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Susceptibility to COVID-19 Scams: Does Age Matter?

The COVID-19 pandemic has lead to a worldwide surge in COVID-19 related mass marketing scams. While COVID-19 poses higher health risks for older adults, it is unknown whether older adults are also facing higher financial risks as a result of such scams. Thus, the present study examined age differenc...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Nolte, Julia, Hanoch, Yaniv, Wood, Stacey, Hengerer, David
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Oxford University Press 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8681213/
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/geroni/igab046.2837
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author Nolte, Julia
Hanoch, Yaniv
Wood, Stacey
Hengerer, David
author_facet Nolte, Julia
Hanoch, Yaniv
Wood, Stacey
Hengerer, David
author_sort Nolte, Julia
collection PubMed
description The COVID-19 pandemic has lead to a worldwide surge in COVID-19 related mass marketing scams. While COVID-19 poses higher health risks for older adults, it is unknown whether older adults are also facing higher financial risks as a result of such scams. Thus, the present study examined age differences in vulnerability to COVID-19 scams and factors that might help explain them. In June 2020, 68 younger (18 – 40 years, M = 25.67, SD = 5.93), 79 middle-aged (41 – 64 years, M = 49.86, SD = 7.20), and 63 older adults (65 – 84 years, M = 69.87, SD = 4.50) were recruited through Prolific. Participants responded to five COVID-19 solicitations, psychological measures, and demographic questions. Across solicitations, older adults perceived COVID-19 solicitations to offer significantly fewer benefits than both younger and middle-aged adults did. However, age groups neither differed in their perception of the solicitations’ risks and genuineness nor in their willingness to act in response to COVID-19 solicitations. Overall, intentions to respond to COVID-19 solicitations were positively predicted by higher levels of educational attainment, a previous history of fraud victimization, and higher levels of positive urgency. As expected, stronger genuineness and benefit perceptions positively predicted action intentions, whereas stronger risk perceptions negatively predicted action intentions. Older adults did not exhibit greater vulnerability to COVID-19 solicitations: If anything, they were more skeptical of the benefits associated with these solicitations. Irrespective of age, risk, benefit, and genuineness perceptions were the key factors associated with intention to respond to solicitations.
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spelling pubmed-86812132021-12-17 Susceptibility to COVID-19 Scams: Does Age Matter? Nolte, Julia Hanoch, Yaniv Wood, Stacey Hengerer, David Innov Aging Abstracts The COVID-19 pandemic has lead to a worldwide surge in COVID-19 related mass marketing scams. While COVID-19 poses higher health risks for older adults, it is unknown whether older adults are also facing higher financial risks as a result of such scams. Thus, the present study examined age differences in vulnerability to COVID-19 scams and factors that might help explain them. In June 2020, 68 younger (18 – 40 years, M = 25.67, SD = 5.93), 79 middle-aged (41 – 64 years, M = 49.86, SD = 7.20), and 63 older adults (65 – 84 years, M = 69.87, SD = 4.50) were recruited through Prolific. Participants responded to five COVID-19 solicitations, psychological measures, and demographic questions. Across solicitations, older adults perceived COVID-19 solicitations to offer significantly fewer benefits than both younger and middle-aged adults did. However, age groups neither differed in their perception of the solicitations’ risks and genuineness nor in their willingness to act in response to COVID-19 solicitations. Overall, intentions to respond to COVID-19 solicitations were positively predicted by higher levels of educational attainment, a previous history of fraud victimization, and higher levels of positive urgency. As expected, stronger genuineness and benefit perceptions positively predicted action intentions, whereas stronger risk perceptions negatively predicted action intentions. Older adults did not exhibit greater vulnerability to COVID-19 solicitations: If anything, they were more skeptical of the benefits associated with these solicitations. Irrespective of age, risk, benefit, and genuineness perceptions were the key factors associated with intention to respond to solicitations. Oxford University Press 2021-12-17 /pmc/articles/PMC8681213/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/geroni/igab046.2837 Text en © The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) ), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Abstracts
Nolte, Julia
Hanoch, Yaniv
Wood, Stacey
Hengerer, David
Susceptibility to COVID-19 Scams: Does Age Matter?
title Susceptibility to COVID-19 Scams: Does Age Matter?
title_full Susceptibility to COVID-19 Scams: Does Age Matter?
title_fullStr Susceptibility to COVID-19 Scams: Does Age Matter?
title_full_unstemmed Susceptibility to COVID-19 Scams: Does Age Matter?
title_short Susceptibility to COVID-19 Scams: Does Age Matter?
title_sort susceptibility to covid-19 scams: does age matter?
topic Abstracts
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8681213/
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/geroni/igab046.2837
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