{“lastseen”:”2026-04-20T16:05:07″,”description”:”_This week on the Lock and Code podcast \u2026_\\n\\nA dreadful thing happens far too often whenever an older adult falls for a scam: They get blamed for it. Not the scammers who lied and cheated their victim out of money. Not law enforcement for failing to recover funds. Not even the Big Tech companies that could have the most important role in protecting people online\u2014and which, it turns out, knowingly bring in revenue every year from fraud. \\n\\nInstead, it is the older adults themselves whose stories are often shirked aside because of a mix of ageism and denial. Allegedly left behind by technology, only an octogenarian would hand their password over in a phishing scheme, or open an email attachment from a stranger, or send money to a fake charity online. Everyone else, everyone else believes, is too savvy for the same. \\n\\nThe data disagrees. \\n\\nWhen Malwarebytes studied this last year, it found that, depending on the type of scam\u2014especially for things like \\”sextortion\\”\u2014younger individuals were far more likely to report falling victim. Further, digging into data from the US Federal Trade Commission revealed entirely separate patterns. For example, while Americans between the ages of 80 and 89 reported the highest median loss due to fraud in 2024, they also made up the smallest share of their population to report a loss at all. And in 2025, that same group represented the smallest share of reported identity theft, a crime far more likely to be reported by people between 30 and 39.\\n\\nQuestions about who reports what crimes at what rate are valid to explore, but it’s important to see the big picture: Americans lost at least $15.9 billion to fraud last year. Protecting older adults is actually about protecting everyone, and that’s because modern scams don’t arrive only where people over 70 spend time. They arrive where we all are, which is online. They come through endless text messages, they slide into social media DMs, and they prey on things any of us can be\u2014a widow, a divorcee, or simply a lonely person.\\n\\nAccording to Marti DeLiema, Assistant Professor at the University of Minnesota’s School of Social Work, scams and fraud are now the most common form of organized crime globally, rivaling weapons trafficking, drug trafficking, human trafficking, and sex trafficking. In 2024 alone, she said, the FTC estimated that older adults in the US had as much as $81.5 billion stolen from them. And the tools meant to fight back\u2014broad consumer awareness campaigns, embedded warning messages at the point of transaction, the training of bank tellers and retail clerks\u2014are nowhere near keeping pace.\\n\\nSo what actually works? And who, if anyone, is doing the work?\\n\\nToday, on the Lock and Code podcast with host David Ruiz, we speak with DeLiema about who is really susceptible to financial fraud, why victims often describe a scam as a form of betrayal trauma, and why the companies best positioned to stop scam messages from reaching consumers may be the ones least motivated to do so.\\n\\n\\u003e \\”This is not a technical capability problem at all. This is a conflict of incentives.\\”\\n\\nTune in today to listen to the full conversation. \\n\\n_Show notes and credits:_\\n\\nIntro Music: \u201cSpellbound\u201d by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) \\nLicensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License \\nhttp:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/ \\nOutro Music: \u201cGood God\u201d by Wowa (unminus.com)\\n\\n* * *\\n\\n**Listen up\u2014Malwarebytes doesn\u2019t just talk cybersecurity, we provide it.**\\n\\nProtect yourself from online attacks that threaten your identity, your files, your system, and your financial well-being with our exclusive offer for Malwarebytes Premium Security for Lock and Code listeners.”,”published”:”2026-04-20T14:16:12″,”modified”:”2026-04-20T14:16:12″,”type”:”malwarebytes”,”title”:”Big Tech can stop scams. They just don\\u0026#8217;t (Lock and Code S07E08)”,”source”:””,”references”:””,”id”:”MALWAREBYTES:4393A5172F1058344ABD7A71FFB2A5D8″,”bulletinFamily”:”blog”,”cwe”:null,”cvelist”:[],”sourceData”:””,”sourceHref”:””,”cvss”:{“score”:0,”severity”:”NONE”,”vector”:”NONE”,”version”:”NONE”},”cvss2″:{},”cvss3″:{“version”:””,”vectorString”:””,”baseScore”:0,”baseSeverity”:””,”attackVector”:””,”attackComplexity”:””,”privilegesRequired”:””,”userInteraction”:””,”scope”:””,”confidentialityImpact”:””,”integrityImpact”:””,”availabilityImpact”:””,”cvssV3″:{“version”:””,”vectorString”:””,”baseScore”:0,”baseSeverity”:””,”attackVector”:””,”attackComplexity”:””,”privilegesRequired”:””,”userInteraction”:””,”scope”:””,”confidentialityImpact”:””,”integrityImpact”:””,”availabilityImpact”:””}},”href”:”https:\/\/www.malwarebytes.com\/blog\/podcast\/2026\/04\/big-tech-can-stop-scams-they-just-dont-lock-and-code-s07e08″,”category_name”:”News”,”post_link”:””,”product”:””,”version”:””,”vendor”:””,”ai_description”:””,”ai_severity”:””,”ai_vendor”:””,”ai_product”:””,”ai_version”:””,”ai_score”:0}<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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