After a lifetime of diligent saving, seniors and those approaching retirement report concerns about their ability to protect their family’s wealth. A new report from Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) shows that cyber security breaches are a growing fear among Canadians over fifty-five years old, who feel that increasingly complex technology is making fraud in the digital world much harder to spot.
RBC’s report shows that sixty-five per cent of Canadians over fifty-five feel they could identify when they are being scammed. This is a decrease from last year’s poll, where seventy-one percent felt confident in their ability to detect attempts at financial fraud. Without many working years left to recuperate lost funds, this decrease in confidence points to a need to shore up the knowledge gaps making seniors vulnerable.
Among the top scams of 2024 was the grandparent scam, where thieves called seniors using AI deepfake technology to mimic the voice of their grandchild. The thieves feigned distress, and were able to convince the victims to send money fast.
"As scammers become more sophisticated, many seniors feel uncertain about their ability to identify when they are being scammed," says Adam Evans, Chief Information Security Officer at RBC. "That’s why we created resources like RBC's Be Cyber Aware website, which offers additional tips to help Canadians stay safe online."
Top concerns from survey respondents include unauthorized access to online accounts or personal information (89%), followed by identity theft (87%) and having email or social media accounts hacked (84%), according to a recent RBC survey. Yet, with a watchful eye for warning signs, Mr. Evans assures that falling victim to these types of fraud is avoidable.
“It’s essential to 'think before you click' on any links received through email or text. If in doubt, individuals should contact the institution directly using a verified phone number, like the one on the back of their bank card,” he advises.
If a suspicious link has already been clicked, another path of recourse for preventing further loss is changing passwords on all accounts that store personal information, like emails or social media accounts, as well as banking websites. Using a different password for every account helps decrease the likelihood of a thief breaking into one account and then using the same password to access others.
Seniors typically have no path of recourse once a scammer has taken their cash. Prevention is the most foolproof way to ensure that digital fraud doesn’t affect families today – and potentially for generations to come.
