According to the charity Age UK, cybercriminals stole over £4 million from older people in the UK in the 2018-19 financial year. A Freedom of Information (FOI) request submitted by the charity to the UK’s national fraud reporting centre, Action Fraud, showed that police received over 4,100 reports of cybercrimefrom people aged 55+ between April 2018 and March 2019. Notably, cybercriminals made off with over £4 million from their elderly victims during this period. Elderly people account for 19% of the total number of cybercrime victims reported during this period.
Cybercriminals carried out their attacks on unsuspecting victims using various methods such as phishing , BEC scams , identity theft, “deceptive advertising” and extortion.
In recent months, older people in the UK and elsewhere have been heavily targeted by scams using the COVID-19. Of the 3,162 cases of COVID-19-related fraud and cybercrime reported to Action Fraud between 23 March and 31 July 2020, 701 involved a victim aged over 55. The total losses to these elderly victims amounted to around £2.5m over those four months.
The most common forms of COVID-19-related fraud included purchases of fake personal protective equipment (PPE) and phishing emails purporting to come from government and health agencies.
Age UK said cybercriminals have taken advantage of the growing number of older people who rely on the internet for everyday services, such as shopping, as well as to stay in touch with loved ones during lockdown, with many of them using the technology for the first time in their lives.
Caroline Abrahams, director of Age UK, said that during the lockdown, a large proportion of people around the world, including older people, are relying on the internet. However, cybercriminals and fraudsters are increasingly taking advantage of the current situation, seeking to defraud older people to make big profits. Abrahams added that cybercrime is often very sophisticated and difficult to detect, so anyone can “fall into the trap”. Finally, Abrahams stressed that those who are not familiar with the internet and are learning to use it now are more likely to fall into the trap of fraudsters and cybercriminals.
