Threats Targeting Your Parents, Grandparents and other Older Adults

From breaking news and social media to streaming entertainment and e-commerce convenience, the Internet is a wonderful resource for consumers.

It’s also full of hidden dangers—shadowy threat actors targeting consumers to steal credit card details, capture personal information, or install malicious software that can be leveraged for future, more drastic attacks. In addition, inappropriate ad content—from adult products and gambling to weapons and inflammatory political ads—is in abundant supply online.

To spread digital trust and safety throughout the connected ecosystem, you need to understand the harms and threats in wait—and their impact on your parents, grandparents, and other aging family members. The more you know, the more you can stay safe and help protect your family.

Have You Seen Me? Targeting Older Adults

Look familiar? These images are associated with attacks propagating across the digital ecosystem in the past month that affect persons over 65 years of age. You can read about similar attacks on The Media Trust blog.

Type: Backdoor      Target: Senior

Geography: New York   Date: 11/2/2023

Attacks that deliver a wide variety of known malicious payloads with or without user interaction.

Type: Backdoor
Target: Senior

Geography: Hawaii    Date: 11/3/2023

Attacks that deliver a wide variety of known malicious payloads with or without user interaction.

Type: Phishing
Target: Senior

Geography: Montana
Date: 11/1/2023

Auto-redirects to popups and browser hijacks using fake surveys and/or other malicious content seeking sensitive information from consumers.

Type: Scam
Target: Senior

Geography: Arizona
Date: 11/3/2023

Content containing characteristics and previously detected patterns of known malicious attacks and threat actors.

Type: Scam              Target: Senior

Geography: Mississippi
Date: 10/31/2023

Schemes to defraud consumers or mislead them into sharing personal information that can be leveraged in future attacks.

Type: E-Skimming

Target: Senior

Geography: Georgia

Date: 10/29/2023

Schemes to defraud consumers or mislead them into sharing personal information that can be leveraged in future attacks.

What does this data mean to you?

With 1 in 6 Americans driving an aging population that experienced 110% increase in attacks in 2022, threats attributed to online use are very real. From understanding the risks targeting older adults to mitigating attacks on your consumer group, this data should be used as proof points detailing the state of the digital ecosystem. Please attribute all data to “The Media Trust, digital trust and safety platform” with a link to “digital3pc.com/consumer-digital-threats/aging”.

Feel free to ask us for additional data on other consumer groups, too! It’s easy: just Contact Us