Five Tips for How Seniors Can Avoid Online Scams
Scams come in all shapes and sizes. I’m sure we can all name our favorite “grifter” movies from ‘The Sting’ to ‘Ocean’s 11′ without thinking twice. However, getting scammed isn’t just something that happens in movies and millions of people are victims of scams every single year.
A troubling issue for seniors citizens is how to avoid being victimized by these ever-increasing complex scams in the internet age. Here are a few tips for guarding your assets against online fraud.
- Do not open emails or click links from unknown senders. There are a million ways to get scammed by clicking on unknown emails. The easiest way is by opening a document and having your computer infected with viruses designed to steal your personal information.
- People’s email accounts get hacked all the time, so even if you know the sender of an email, always be on the lookout for scams. Be wary of any emails with suspicious headlines or that request money. Most people do not use email to chat, and instead use social media, so be suspicious of random emails from friends.
- Be suspicious about clicking links from banks, social media sites, or any other company asking for your verification. Hackers are getting adept at recreating the look of trusted websites and will create a matching page with small differences in the URL that you might not notice. If you are suspicious of an email from Facebook or your bank, log in through the actual website instead of clicking the link from the email.
- Another huge scam that con artists use to target senior citizens is money transfer requests. So be very skeptical of any email notifying you that you won a contest, that an old bank account was found, or even something unusual from a friend asking for money because of an emergency situation. Emails like this are almost always scams.
- Passwords can be annoying and difficult to remember. Many times we just pick a birthday or something easy to keep track of. But if you are serious about not being scammed or hacked, always create passwords with eight characters or more that including both upper and lower case letters, numbers, and symbols.
Elder Law Services of California is an estate planning law firm that specializes in helping senior citizens qualify for Medi-Cal care benefits while protecting their assets with a living trust, powers of attorneys, and other legal strategies.
Contact Elder Law Services of California today at (800) 403-6078 for a FREE phone consultation.
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