The new online safety laws being proposed by the Government will give Ofcom the power to crackdown on social media companies - but will fail to cover online scams and fraud.  This means millions of us are being left as sitting prey to online fraudsters.

It’s a shocking omission, given the HUGE spike in online financial scams since the start of the pandemic.  And with all of us increasingly being forced to turn online for everything, from paying our bills to ordering our groceries - protecting our finances from online fraudsters has never been more important.

Being scammed online is a nightmare scenario. What’s worse, a survey by the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute found that those with mental health problems are three times more likely to have been the victim of an online scam.  

 

Martin Lewis, MoneySavingExpert.com founder, said ‘scams don’t just steal people’s money, it often takes their self-respect and mental health too.’ 


Seniors do not necessarily know that they can set up a certain amount of personal protection on their own systems but having said this there is also a lot more the service providers and technology can do.

 

If Which? Consumer company can offer security advice then why are the service providers not doing the same?

 

The Football Associations are bombarding the Minister for Sport with requests to protect football players in particular for race hatred crimes. Why not the population as a whole?

 

The Dark Net: Online practices where people’s personal details are ‘stolen’ and used to deprive them of their finances.

 

Incidents of fraud such as attempts to steal someone’s identity should be reported to:-

https://www.protectseniorsonline.com/resources/cybersecurity-best-practices/

https://www.ageuk.org.uk/information-advice/work-learning/technology-internet/internet-security/

 

A few public Companies provide free internet security. Services such as Which? and Dyson. Many seniors are more afraid of scams on the telephone and are afraid 

of doorstep scammers. Which provide some videos on their YouTube channel ‘Things to to say to doorstep scammers’ but how are seniors to access this information!! 

 

There’s now a much easier way to make users aware of scams directly with a scam sharer tool. Sharing details of scams helps to protect Examples of security breach include phishing emails, fake texts, cold calls and other types of fraud.

 

Malware

Malware is short for malicious software that can damage your computer. Different types of malware include:

• Viruses, which can delete information on your computer

• Spyware that gathers information from your computer and passes it on to another computer

• Ghostware is a stealthy piece of code that’s been cloaked, and so is used by criminals to sneak undetected on to your computer where it then hides other malicious code
• Blastware is designed to automatically destroy or disable a system if you find it on your computer

• Ransomware could lock your computer or hide important information to you until you give the criminals a fee to return it

Phishing

Phishing is the practice of sending emails that look as though they’re sent from a reputable company to trick you into revealing personal information like passwords or credit card numbers.

• Spear-phishing is like phishing, but targeted to trick you personally. Spear-phishing might be even harder to spot, as the email could even be one you’re expecting to receive.

• Whaling is like spear-fishing, but targets a high-profile mark, like a CEO of a company, in order to get hold of the company’s financial details.

Poor privacy– much of what we do digitally is as an individual. If you are reliant on shared resources or ‘help’ to access the digital world then your right to privacy is infringed. Maintaining your data rights and knowing if your online and IRL movements can be monitored is an important part of digital inclusion. Intersectional and poorer people are less likely to insist on their confidentiality or IRL alternatives and often feel compelled to give up their data rights even when they understand the risks… Online forms rarely allow you to ‘prefer not to say’.

Risk– digital exploitation, harassment, theft and exclusion from statutory services, even those required for safeguarding, is of major concern. rather than harnessing the egalitarian potential of the digital revolution, we are embedding and exacerbating the discrimination and marginalisation that already exists.