Why are fraudsters targeting senior citizens?

A 65-year-old man living in Mumbai was about to go to Haridwar with his family. He was looking for a hotel room online. He had to book early due to the fear that tariffs would get costlier nearer to the date. But he did not know that cyber thugs were keeping an eye on his booking. During all this a few fake travel site officials contacted him and showed him the rooms on a fake site. He sure didn’t get the rooms but Yes, they defrauded him of Rs 1 lakh in the name of room booking.

In another case, a message related to paying electricity bill came on the mobile phone of an 87-year-old man. His electricity bill was due and he of disconnecting the electricity supply if he did not pay the bill. He lives alone so he got scared after hearing this. He called the customer care number of the State Electricity Board. No one received his call. After this he got a call from another number and was offered help in paying the bill. The fraudsters made him download many apps and then made him do some transactions through net banking. This way the swindlers extorted 11 lakh rupees from him.

Similarly, another fraud was also done on WhatsApp. A senior citizen received a message on WhatsApp from a close friend. Money was asked citing medical emergency. Hearing the word medical emergency, the victim immediately sent Rs 98,000, but then he was asked for Rs 6 lakh on the message. When the victim asked his daughter to call his friend’s number, he found out that his friend’s number had been hacked. That is, the money he sent to his friend was not actually asked by his friend, but here the friend turned out to be a cyber criminal here.

So these were some cases and these just examples, cyber thugs are looting senior citizens in many ways. Well-known CA and senior citizen himself Balwant Jain has something to say on this.

He says “the saying is true for cyber thugs – Nothing succeeds like success. Meaning, once they become successful in fraud, the fraudsters keep moving forward. Most of the senior citizens are not tech savvy.. They have no idea that someone can cheat them in the name of electricity bill, KYC. So when such a call comes in which fear of power cut or closure of bank account is created, senior citizens get nervous. Cyber thugs take advantage of this nervousness.”

India has the largest population in the world. The number of senior citizens in the country is expected to increase to about 18 crore by 2031 and to more than 32 crore by 2050. A large population of India uses the Internet. Senior citizens find it difficult to adopt to digital culture, while cyber thugs take advantage of this. According to reports, in the last financial year i.e. 2022-23, cyber fraudsters defrauded about Rs 2,500 crore and many senior citizens were among the victims.

There are senior citizens in almost every house. Since they become easy victims of cyber fraud, it is important for them to know some things.

Balwant Jain says that senior citizens have to keep a few things in mind. First, do not pick up calls from unknown numbers. Avoid clicking on any link. Do not share OTP with anyone even by mistake. Question the caller and don’t trust anyone quickly.

Senior citizens should avoid cyber fraud, for this it is necessary for them to remain alert. It is your responsibility as well as ours to make them aware about this. Tell the elders of your house not to receive calls from any such unknown number and ask them not to click on any random link.

Tell them that they should give their number only where it is very important. If they use the internet, encourage them to use strong passwords for bank apps and other important accounts. This way you keep waking them up to avoid cyber thugs.