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In today's world, everyone is a potential victim of crooks. However, there are specific tactics used on the elderly. According to the latest FBI internet crime report, Americans over 60 years old lost $ 1.7 billion for fraud last year - the highest loss of any age group. "Nowadays, cyber-species abound and frequently target seniors, a vulnerable population with less technological knowledge", explains Dr Zulfikar Ramzan , Chief scientist at Aura.com , a consumer safety platform fed by AI. "As a rule, the crooks deceive the elderly with false promises of products or services. After obtaining the confidence of seniors, these crooks follow financial details, health insurance or even even physical. Elder.

Warning sign: unexpected and disconcerting news of a loved one. The "Grandparents scam" is the place where the crooks will contact the elder to claim that the victim's grandchild is in trouble, explains Ramzan. "Impostors can claim to be the police, call and say that the grandchild was in an accident or has been involved in a crime. The crooks will ask their objectives to recover large sums of money or make a bank transfer To save '' Small child. It is particularly dangerous because the crook can even know the name of the grandchild and other identification information to make the situation more real, "he explains .

Warning sign: unknown financial costs, new accounts and loans, or credit requests that the senior did not create. Here, commonly known as "older financial abuse", someone that the victim knows and trusts tents to access the assets, credit or savings of the elderly. "The crook could encourage his victim to sign access or proxy," explains Ramzan.

Warning sign: Unlined telephone calls on technological support. In a "technological support" scam, the aggressor masks as a representative of the technological support of a company in which you trust as Apple or Microsoft. "Companies like Apple never call you proactively about these problems, but this person will claim that the computer or the device risks being infected with viruses, then encouraging them to grant remote access Or to pay software, "says Ramzan. The goal? "To encourage the victim to download" what they think is useful software that turns out to be malicious software, opening the door to cyber attacks that target the victim's banking information, "he said.

Warning sign: A notification concerning the victory of a large sum of money from a competition that the senior never participated. In this scam, fraudsters contact a senior and claim that the person has won a competition, a lottery or a competition which he does not remember to have entered, "but to receive gains, the elder must pay fees or Initial taxes, providing banking information for transfer, "explains Ramzan. "Schools can even launch these victims for months or years, saying that they have to make additional payments."

Warning sign: A budding romance can have major red flags, such as the "relationship" moving at a frantic pace, the other person promising to meet in person, but does not present themselves or the "date" asking for money / financial help. "In this scam, the aggressor will create a false character on a meeting of meetings or social media to attract his objectives, which are often alone and extremely vulnerable," explains Ramzan. "The crooks will look for online and find details that the senior shared publicly to tangle with more skills." Once the crook establishes a report, they request money, often in the form of gift cards, travel costs or health costs.

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Warning sign: a sudden thrust or a request to the elder to consent to an inverted mortgage. Many elderly people have built equity at home. Inverted mortgages are available for owners over 62 as a method to access this level of capital, "but the crooks take advantage of it through display panels, ads and leaflets for reverse mortgage scams" , explains Ramzan. "The crook will claim to want to help the senior access to equity, but they fly the money or even engage in a fraud in the acts and" steal "the home of the elder. The other warning panels include:

- high pressure sales tactics that try to bring a senior to consent to a reverse mortgage without making reasonable diligence.

- Some of someone who claims to need proxy to finalize an inverted mortgage.

- suppliers suggest that the senior retains an inverted mortgage to pay expensive repairs.