Cybercrime's double target — seniors and Gen Z in the firing line

Daily Maverick

5 days ago

Cybercriminals are zeroing in on society's most vulnerable – the elderly and the young – using age as a weapon. The scale and brutality of these attacks are staggering, with millions lost and lives destroyed.
At least two recent studies reveal the alarming trend towards exploitation of both young and old targets, leaving them open to sexual and financial exploitation.
The May 2025 Interpol Africa Cyberthreat Assessment Report exposes how sophisticated local and international networks use advanced deception techniques to exploit human vulnerabilities across the age board.
Meanwhile, the Cybercrime Against Senior Citizens study, co-authored by Suleman Lazarus, a sociologist at the University of the Western Cape, reveals that cybercriminals deliberately target older adults, with ageism serving as a weapon.
'Older adults often have higher levels of trust in societal institutions and individuals, which cybercriminals exploit by portraying themselves as trustworthy,' the study read.
Elderly prey
Older adults face physiological challenges such as cognitive decline, psychological factors such as elevated fear of cybercrime, familial risks including insider fraud, and sociocultural issues like isolation. These vulnerabilities are compounded by harmful stereotypes portraying seniors as trusting and less tech-savvy.
'We are seeing serious attacks in terms of investment scams, crypto scams and quick money-making scams against the elderly,' Danny Myburgh, managing director at Cynare Digital Forensic Lab, told Daily Maverick, citing a disturbing case in which an elderly family fell victim to a R16-million cryptocurrency scam after being lured by fake quick-win promises on social media platforms.
The Cybercrime Against Senior Citizens' findings on this issue are telling: for seniors, it's often 'socioeconomic cybercrime' – think romance scams, fake investments and phishing – that exploit their social isolation and limited digital know-how.
As the research puts it: 'Cybercriminals don't just stumble upon older victims – they often target them on purpose.'
Young, connected – and exposed
While the elderly fall prey to scams exploiting trust and isolation, the young face a different kind of threat – one rooted in their always-online lifestyles and the blurred boundaries between personal and professional digital worlds. This troubling reality was echoed by Myburgh.
Young people often had a 'wide-eyed trust' in online content, 'yet they don't know enough about the ugly stuff'.
One common scam Myburgh revealed involves catfishing, where perpetrators – often posing as young girls online – target boys between the ages of 14 and 17 to extort explicit images, while girls and elderly women face threats like sex extortion and revenge porn.
Deadly reality
The severity of this issue is starkly illustrated by the latest Interpol Africa Cyberthreat Assessment Report.
According to the report, South African authorities have documented a disturbing rise in teenage victims of digital sextortion. Its findings are tragically underscored by the case of an adult victim in the country who died by suicide following a sextortion incident.
What this means for you
Protecting yourself online requires more than awareness – it demands good cyber-hygiene and deliberate practices to safeguard your digital life and assets.
For parents and guardians it is essential to actively guide young and older people in understanding these risks and taking ownership of their digital security early, before ambition turns into vulnerability.
The book How Not to Mess up Online – a teenager's guide by digital law expert Emma Sadleir and Rorke Wilson is a good place to start.
Scams in disguise
The most prevalent tactics are:
Phishing disguised as giveaways and scholarships: Fake bursary ads and competitions on Instagram, TikTok, X and WhatsApp groups harvest personal and banking details;
Fake job offers: Scam recruiters exploit job desperation by demanding fees or identity documents for positions that don't exist;
SIM swap and mobile money fraud: Criminals accessing mobile-linked accounts intercept one-time passwords (OTPs), draining wallets in seconds.
It's no surprise that South Africa's mobile-centric internet landscape – where more than 95% of internet users access the web via smartphones – provides a vast attack surface for cyber threats.
'Youth form the bulk of this demographic, and this always-online behaviour creates exposure at scale,' said Doros Hadjizenonos, regional director of southern Africa at Fortinet. DM