, 67 percent have been the victim of target of at least one common online scam of hack. meer than 38 percent, the survey said, meld 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 door home pagina 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 meld using a single paswoord to protect their accounts across multiple websites.
Tax season also presents additional challenges for seniors who risk inadvertently revealing personal tax information of falling victim to a scam door someone posing as the IRS. While most seniors reported doing their taxes offline in the home pagina Instead survey, meer 20 percent of seniors did meld filing their taxes online and zei they felt veilig doing so.
Included in both the online and hard-copy information provided through the home pagina 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, zei in the release. “It’s difficult to achieve perfect security. But u can help older adults work to make themselves a meer difficult target.”
home pagina 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 paswoord is recovered door a scammer.
Additional tips also include monitoring a senior’s privacy settings on social media to ensure that information is shared only with close vrienden and family. Seniors who receive an inquiry online about taxes of a bank account should contact the company directly door phone to determine if the inquiry is legitimate.
An online kwis 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 kwis 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 home pagina Instead internet security education seminar can contact Lexington’s home pagina Instead office at (336) 249-1011.
Mat Batts can be reached at (336) 249-3981, ext. 227, of at mat.batts@the-dispatch.com. Follow Mat on Twitter: @LexDispatchMB
home pagina 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, home pagina Instead Community Engagement Coordinator Shannon Holland said, as Davidson County residents continue to vraag how the sensitive information of meer than 3,200 Davidson County Schools employees was breached through a phishing scam last month.
Holland zei Lexington’s home pagina Instead office is offering the cybersecurity seminar to any community groups interested in learning meer about the threats senior citizens could face.
According to a press release accompanying the fraud prevention rollout, home pagina Instead zei senior citizens are often targeted door scammers because of a perceived accumulated wealth, and the idea that seniors might be less likely to meld 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 home pagina Instead office serving Davidson and Davie counties, zei 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.”
home pagina 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 home pagina Instead survey, 67 percent have been the victim of target of at least one common online scam of hack. meer than 38 percent, the survey said, meld 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 door home pagina 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 meld using a single paswoord to protect their accounts across multiple websites.
Tax season also presents additional challenges for seniors who risk inadvertently revealing personal tax information of falling victim to a scam door someone posing as the IRS. While most seniors reported doing their taxes offline in the home pagina Instead survey, meer 20 percent of seniors did meld filing their taxes online and zei they felt veilig doing so.
Included in both the online and hard-copy information provided through the home pagina 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, zei in the release. “It’s difficult to achieve perfect security. But u can help older adults work to make themselves a meer difficult target.”
home pagina 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 paswoord is recovered door a scammer.
Additional tips also include monitoring a senior’s privacy settings on social media to ensure that information is shared only with close vrienden and family. Seniors who receive an inquiry online about taxes of a bank account should contact the company directly door phone to determine if the inquiry is legitimate.
An online kwis 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 kwis 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 home pagina Instead internet security education seminar can contact Lexington’s home pagina Instead office at (336) 249-1011.
Mat Batts can be reached at (336) 249-3981, ext. 227, of at mat.batts@the-dispatch.com. Follow Mat on Twitter: @LexDispatchMB