My dad, age 85 and a lifelong technophobe bordering on tech-hostile, began using a MacBook Air and iPhone regularly a few years ago. His activities are basic: text me and family, email, photos, read about art and music via sites found on Google, YouTube for how-to videos about specific art techniques, language learning with Duolingo and help from Google Translate, and some very infrequent purchases mostly on eBay and Amazon. He still struggles with the most basic UIs but he gets things done, it’s been great to see. But he keeps getting scammed. He usually recognizes it after the fact, he’ll fill out a phishing form and call me right away, “I did it again.” He always feels embarrassed. They find him through emails and text messages. He ignores many of them (I know because he tells me, “Another one came through!”) but there seem to be so many that some get him. I had to help him with something on his phone the other day and when I went to open a new tab in Mobile Safari, I saw no fewer than six different scam pages up. Fake Amazon, fake UPS, fake credit card. It was frightening. I’m worried he’s inching towards something catastrophic like sharing bank account information. It’s also making him afraid to use technology. He doesn’t want a credit card anymore, he’s so tired of having to change the number. I don’t know what to do. He’s found so much independence thanks to technology, he’d be isolated if he stopped using it. He struggles with the most basic user interfaces, details that I take for granted are invisible to him, so I don’t think he’s likely to learn all the tricks of scammers. I can’t look over his shoulder all the time. Does anyone have any advice for this? Any experience?
Story Published at: April 2, 2023 at 02:14PM
Story Published at: April 2, 2023 at 02:14PM