C.A reminder: please check the computers belonging to your elderly-but-computer-using #relatives. Ensure there aren't digital nasties on there. And when I say "check", I mean look yourself, don't just ask the #relative about it.
With age, people tend to lose some of their mental #sharpness, but it's not just poor memory or fuzzy thinking. They seem to lose some critical #thinking skills, and become more #trusting than they should, or more naive. I think this is what makes older folk the favourite targets of #scammers.
Yesterday, a relative called me in a panic about their laptop. This is someone who was a very high-ranking federal police officer, in charge of investigations for a large swath of the country - not someone to be easily taken in by smooth-talkers, at least not in the past.
I went over today and asked him what happened. "Some kind of warning came up" -- i.e. the "oh noes, this is #Microsoft, your #Windows is #corrupted, please call us so we can fix it" one. I asked "Did you do anything they asked you to? Download any programs, or run any commands, or anything like that?"
"No, no, I just phoned them and after they started asking for my address I got suspicious, I didn't do anything they said."
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Kevin Russell
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