Older age groups are increasingly embracing the digital age. New European research from the Vodafone Foundation finds that 90 per cent of people aged 55 and over use a digital device, mostly smartphones, on a daily basis.
Published last month, the survey asks 6,000 people across six European countries, including Ireland, to share their experiences, online habits, and concerns.
One of the findings is that 67 per cent believe there is a stereotype that older people don’t know what they are doing in a digital age. Yet 22 per cent admitted they have nobody to turn to for help in this area.
Protection of older and ageing people online is a popular topic among adult children across social media forums. Those whose elderly parents have taken up smartphones share stories of out-of-control spending sprees, mainly on Temu or Amazon, with the novelty of making purchases and packages arriving at the touch of a button.
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Others fret about ads tailored to match their parent’s online habits. Stories are swapped about purchases on Facebook that unknowingly sucked parents into monthly subscription fees. Others warn of parents oversharing information with “new online friends” where an elderly parent has divulged their personal wealth, and even shared bank or savings scheme details.
The Vodafone Foundation survey finds a genuine desire among older people to advance their digital skills, particularly where their finances or money matters are concerned.
Some 55 per cent say they feel uncomfortable navigating new applications or new digital environments. And 72 per cent worry about being scammed or tricked online, with 25 per cent of those admitting they don’t know how to protect themselves if this happens.
So how do we encourage greater safety online for older age groups without scaremongering, or a fear of leaving them to their own devices with their devices?
Change the narrative
For many older people, bank branch closures and digital banking means their personal finance management has to be online. This requires a greater level of digital understanding in day-to-day spending, investments, and planning or managing retirement funds.
Bank of Ireland reported late last year that over half of all investment scam cases reported to them in the first half of 2025 were from customers aged 67 and older. People often found themselves fooled by legitimate looking posts on social media, offering consumer investment opportunities or financial advice. When they interacted with these ads or posts, they were later contacted via phone calls, text messages or WhatsApp where the scam would continue offline.
Paul Walsh, an expert in online safety and privacy, and CEO of MetaCert, a Silicon Valley cybersecurity firm, believes that financial institutions or organisations warning against fraud use the wrong kind of language to get their message across.
“Most organisations will say be wary or avoid suspicious messages. Now, when you just say that with nothing else, what you’re doing is conditioning people, whether a CEO or an elderly person, to trust messages, posts or delivery alerts that don’t look suspicious.
“What happens then is when a scam looks legitimate, they’ll click on it because they’ve been told only to distrust something that doesn’t look right. So the advice is counterproductive and that’s one of the many reasons to why phishing is the number one entry point and used in 90 per cent of all cyberattacks and fraud, and has been since 2016,” he says.
“Instead, the language we should use to elderly people is be very careful. If it’s asking you for something, to log in to website or give credit card information or install software, then you need to pause. You don’t have to be on the lookout all of the time because criminals will send enough messages to enough people because they want a conversion rate.
“By saying to people ‘don’t trust unexpected messages’, that tells people that if you’re expecting a message then you can possibly trust it. That’s poor advice because if a scammer sends the same message to 1,000 people they only need two people to be expecting that message whether it’s a parcel delivery message, or something from An Post, or Amazon.
“The same goes for texts around the toll booth on the M50. There’s always going to be someone who has just been through a toll bridge and later gets a fright at home when they get an alert telling them theirs is an unpaid charge. It’s chance and opportunity.”
Walsh recommends that banks, telecoms operators and others take a different approach and instead focus on educating older people to distrust any emails, links or messages asking for information and to seek advice from someone close to them if there is any doubt over what is or isn’t a genuine line of communication.
It takes a village
And in the UK, this is exactly what is happening where family, friends and neighbours are helping older people and elderly parents with informal financial help. Faith Reynolds, an independent consumer finance expert has compiled a new piece of research with support from LINK, the UK’s cash access and ATM network, to shine a light on the “hidden heroes” helping others with their finances.
Reynolds said nearly one-in-five of the UK adult population helps others with digital banking tasks ranging from making payments to checking bank statements. Calling this a “shadow infrastructure”.
“They also play a key role in spotting or preventing scams. 54 per cent of helpers are providing help without any formal authority. The research shows that a lack of effective, authorised tools means some people resort to risky workarounds, such as sharing passwords or security codes and using their own devices to log in on someone else’s behalf.
“While we expect high standards of security and control in our everyday digital banking, the shadow infrastructure of financial help is built more on trust than formal legal frameworks or dedicated processes. When we asked what would improve things, helpers emphasised the need for better support from banks in the transition to digital services, simpler interfaces and processes, and dedicated support for trusted helpers and those with power of attorney.
“There are clear calls for bank branches to be kept open, the expansion of banking hubs, and the implementation of simpler log-in processes and jargon-free communication,” she says.
“For many people digital banking feels complicated and in some cases scary. They are turning to trusted friends, family and neighbours to help them make sense of it all. In turn, they have become the ‘shadow infrastructure’ for the digital banking ecosystem, in some cases resorting to risky, informal workarounds to make things work. We can and should build a payments system which gives everyone the confidence, control and the support they need to manage their money effectively.”
You can contact us at OnTheMoney@irishtimes.com with personal finance questions you would like to see us address. If you missed last week’s newsletter, you can read it here.
