Digital habits and cyber vulnerabilities among older victims of cyber fraud

Purpose Reliance on the digital ecosystem and continuous access to the internet have led to unwanted vulnerabilities and cyber incidents. This study aims to examine the pre-fraud digital habits and cyber vulnerabilities among older people. Design/methodology/approach This study adopted a purposive sampling method. A total of 425 victims were contacted for the study, 98 of whom were older, were included in this study. The samples were collected using an interview schedule from the two cyber police stations of Jharkhand (Ranchi and Jamshedpur), India. The cases were taken from 2018 to 2023, and included victims who visited the cyber police station Ranchi from September 2023 to December 2023. Findings The study revealed that before the fraud, 18.4% of the victims shared either an email ID or mobile number, and 51% of the victims participated in various activities and were trapped in the fraud. In total, 14.3% of the victims’ activities suggest that they searched for information on Google. The results also indicate that there is an association between victims’ living arrangements and hours spent online, but owing to the small sample size, the findings cannot be generalised. Research limitations/implications The research sample size is limited, and the findings cannot be generalised to a larger population. It contains more males living in cities with their families. For a better understanding, a diverse range of samples is needed, which is lacking in this research. Originality/value This research brings new insights into older people’s victimisation, which is not random; however, the activity of victims puts them in that situation.