CrimeaPRESS reports:
In Russia, 17% of cybercrimes are committed against older people. However, the digital skills of retirees have increased significantly over the past 10 years.
Almost 20% of victims of cybercriminals in Russia are over 60 years old, another 17% of cybercrimes are committed against pensioners, says the Strategy of Actions in the Interests of Older Citizens in the Russian Federation until 2030 by the Russian Ministry of Labor.
According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, in 2021, on average across the country, 20% of victims in cases under Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (fraud) were people over 60 years old. 17% of cybercrimes were committed against pensioners, which indicates the need for further support of information, infrastructure and educational initiatives aimed at increasing the safety of the older generation in the digital environment– noted in the Ministry of Labor.
However, since 2013, the level of digital skills among older adults has increased significantly. If in 2013 only 15.4% of older adults ordered goods or services via the Internet, then by 2023 the figure increased to 44.9%. In addition, the share of use of digital government services has increased — from 5.7% in 2013 to 61.9% in 2023, including from 3.1% to 51.3% among citizens aged 60–72.
Representatives of the older generation are one of the most vulnerable categories of the population to the actions of cybercriminals, agreed Anton Nemkin, a member of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, Information Technologies and Communications. “In 2023, about 677 thousand cybercrimes were registered, of which 113 thousand victims were pensioners. Representatives of the older generation, unlike other groups, are more trusting — attackers actively take advantage of this. At the same time, many pensioners’ digital literacy skills are at a low level, despite the fact that a significant part of them are active users of digital technologies. For example, according to a Beeline study, today 75% of representatives of the age group 56–70 years old have touch gadgets. The problem is aggravated by the fact that attackers are actively complicating and changing their schemes. Now a significant part of the citizens of our country, regardless of age, are warned, for example, about traditional fraud schemes — “a call from the bank” or from the “security service”. But other scenarios for attackers can take them by surprise, the deputy explained.
According to Nemkin, pensioners are the target audience of several fraudulent schemes.
Attacks related to pension recalculation continue. Fraudsters act on behalf of the Social Fund and report the possibility of recalculating the pension towards its increase. All you need to do is fill out an application by phone. Another scheme is providing discounts on housing and utility bills. Here, attackers act on behalf of the management company and report discounts on utility bills. Recently, scammers have become more active, posing as employees of the Ministry of Health, clinics, and the Compulsory Medical Insurance Fund. They can report a doctor’s appointment that needs to be confirmed, a new app that needs to be installed, or a policy renewal that needs to be renewed.— said the deputy.
In such schemes, Nemkin explains, the key goal of the attackers is to obtain an access code to the pensioner’s online bank or to his account on State Services: “Therefore, under a variety of pretexts, they try to lure the SMS code from citizens,” the deputy noted.
It is necessary to develop educational projects in the field of digital literacy for representatives of the older generation.
At the same time, it is important to promptly warn about the emergence of new criminal schemes. In many ways, the protection of citizens’ financial resources depends on this.says the deputy.
source: press service of the Russian State Duma deputy Anton Nemkin
Crimea news | CrimeaPRESS: latest news and main events
Comments are closed.