RingMyTech teaches safety as one part of Technology Wellness, beside confidence, connection, independence, and a known place to get help. The habits below are for the older adult and for the adult child who wants to help without taking the devices away.
Habits that prevent most damage
- Pause when a message surprises you. Urgency is a tactic.
- Reach companies and agencies through numbers and websites you look up, not through the message that just arrived.
- Keep passwords private. Type them yourself. Do not read a one-time code to a caller.
- Treat remote access as a decision, using the seven checks.
- Talk with family before sending money to someone you have not met, or to a "grandchild" who called in a crisis.
- Update the phone and computer when the device itself asks, not when a web page demands it.
Online safety for elderly parents
Parents stay safer when they still understand the plan. Agree on one callback rule, one place passwords are kept, and one person who may be called for a second look. Put that agreement in Care Circle if the parent wants family involved. Do not install secret monitoring. Secret monitoring breaks trust and is not something RingMyTech sets up.
Banking, Medicare, and medical portals
Use bookmarks for the bank, Medicare, Social Security, and the clinic. Type those addresses once, with help if needed, and reuse the bookmark. RingMyTech can help you open and navigate the sites. We do not give financial, insurance, legal, or medical advice, and we do not ask for those account numbers.
A printable online safety checklist
- Bookmarks exist for the bank, email, clinic, and Social Security or Medicare if used.
- Text size is large enough that warnings can be read.
- A family callback rule is agreed, including what to do with a scary voice message.
- Gift cards are not used to pay companies or government offices.
- The household knows to call (888) 981-TECH or a saved family number before sharing a screen with a stranger.
Unsure whether something is legitimate?
Read the message aloud to us, or forward it to a trusted person first. A one-minute pause is the whole technique.
Sources
RingMyTech explains these topics in plain language. The agencies below publish the primary guidance.
- FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3)
- Federal Trade Commission: tech support scams
- Federal Trade Commission: report fraud
- CISA: avoid social engineering and phishing
- Social Security Administration scam awareness
- Medicare fraud and abuse reporting
- U.S. Department of Justice Elder Justice Initiative
- U.S. Postal Inspection Service
- IdentityTheft.gov