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Ask HN: How do I make sure my non-technical parents are safe online?

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Re: Ask HN: How do I make sure my non-technical parents are safe online?

#71

Post by web007 »

maxxxxx wrote: post #33

Also tell them about phone scams. Over the last year I have received several very convincing phone calls and voice messages from people pretending to be the IRS or cops. It takes a lot of willpower to convince yourself that they are scams. A lot of scams can be stopped if you consult with someone before sending actual money. I think it's important to tell your parents that before they give anybody any money or accoun…

The IRS scam has been particularly interesting. A wave of them came through our area code, so I convinced a friend to let me talk to the scammers when it came to his phone. They had ${friend}'s name and address associated with the number, and got mad when I said (truthfully) "that's not me". I'm still curious what datasource they're using to match those three bits of information together...

Re: Ask HN: How do I make sure my non-technical parents are safe online?

#72

Post by lechienquipete »

Multiple ideas.

The best one hands down was installing an ad blocker. Before that I had a few questions about "Is this thing saying I won an iPhone real? It seems to good to be true", now they don't even see it anymore.

The second is separate hardware for authentication. The bank login and wire transfer to an unknown account requires them to punch an 8 digit number on a card reader, and type back the result in the browser. This way, there can't be any full compromise.

Last one was education: snail mail scams were a thing in the past (I had no idea when they told me about it, which is quite humbling really). Draw the parallels: unless it's someone you know, they could be trying to take advantage of you.

So far it worked, no issues to report.

Re: Ask HN: How do I make sure my non-technical parents are safe online?

#74

Post by bubblewrap »

maxxxxx wrote: post #33

Also tell them about phone scams. Over the last year I have received several very convincing phone calls and voice messages from people pretending to be the IRS or cops. It takes a lot of willpower to convince yourself that they are scams. A lot of scams can be stopped if you consult with someone before sending actual money. I think it's important to tell your parents that before they give anybody any money or accoun…

Some of the scams have the caller actually pretending to be YOU. So if they have the agreement to consult with you before sending any money, what are they going to do?

Re: Ask HN: How do I make sure my non-technical parents are safe online?

#77

Post by bubblewrap »

shambolicfroli wrote: post #35
sent00001 wrote: post #2

Phishing is a big problem for non-technical users. Google's Phishing Quiz ( https://phishingquiz.withgoogle.com ) is a surprisingly good resource.

Is there a good simple way that someone nontechnical could become confident that withgoogle.com is a trustworthy domain?

I am technical and I am not sure how to become confident that withgoogle.com is a trustworthy domain. I guess I would look for official links from Google.com to it. But why bother?

Re: Ask HN: How do I make sure my non-technical parents are safe online?

#78

Post by defen »

maxxxxx wrote: post #33

Also tell them about phone scams. Over the last year I have received several very convincing phone calls and voice messages from people pretending to be the IRS or cops. It takes a lot of willpower to convince yourself that they are scams. A lot of scams can be stopped if you consult with someone before sending actual money. I think it's important to tell your parents that before they give anybody any money or accoun…

My in-laws got hit by an absolutely ridiculous phone scam. Basically some guy called and said "Hey this is Apple, this is an emergency, your iCloud got hacked, you need to install this remote desktop software and give me your credit card info so I can fix it for you". They are smart people but they still fell for it. So, the advice we gave them was that no organization is going to use a phone call to deliver important or urgent information. So if a call like that comes in, just ignore it or ask for a call-back number and then try to verify it by asking us. If a company or government agency truly wants to convey important info to you, they'll send mail.

Re: Ask HN: How do I make sure my non-technical parents are safe online?

#80

Post by plasticchris »

z3t4 wrote: post #68
agf wrote: post #21

The number one thing you can do to help them is talk to them about being conned / scammed. That's by far the most likely way for them to get victimized online, and the only way that's seriously affected anyone I know. Since they're not technical, their natural self-defense against this kind of this has trouble functioning online. Talk to them about real world analogs to pop-up ads that look like virus scanner alerts,…

I guess the scammers have a larger market due to the internet, but someone who has lived must have been exposed to scams many times in their long life!?

The problem is twofold, they don't have a good mental model of online interactions, and older people become more susceptible to deception as cognitive function declines.
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