Musings from a detective: a semi-simple solution to save grandma from on-line scammers...

With a bit of a sheepish apology for inactivity, let's dive into a grime and crime issue--or actually an elderly victim issue--which will NOT be (today anyway) followed by a quick update on the war in Ukraine and the situation near Pokrovsk.

The update will come after the weekend. For the moment, my only comment will be that the Russians are counterattacking the Ukrainian Kursk drive hard. Very hard. Yet, despite the flood of bad news coming out of Kursk, it pays to remember that this is what the Ukrainians were looking for. And you may or may not have noticed, but the Russians have actually been slowed at Pokrovsk.

This does not yet mean Kursk is a success. There are various threats--including at Pischane, which threatens Kupiansk, and also at various hotspots south of Donetsk, but as I have repeated endless, Russia is going to run out of available men. We are down to two weeks. And the weather will change and get muddy again.

In short... these are dark times, but all is not yet lost. Slava Ukrainii and God bless.

Now back to grime and crime--but first the sheepish apology: no, I have not been consistent of late. I have been working cases and traveling. Hey, there is only so much of Yours Truly to go around.

And when it comes to crime, in fact, there is much to discuss, with topics running the gamut of narcotics, murder, human trafficking and much in between not just in Central Europe, but also in the old EU. I hope to return to these in depth over the coming weeks. Yet one type of incident has returned with a vengeance, and this is the targeting of elderly by scammers.

This has indeed reached plague proportions, and recently I have been contacted privately by long-term clients, social media "friends" and even others in the risk intel community who are either shocked or simply frustrated by the actions of parents or relatives who have reached "target age."

I have covered social engineering scams in the past, with these ranging from the CEO scam to various types of phishing and how such groups operate. But it pays to keep in mind that social engineering in its infancy came in the form of the "long lost relative" suddenly appearing (literally) on grandma's doorstep. And grandma (and sometimes grandpa) is targeted because 1) her memory may not be what it used to be and 2) she may well be from a sweeter, more naive and possibly more trusting generation to begin with.

Such face-to-face social engineering scams continue in various forms, and yes, they do often hit the elderly. But where I am seeing clients (and friends) suffer is on line. Calls that an elderly relative has had a Facebook account hacked or worse--that the relative has sent money to a scammer or even lost control of a bank account--are at least semi-constant. And honestly, I have one piece of advice.

Buy them a clean computer.

This may at first seem overly simple. And yes, the IT gurus out there will be appalled. Outraged. They will sputter and scoff.

They will have complex solutions.

To which I say... most of them are a bit younger, and when it comes to dealing with elderly relatives headed for a retirement home...

Honestly, they do not yet understand.

But I will admit, buying a new laptop for an elderly victim or soon-to-be victim of social engineering scams may seem both overly simple or even... excessive. But relative to a slew of other options--and taking into account age, forgetfulness and confusion (not to mention experience), I just do not believe this to be the case. At all.

Of course, some may claim that the simplest method is to take over a relative's accounts and ban them from using a personal laptop altogether.

Well, yes. That will work. In theory.

But otherwise, at least until said relative has truly slipped into dementia (and even then you may need a legal ruling here)... good luck with that.

So back to the "simple" second laptop. In other words--bearing in mind the elderly human element-- something that I actually know will work. First, you will quite likely find when dealing with the elderly that the next closest thing to simple is good. And indeed the simplest approach--unless said relative truly is entering dementia--is to set up a computer reserved solely for necessary, non-social applications. In other words, this is the "daily business" computer that may be used to check bank accounts and pay phone bills. And electricity bills. Or any other type of bills that is part of said person's life.

Now the non-simple side of this equation is that a bit of time needs to be invested here to actually make this work. Setting up a second laptop and using the same passwords and emails as were used on the previous laptop is not going to work. This means that yes, the email account(s) previously used for daily business needs to be changed, and passwords also should be changed. Which is not so simple, as dealing with an elderly relative and his/her banking information can be... emotional.

That said, it is less emotional than trying to pull out the truth after the money is gone (as this is also often accompanied by a combination of shock, real fear and embarrassment--if not outright shame).

At any rate, this new computer or laptop needs updated anti-virus, and an email account (for example the Gmail that is used in tandem with phone bills/utilities) should be set up for this purpose and only used on this laptop. Said relative needs to understand that under no circumstances will he or she use this computer for Facebook or any other social media. That gmail (or any other new and secure mail to correspond to "daily business") should be used only on that laptop.

The "old computer" or laptop can be the social media computer. This should also be updated with anti-virus and passwords should be changed (and you may find that some email accounts should just be eliminated).

Finally, there is the hardest part: you must convince said relative to stick to the rules. There is the "daily business" laptop, and there is the "talk to the grandkids" laptop. If you can, put one in one room and the "daily business" laptop in  the relative's office. Or at least another room.

Now some may point out that there is the wifi question. This is actually not difficult to sort, especially in Europe, although it comes with some expense. A wifi pen-drive option/external option may be purchased for the daily business laptop. That may or may not fly with your relative (penny pinching is a real thing), but you see where I'm going.

Again, simple, but not so simple. On the other hand, if you want to see complicated, try sitting down with an elderly woman to tell her that 1) the money is gone and 2) the bank will not compensate, and 3) there is pretty much zero chance of ever getting her savings back. I've had to do this in the presence of the woman's son (a client).

I don't want to do it again.

Preston Smith is a licensed investigator based in Gdansk, Poland. He can be reached at query@cddi.pl.

Photo credit: still from the American drama film Sherlock Holmes (1922) with John Barrymore, on page 41 of the May 13, 1922 Exhibitors Herald.Goldwyn Pictures, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.