Protecting Your Elderly Family Members from Fraud
Cybercrime has become a permanent threat in the modern era, as technology is being misused and the uninformed population is suffering the consequences. Although cybercrime affects everyone, the elderly, or the technologically less literate are especially vulnerable due to their lack of knowledge about innovation and their tendency to trust deceitful scammers. The increasing elderly population in India is falling prey to various types of scams, resulting in major losses for themselves and their families, with reports indicating that they lose approximately 36 billion dollars every year.
Cybercrime – Threat to the Elders
India has a large elderly population, which is expected to grow by 41% to 194 million by 2031, despite being known as the land of the youth. Although the country is capable of providing strong infrastructure and healthcare support for the elderly, a growing percentage of this population lives alone or with minimal social support, leaving them vulnerable to fraud and cybercrime due to low awareness. The widespread use of digital services, including online payments, banking, and shopping, exacerbates the problem. The elderly lack awareness of personal data protection and financial fraud, making them susceptible to cybercrime. With a high rate of online fraud already occurring in India, it is difficult for the elderly to distinguish between fraudsters and genuine company or government officials.
How to Protect Your Elderly Family Members
As the number of elderly people in India grows and the number of frauds targeting them increases, it is important to take strong action to stop the problem. The first step is to increase awareness by talking to the elderly people in your family and community about the prevalence of cybercrime. Since the elderly are easily trusting, encourage them to consult with a trusted relative or advisor before sharing any personal information. The next step is to establish security protocols that can help them stay safe, even when they don't have easy access to a trusted resource. This will prevent them from giving away sensitive information. It is important to repeat the education process multiple times, as this is a new and challenging area for the elderly. Continually educate them about cybercrime and patiently explain the common tactics used by scammers to prepare them for future situations. Additional security measures like two-step authentication and one-time passwords can also be used to provide an extra level of security, ensuring that the elderly are not easy targets for fraudsters.
Virtual Numbers Add a Layer of Protection
Gifting your elderly family members virtual phone numbers can go a long way towards protecting them from spam and fraud. Whenever an online shopping site requests them to provide their contact information, they can enter the virtual number you gifted them, since it is not linked to their personal number or any private information. By using a secondary phone number, they can effortlessly access important notifications and one-time passwords, and have the product or service delivered to their desired location. As they are not disclosing their personal number at any stage of this process, it is impossible for any fraudster to identify them or deceive them with spam calls. Additionally, a virtual phone number provider such as Doosra can proactively monitor and block unwanted calls, ensuring that they are not disturbed or tricked by such calls even if their virtual number is shared. Most importantly, spammers cannot access their confidential data, and therefore cannot dupe them with targeted offers or calls. In this manner, virtual numbers have the ability to create a strong layer of security around our vulnerable elderly relatives and family members.
Doosra – Your Grandma’s Best Buddy
Doosra, a provider of second phone numbers in India, is dedicated to upholding privacy and shielding its users from fraudulent spammers who seek to deceive them out of their money. We have observed firsthand the harmful effects of spam and telemarketing calls and provide a service that effectively severs the connection between your family members and these malicious callers. By using a Doosra virtual phone number, your parents or grandparents can confidently share their secondary number with anyone and be assured that their personal number is optimally safeguarded. Moreover, if they wish to provide access to delivery services, they can simply share a code that identifies the service providers as safe. With Doosra, they can live their life unrestrictedly and freely indulge in as much e-commerce shopping as they desire, knowing that their privacy is well taken care of.
Living Securely in the Age of Spam
When Aakriti read about the privacy and safety offered by Doosra, she wasted no time in gifting a Doosra phone number to her grandmother, who had been a school headmistress and regularly received pension in her bank account. Previously, her granny had complained about how people posing to be bank officials would call her and ask her to share her OTP, thus trying to dupe her of her savings in her old age. With Doosra, Aakriti’s granny could easily safeguard herself from such villains and enjoy the fruits of her labour without worries.