The Increasingly Vulnerable Elderly in a Digital World
A few days back, my family organized a Zoom conference call to celebrate my grandparents’ 65th anniversary. We coordinated a time that worked for my uncle's family in London, my aunt's family in Texas, and my own family in California. My grandparents, who normally live in California with my parents, are currently stranded in Texas with their daughter and her family. Out of an abundance of caution, we didn’t think it was best for them to come back until it was safer to travel. When my grandpa sat down to join the call, he immediately announced that he had coronavirus and that we were all against him by not allowing him to get tested. This would have been concerning if we hadn’t been hearing this since January. See, his iPad had told him that the elderly have coronavirus, and someone had called him telling him he could get a free test at home - all we would have to do is pay for shipping.
My grandfather is not unique in receiving constant scam robocalls and emails targeting a particularly vulnerable group: the elderly. Scammers take advantage of an increasingly large digital divide and pray on the elderly’s digital vulnerabilities. Senior citizens are particularly vulnerable to digital scams especially as they fall further behind technologically. One in three adults over the age of 65 claims they have never used the internet, and another half claim they do not have the internet at home. As our society becomes more and more dependent on digital interactions, there is an increasing vulnerability and isolation within the elderly population.
Quyen Truong, a former assistant director at the Consumer Federal Production Bureau, spoke about the current crisis saying, “As people shelter in place … for long periods, there might be scams demanding large payments to deliver goods and other support to homes…And because friends and family may be separated due to travel restrictions, there are more opportunities to request funds to aid loved ones, a favorite type of scam on the elderly.”
Even pre-coronavirus, the elderly were the most prayed upon for their lack of digital literacy skills. Tracking data from 2014 to 2018, the FTC saw an increase in phishing scams during tax season that left American senior citizen increasingly vulnerable. Communications are created in which a person is baited into clicking on a fraudulent link and inputting their personal information. While fraudsters are not targeting senior citizens, in particular, they cast a wide net, and senior citizens are more likely to fall for these scams. The FTC shows that adults above the age of 70 have a higher loss from scams than any other age group in the United States.
Scamming is not the only vulnerability that the elderly are facing as we transition into a work from home model. Many elderly consider going to the doctor a social visit and interaction. Despite multiple studies showing how telemedicine can improve the lives and health of its elderly patients, many senior citizens are resistant to this as they believe they are being devalued and are losing close relationships with their doctors that they see on an extremely regular basis. They also lose consistent conversations and banter with nurses that they regularly see, leading to increased depression.
Anecdotally, my grandparents fall into this category as well. They live for going to their doctors and talk about what appointments they have for the week every day. We believe my grandfather’s constant claims of having COVID-19 stem from wanting to go to the hospital for some interaction and attention. My grandfather’s biggest concern about being stuck in Texas was all the doctors’ appointments he was missing. Upon learning that he would not be able to see his doctors even if he was in California, he became rather depressed. Although he had his appointments set up online through telemedicine, he is not happy with the care he is receiving despite speaking with his regular doctors over video call. While he is aware of the reasons why he cannot go to the doctor’s office currently, he craves personal interaction, which despite all the technology in the world, cannot be replaced with computers without a change in mindset about what constitutes interaction, leading to a permanent sense of vulnerability and abandonment that will only increase as we continue to isolate further.
