Baby Boomers Guide to Online Banking

Continuing where I left off(http://blogs.mcafee.com/consumer/gen-x-to-baby-boomers-guide-to-safely-banking-online )… McAfee recently released an online guide for Safe Virtual Banking to help users of all technical levels get the tips they need to use virtual banking with confidence. According to the guide, McAfee discovered three main personality types when it comes to online banking. I continue with the Baby Boomers which are described as:

 “Conservative And Cautious”: Over 45 years old

This group is not as familiar as younger generations with technology, and a smaller portion use online banking. They tend to be more cautious when going online, and are in fact better protected than the other groups because research shows a higher percentage has security software. However, some older Americans are vulnerable to offline scams such as automated voice messages that request financial account numbers.

My friends and family that fall in this age range are super cautious when it comes to online banking. Younger Boomers are banking online, but of the over 55 set, only 20% are banking “virtually”. The concerns I have heard range from worry that something will go wrong to not having a paper trail.

 Dave Marcus from McAfee Labs says “Most instances of banking fraud are not due to the bank’s technology being compromised, but to people unwittingly giving out their personal banking information to criminals via phishing scams and copycat sites, or their computers being infected with malware”

Luckily this group is the best protected when it comes to antivirus.  53% of 45-54 year olds use antivirus and 56% of the 55-64 year olds are protected. Well done!

Still Boomers want more information to stay safe. Use the following tips to take advantage of the convenience of banking via computer.

1. Keep your security suite up to date and set to automatically update. Run regular scans to keep your computer running well.
2. If your computer is acting funny, lots of pop-ups or running sluggish, don’t do any banking until you have it checked out. [http://home.mcafee.com/downloads/free-virus-scan ]
3. Never click on a link in an email that looks like it came from your bank. Scammers use this phishing scheme to try to get in your account. Always just open a tab and type in the bank address or use your bookmark to make sure you aren’t going to a phony site.
4. Review your bank statement every month and make sure that there aren’t any bad charges. Report any fraud immediately to your bank.
5. Use strong passwords! If you are still using the same password from your first email address when you were 8, it is time to change!  Bank passwords should be different from any other password!
6. Download SiteAdvisor. It is a free add-on that will tell you if a site is safe, might spam you or contains malware. It doesn’t protect you from viruses, but it tells you what sites you shouldn’t bother to visit.
7. Follow Mcafee on Facebook to learn about the latest threats.

Share with the Baby Boomers and Silver Surfers that you know so they can feel more comfortable using this technology. Stay safe out there!