Advice to keep older people safe on line

Grandmother Pat Reesby admits being "just a bit silly" when she gave out her credit card details online – and then was caught out by a scammer.

The Privacy Commissioner launched a new resource yesterday to help older people stay safe online. Ms Reesby said the resource would help others avoid the situation she recently found herself in.

Last week, the 69-year-old used her credit card to buy a CD from Trade Me for her grandson's fifth birthday party – a crocodile-themed affair – when she received an email from someone purporting to be from the online auction website.

The email asked for her personal details, including pin numbers and passwords for her credit card. Because the email immediately followed her online transaction, Ms Reesby assumed it was legitimate.

"Maybe it is a part of being elderly. Maybe we are too trusting. I'm afraid I gave all my details and, when I look back, it was quite a good scam job but I should have known."

Ms Reesby was then contacted by Trade Me advising her that her account had been hacked and she should visit her bank to close her credit card account.

This second email was the real deal and saved Ms Reesby from losing any money.

"In the end it didn't cost me anything, but it was quite scary.

"I didn't even have a television growing up, so maybe we are relatively naive. I was just silly and gave my credit card details too easily."

Privacy Commissioner Marie Shroff said older people were using the internet more and more and were putting a lot of personal information out there. "Like everyone else in the community, older people are vulnerable to scammers and hackers and need to be careful with their personal information."

Ms Shroff said the resource, in the form of advice cards, touched on the important topics like protecting financial and health information.

Age Concern New Zealand chief executive Ann Martin said that with a scam, if an offer seemed too good to be true, then it probably was.

"We would advise older people to be wary about exposing personal information, to be cautious about opening attachments from unknown sources and to create passwords that are difficult to guess."

The resource is available at privacy.org.nz.

- The Dominion Post