How a Virginia nonprofit is protecting older adults in its network

Age ain’t nothing but a number…to cybercriminals who aren’t afraid to hurl a scam or two toward retirees and other older adults.

Melissa Andrews, president and CEO of LeadingAge Virginia, a community of nonprofits that serves older adults, told IT Brew that she has seen this firsthand, recalling one incident where her mother-in-law received an extortion scam-related phone call. LeadingAge Virginia’s community members comprise adult day centers, retirement communities, nursing homes, and other older adult care facilities.

“It’s happening in so many different ways,” Andrews said. “It’s really hard to keep track of.”

This year, LeadingAge Virginia made it a bit harder for malicious actors to target the older adults in their provider network. Last month, the statewide association announced a strategic partnership with Proxyware—a digital safety company that uses technology to avert threats in vulnerable populations—that Andrews said allows the community to think about “elder security” in a much larger context.

“We really think about it in terms of housing and services, but their financial health and wellness is as important,” she said, referencing the financial blows and emotional distress cyberattacks and scams can cause.

That’ll come with age. Cyber threats against older adults in the US is a pervasive problem. The FBI reported $4.85 billion in losses from elder fraud in 2024, according to data from its Internet Crime Complaint Center. The agency noted that older adults are less likely to report fraud because “they either don’t know how to report it, are embarrassed, or don’t know they have been scammed,” meaning the number of reported losses is likely an underestimation.

Chris Olson, founder and CEO of Proxyware, told IT Brew technical support scams, where users are instructed by a pop-up to call a fake support number to address a nonexistent problem with their device, are one of the most common threats that older adults face.

“That problem is actually so bad and the response to helping fix the problem is so poor that Hollywood is making movies about vigilante justice,” Olson said, referencing the 2024 movie The Beekeeper, which centers around a man seeking revenge for the death of an older woman who dies after falling victim to tech support phishing scheme.

Andrews witnessed how scams impacted adults in retirement communities when she worked for LeadingAge’s national organization (LeadingAge Virginia is a separate organization from LeadingAge, but maintains a partnership with it).

“I remember I was at a member organization in Indiana when I was with [LeadingAge’s national organization] and one of the residents said she was getting 25 phone calls a day that were trying to get credit card information [and] bank information,” Andrews said. “They were clearly targeting this retirement community.”

That’s where Proxyware comes in. Through the strategic partnership, Proxyware is able to divert threats for older adults in LeadingAge Virginia by installing a device in their facilities, allowing it to deploy digital decoys that mimic ordinary older adult users, attracting cybercriminals to the wrong target. Olson said Proxyware’s technology allows it to look like “someone who just went to the location, connected to the wi-fi and started surfing the net.” Once malicious activity is detected, the digital safety then works to dismantle the threat so that others are protected.

“If you want to look like a child, you come from a school. If you want to look like a senior community senior citizen, you come from a senior community,” Olson said.

Prior to its collaboration with LeadingAge Virginia, Olson said Proxyware began to pilot its technology in Virginia senior living and active adult communities, an initiative that is still ongoing today. Proxyware’s technology has intercepted about 16 million cyberattacks during the pilot.

“We typically see 0.8% of everything that we view online has some form of attack or harm component, so a really, really high percentage,” Olson said. “When we install in senior communities, that number goes up above 1%.”

Olson said Proxyware technology is not a be-all, end-all solution to cybercrimes targeting these retirement communities.

“They do still experience some attacks, but we’re reducing the frequency,” he said. However, Olson said Proxyware is a more proactive “start” to mitigating threats than current efforts to address the growing crisis.

“Most initiatives require a victim. That means they’re too late,” he said.

One step forward. Andrews said the partnership has allowed older adults and providers to “trust the technology they’re using” and encourages them to stay vigilant.

“The partnership has enabled our older adults to be protected…therefore the places where they’re living, they’re also protected.”