Published: October 7, 2025
The older you get, the harder it is to adjust to new technology—and the Internet is constantly reinventing itself with newer and newer technologies that make it hard for seniors to keep up.
Unfortunately, as valuable as Internet access is for seniors to keep in touch with their communities and families, it can also be very difficult for seniors to keep themselves safe online. In this blog, we will share online safety tips for seniors living in a changing, ever-more digital world.
Understanding the Risks: Seniors and the Internet
The Internet can be fun and helpful, but it can also be dangerous. Those who have grown up with it and are still young enough to keep up with it can be incredibly savvy when it comes to navigating its potential perils.
However, people over the age of 65—roughly 90% of whom regularly use the Internet as of 2024, compared to less than 15% in 2000—lack the instinctual experience younger generations have honed.
As a result, seniors are uniquely vulnerable to being exploited online. According to Morgan Stanley, seniors are ripe targets for cyber criminals because they tend to have substantial savings and financial stability and are more likely to trust unsolicited communications through email, SMS, or social media.
Without the tech-savviness of Millennials and Gen Z, seniors have a harder time seeing through tech scams that the younger generations might find laughably transparent.
It’s not so laughable to Grandma and Grandpa, though—the FBI reported $4.8 billion in total fraud losses by seniors over 60 in 2024, comprising over a quarter of the total cybercrime-related losses in the US throughout 2024.
These statistics show just how critical cybersecurity for elderly users is. From households to nursing homes and assisted-living facilities, seniors increasingly rely on the Internet to interact with the world. Some of the most common cyber threats targeting seniors include:
- Tech support scams
- Investment scams
- Impersonations of government officials
- Impersonations of family members, especially grandchildren
- Healthcare scams
- Lottery scams
- Romance scams
- Identity theft
These scams often rely on persuading seniors to act without thinking—either by appealing to fear, sympathy, and concern, or in the case of romance scams, a desire to avoid loneliness.
When a scammer gets its hooks in a senior, they typically either directly solicit the senior for money or take advantage of a senior’s lack of technological savvy to compromise their login credentials for banking, investment, healthcare, or government benefits web platforms.
Ensuring Internet Safety for Seniors—Tips and Advice
As shown above, cyber criminals will typically use two qualities of the senior population to their advantage—an excess of trust and a lack of access to or familiarity with online safety tools. For that reason, we’re dividing our online safety tips for seniors into two categories to address both.
Part 1: Teaching Seniors How to Use the Internet Safely
By following the following personal online safety guidelines, seniors can stay wary and protect themselves from other users on the Internet who do not have their best interests at heart:
Never Share Personal Information with Strangers
Avoid disclosing your Social Security number, bank information, Medicare number, or passwords in emails, messages, or pop-ups—even if they seem to come from a trustworthy source. Be cautious of links in emails, messages, or ads that prompt you for immediate action.
If you’re not sure if a request for information or a link you’ve been provided from an individual or company is legitimate, think before you click and go directly to the official website or call the company to confirm first.
Use Strong and Unique Passwords
Memory loss comes with aging, and so seniors face a lot of temptation to reuse passwords. However, reusing passwords means you only need to have one password fall into the wrong hands to compromise your accounts on multiple sites. Each online account should have a different, hard-to-guess password. Don’t leave your passwords up to your memory, either—use a password manager to keep track of them.
Many web browsers these days will suggest strong passwords for you and store them in a built-in password manager. As long as your browser is secure, so are your passwords, and you won’t have to remember them.
Be Wary of Emotional Appeals
Scammers often impersonate family members or pretend to be in urgent need to encourage senior internet users to act without thinking. Unfortunately, AI audio deepfakes are making it easier for scammers to fake the voices of family members or friends just by sampling recordings of their voices on social media. Deepfakes are also often used in romance scams.
One of the most important online safety tips for seniors is not to let your emotions get the best of you—if you receive a suspicious message or call claiming that a family member is in a bad financial situation or is physically at risk, verify the situation with another family member before responding.
Don’t Trust Every Pop-Up or “Warning”
Tech support scams are especially dangerous for seniors, since they prey on a lack of experience either with computers or with actual technical support professionals. They will often use alarming messages claiming your computer is infected and urging you to either send money to fix the “problem” or download a tool to fix it that is actually malware in disguise.
If an alarming tech support message appears on your computer, don’t call the number or click on the link it provides—just close the window or restart your computer. If you receive a phone call you didn’t expect from somebody claiming to be a computer technician, don’t engage—just hang up.
Verify Before You Buy or Donate
Many scammers will pose as online retailers or charities that can seem legitimate at a glance, but actually either take money from seniors without delivering on products or steal personal information to conduct larger-scale financial fraud. Before purchasing from unfamiliar online retailers or donating to charities, do a quick online search to ensure they are legitimate.
Avoid Downloading Unknown Programs
Many scams involve prompting users to install harmful software disguised as helpful tools, and seniors can be especially susceptible to these scams. Only download programs and apps from trusted websites or official app stores, which have measures in place to filter out malicious programs.
Not Sure? Ask For Help
One of the most critical online safety tips for seniors to take to heart is this: Don’t be afraid to ask for help.
Unfortunately, struggles with computer literacy or frequent needs for computer help can make seniors feel like a burden on the more tech-savvy (usually younger) members of their family. As a result of shame or embarrassment, seniors can struggle to ask for assistance if they encounter alarming messages or offers that seem too good to be true or if they fall victim to scams.
Seniors need to know that it’s okay to ask for help or a second set of eyes on something suspicious they’ve found online—and that if they ask for help, they will receive it.
Part 2: Strengthening Your Computer’s Security Systems
Ensuring online safety for the seniors in your home starts with understanding how you can protect your home computer from cybersecurity threats. Make sure the seniors in your family know what technologies exist to protect them online and how to use them properly:
Antivirus Software
By using reputable antivirus software and ensuring it runs frequent scans to catch potential threats early, you can catch cyber threats like malware in the act and prevent serious harm to your computer and your elderly loved one’s digital well-being.
Browser Extensions that Enhance Safety
Many seniors find themselves exposed to scams or malware that can compromise their personal or financial information through sketchy ads. Certain web browsers like Mozilla Firefox and Opera support tools like ad blockers. Most browsers also support anti-tracking software, pop-up blockers, and scam link detectors, which can reduce exposure to online content that is often used to deliver phishing messages or malicious software.
VTX1 Internet: Helping You Keep the Internet Safe for Seniors
If you’re a VTX1 Internet customer, we’re not only here to provide you with fast, friendly, affordable Internet access—we can also help you protect your home computer and the people who use it. If you have any questions about best practices for ensuring internet safety for seniors, our customer support and technical support teams would be more than happy to point you in the right direction.
Need more information? Have a question? Don’t be shy—contact us today!