Senior citizens now easy targets of cyber crimes

KOCHI: Elderly persons who are now switching to smartphones and digital banking are becoming targets of cyber financial fraud. Recently, a 73-year-old in Kochi lost Rs 4.5 lakhs after falling prey to scammers.
According to officials at Cyber Police Stations in Kochi and Ernakulam Rural, a  majority of the person becoming victims of cyber financial frauds are elderly persons or people seeking employment in the district.

“We have numerous cases in which elderly persons became victims of OTP frauds, KSEB billing cheatings, insurance and internet banking-related online scams. The fraudsters posing as employees of banks or trusted companies manage to gain the trust of senior citizens who are new to using smartphones and other online services. Later, the accused persons manage to get the account numbers, card details and OTP to move money from the victim’s bank accounts,” a police officer said.

A similar case was reported at Kochi cyber police station on Tuesday. The victim, a native of Kaloor, received an SMS from a phone number containing a link for activating internet banking service on the phone. As the victim was looking for banking services from home through a smartphone, he clicked the link. 

“A few days later, he received phone calls from persons claiming to be bank officials. One of the callers promised to assist the victim in starting the internet banking service. Trusting him as a bank official, the victim shared his account details. The accused is suspected to have started an online banking account in the victim’s name and transferred Rs 4.5 lakh to other bank accounts,” a police official said.

M B Latheef, Station House Officer (SHO) of Ernakulam Rural Cyber Police Station, said unlike students or professionals, cyber awareness programmes targeting senior citizens are rare as there are not enough forums for them. 

“We organise awareness campaigns at resident associations. But a dedicated awareness programme for senior citizens could not be conducted as only a few collective groups represent them. These days many senior citizens are becoming targets of cyber crimes. Now we receive complaints regularly regarding fraud against senior citizens,” he said.

Kochi-based NGO Cyber Suraksha Foundation is set to organise cyber awareness programmes for senior citizens and people who only have basic smartphone knowledge. “We are currently spreading   awareness among representatives of resident associations, Kudumbashree units and  other social groups about cyber crimes. These representatives would move door-to-door, meeting people at their houses and giving awareness to prevent online crimes. We also adopted the same mechanism to create awareness among autorickshaw drivers and daily wage employees,” he said.