How Seniors Can Stay Safe On-line

For many seniors, technology can be intimidating, especially when it comes to financial payments, online shopping, communicating with others and trying to get comfortable using it frequently. Though they’d prefer doing everything by hand and the old school way, the reality is that technology is advancing and many things are becoming solely available on technology. Here are some tips from European-based website, MyAgeingParent.com, about how to help seniors stay safe when on-line:
 

• With on-line shopping and banking, this site says to make sure each site is secure by checking if: There is a padlock symbol in the browser window; The web address should begin with ‘https://’ because the “s” stands for ‘secure’; If a pop-up message warns about a website’s security certificate to be aware as it may redirect to fake website, click the padlock symbol to check identity and current certificate address.
• Some other tips are to use a strong password by avoiding maiden names, rather use a mix of upper and lower case letters and numbers but make sure to write this down!
• If a deal looks too good to be true, it probably is so avoid anything offered in a spam email.
• Only use one credit card so it is easy to cancel if anything goes wrong. Never give away financial details unless completely confident of company contact, and only use on-line retailers that have good reputations and are established.