Boomers need to upskill their mistrust.
by Gareth E on 22/09/2022
Almost every day we can read a news article about a boomer who has fallen victim to a scammer. It's not clear whether that's because we are victims more frequently or because it makes better news content than reporting on younger scam victims.
Either way, our age group needs to consider a few things in the interest of avoiding costly and sometimes life-changing losses to scammers.
One huge hurdle we face is that we grew up in an era when trust wasn't such an issue. It's often spoken about that in the 1960s when many of us were children, a lot of Australian families didn't lock their doors. To a degree that was negligent because burglary and housebreaking certainly occurred. You never quite knew who lived in your neighborhood. In fact, people living in Adelaide's Brighton and Glenelg suburbs had Ronald Biggs living nearby. Despite that, social trust was much higher in those days.
Things began to change in the 1970s when crime rates seemed to increase and prison sentences started to shorten. Perhaps also through the proliferation of television with more news and current affairs programs, people became more aware of criminal acts. It was then that people began to take greater care and become less trusting of other individuals.
Beginning in the 1980s, schools began to instill in children greater awareness of dangers. When the internet came along and it was apparent that the net was a new form of unregulated jungle, younger people adjusted to those dangers more easily. Conversely, many of those who were already in their 'fifties and upwards were more blind to the dangers in a world they didn't understand. They were a lot less capable of quickly learning to spot potential bad actors. A high percent of those are still lagging in that skill.
Some boomers even became part of the corruption themselves. I frequently scoured online dating sites out of curiosity and came across people I knew whose ages were at least five years older than what their profile stated. Those people should definitely to be wary.
In general, boomers are not cautious enough of approaches they receive and some are easily taken in. There are many strategies and checklists to follow, but I believe that in the long run, becoming far more tuned in to 'stranger danger' will become a necessity for boomers to survive in the badlands of the connected world.
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