Department of Public Law, University of Girona, 17003 Girona, Spain.
Department of Health Psychology, Miguel Hernández University of Elche, 03202 Elche, Spain.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2023 Apr 5;20(7):5404. doi: 10.3390/ijerph20075404.
The European population is aging, which means more people aged sixty-five and over are at risk of financial exploitation. However, there is a lack of consensus regarding whether older persons are at greater risk of fraud than younger counterparts due to physical, economic, and social factors or, rather, whether they are slightly protected from fraud in the digital era due to less frequent online activity. Moreover, little is known about the financial, emotional, psychological, and physical impacts of fraud experiences amongst older generations in digital society. We employ multilevel modelling on a sample of EU citizens ( = 26,735) to analyze these issues. The results show that, holding other factors constant, older adults are more likely to suffer fraud in general, but not fraud via online channels. Identity theft in which the offender attempts to trick the victim by impersonating a reputable organization is found to be particularly relevant for citizens aged sixty-five and above. Older persons are less likely to suffer a financial impact but more likely to experience anger, irritation, embarrassment, and negative impacts on their physical health from fraud in general as well as from online fraud. Many organizations aim to help protect older adults from financial crime and its impacts; thus, the results emphasize the need to understand particular fraud categories suffered by older generations and to design support programs that fully take into account the non-financial impacts of this crime.
欧洲人口正在老龄化，这意味着更多 65 岁及以上的人面临金融剥削的风险。然而，对于老年人是否因身体、经济和社会因素而比年轻人更容易受到欺诈，或者在数字时代由于较少的在线活动而略微免受欺诈，目前尚未达成共识。此外，对于数字社会中老年人的欺诈经历对其财务、情感、心理和身体健康的影响，人们知之甚少。我们使用欧盟公民的样本（n=26735）进行多层次建模来分析这些问题。结果表明，在控制其他因素的情况下，老年人总体上更容易受到欺诈，但并非通过在线渠道受到欺诈。身份盗窃是指犯罪者试图通过冒充知名组织来欺骗受害者，对于 65 岁及以上的公民来说，这种欺诈尤其相关。老年人受到财务影响的可能性较小，但更有可能因一般欺诈以及在线欺诈而感到愤怒、恼怒、尴尬和对身体健康产生负面影响。许多组织旨在帮助保护老年人免受金融犯罪及其影响；因此，这些结果强调了需要了解老年人遭受的特定欺诈类别，并设计充分考虑到这种犯罪的非财务影响的支持计划。
