Linda has spent her career in the tangled web of the internet tracking con artists and predators. While awareness of safeguarding children grows, seniors are being targeted more and more ruthlessly. According to Linda, information is the best protection.
Linda's Story
"Eighty percent of the wealth in this country is held by those 50 years old and above. If you are after money, targeting teens is the wrong way to go."
Scams and ploys are targeted to people who are particularly vulnerable to them, and that includes seniors. Hope is vulnerability. We are hopeful that the drugs really are a lower price, we are hopeful that if we really do pay this money to prove we are who we are then they will pay us ten times more in a lottery return. The three primary emotions that predators play on -- and have always played on -- are hope, fear and greed. Online scams are just like offline scams. Criminals are the same people they always were, they operate on the same vulnerabilities and motives as they always have. The internet didn't create them, and it won't destroy them.
"Emails pushing anything a senior citizen is looking for and might want are the worst."
There are going to be scams to help you with financial security, to give you a quick return on money or a higher level of interest. Whenever you are rushed into making a financial deal -- a one-time offer, too good to be true, limited financing -- if there is a time constraint, you should be very suspicious. Never accept anything being pushed at you. Before making any financial decision with a company or business that you don't know, always check it out. You wouldn't walk into a store in a dodgy area and hand over all your information, so you have to be careful online before handing over information.
"You need to understand how to protect your identity."
Once your identity is stolen many pieces of your information will never change. You can change your bank account number, but your birth date didn't change, your social security number didn't change, your mother's maiden name didn't change, your name isn't going to change. Predators are going to keep that information. You still vulnerable for new attacks basked on old information, those things don't change.
"It isn't just identity theft. There is also medical theft."
People will discover their hip surgery was hijacked and it went to somebody else or that they are buying medication that has been fraudulently obtained. The drug-related scam drives me nuts. They offer discounted medications and often say that it is not a name brand, but an equivalent. If you don't know the source of where the medication are coming from, they can potentially kill. If your medications aren't right, if they aren't the quality or standard they should be, you don't have the quality control assurance. You need to make sure that they are coming from a reliable source. If you are on the street and buying a Gucci bag or a Rolex watch for $10, you should be saying it is either a knock off or a rip off: I am buying stolen goods or fakes. If it is too good to be true offline, it is too good to be true online.
"I have to deal with the ugliest of the internet. But when I get to teach people how to protect themselves, I love it."
One thing I have on my website is "Ask Linda." Anyone can come at anytime and ask me any safety question. No one has to be afraid of the internet, but they do have to be informed about it and how it can put them at risk. You have to look out for yourself.
