Is This Phishing? Older Age Is Associated With Greater Difficulty Discriminating Between Safe and Malicious Emails.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

As our social worlds become increasingly digitally connected, so too has concern about older adults falling victim to "phishing" emails, which attempt to deceive a person into identity theft and fraud. In the present study, we investigated whether older age is associated with differences in perceived suspiciousness of phishing emails.

Methods

Sixty-five cognitively normal middle-aged to older adults rated a series of genuine and phishing emails on a scale from definitely safe to definitely suspicious.

Results

Although older age was not related to a shift in overall perception of email safety, older age was related to worse discrimination between genuine and phishing emails, according to perceived suspiciousness.

Discussion

These findings suggest that

SUBMITTER: Grilli MD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8557838 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature