Skip to main content

Understanding Older Adults’ Vulnerability and Reactions to Telecommunication Fraud: The Effects of Personality and Cognition

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNISA,volume 12209))

Abstract

Older adults are one of the high-risk groups vulnerable to telecommunication fraud, but little is known about what strategies will be taken by them to fight telecommunication fraud and what the underlying rationales are behind their reactions. Therefore, this study examined it through three phases. In phase 1, sixty older adults participated in a face-to-face survey of possible influence of personality and cognition. Then, they judged the authenticity of messages they have read on a real phone and were interviewed. Phase 2 is an online questionnaire survey to identify two more factors to enrich the results of phase 1. Phase 3 is a text analysis of 120 supreme court verdicts. The results reveal individual differences in anti-fraud strategies and show that older adults adopted different strategies to address potential telecom fraud. Particularly, older adults with lower need for cognition (NFC) were more likely to adopt extremely conservative strategies.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Buying options

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

References

  1. National Consumers League: Telemarketing scams, January–December 2004. http://www.fraud.org/telemarketing/2004-telemarketing%20scams.pdf. Accessed 19 Feb 2018

  2. National Consumers League. Scammers targeting their victims by age group, says National Consumers League’s Fraud Center (2012). https://www.nclnet.org/scammers_targeting_their_victims_by_age_group_says_national_consumers_league_rsquo_s_fraud_center. Accessed 27 May 2020

  3. Johnson, K.D.: Financial crimes against the elderly. US Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (2004). http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download;jsessionid=3F220FD69925296F7AFBF59560199A6B?doi=10.1.1.531.309&rep=rep1&type=pdf. Accessed 27 May 2020

  4. Kok, K.F.: Truecaller insights special report: An estimated 22.1M Americans lost $9.5B in phone scams last year. Truecaller (2017). https://truecaller.blog/2017/04/19/truecaller-us-spam-report-2017/. Accessed 27 May 2020

  5. Alves, L.M., Steve, R.W.: The effects of loneliness on telemarketing fraud vulnerability among older adults. J. Elder Abuse Neglect 20(1), 63–85 (2008)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Cross, C.: ‘They’re very lonely’: understanding the fraud victimisation of seniors. Int. J. Crime Justice Soc. Democr. 5(4), 60 (2016)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Wagner, J.: The role of social factors in explaining consumer fraud victimization of the elderly (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Lee, J., Geistfeld, L.V.: Elderly consumers’ receptiveness to telemarketing fraud. J. Public Policy Mark. 18(2), 208–217 (1999)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Waddell, F.E.: Consumer research and programs for the elderly-the forgotten dimension. J. Consum. Aff. 9(2), 164–175 (1975)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Lim, C.M., Kim, Y.-K.: Older consumers’ Tv home shopping: loneliness, parasocial interaction, and perceived convenience. Psychol. Mark. 28(8), 763–780 (2011)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Forde, D.R., Kennedy, L.W.: Risky lifestyles, routine activities, and the General Theory of Crime. Justice Q. 14, 265–294 (1997)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Schreck, C.J.: Criminal victimization and low self-control: an extension and test of a general theory of crime. Justice Q. 16, 633–654 (1999)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Schreck, C.J., Stewart, E.A., Osgood, D.W.: A reappraisal of the overlap of violent offenders and victims. Criminol. Interdiscip. J. 46(4), 871–906 (2008)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Pratt, T.C., Turanovic, J.J., Fox, K.A., Wright, K.A.: Self-control and victimization: a meta-analysis. Criminology 52(1), 87–116 (2014)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Holtfreter, K., Reisig, M.D., Pratt, T.C.: Low self-control, routine activities, and fraud victimization. Criminology 46(1), 189–220 (2008)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Holtfreter, K., Reisig, M.D., Leeper Piquero, N., Piquero, A.R.: Low self-control and fraud: offending, victimization, and their overlap. Crim. Justice Behav. 37(2), 188–203 (2010)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Smith, K.G., Carroll, S.J., Ashford, S.J.: Intra- and interorganizational cooperation: toward a research agenda. Acad. Manag. J. 38(1), 7–23 (1995)

    Google Scholar 

  18. McKnight, D.H., Chervany, N.L.: What trust means in e-commerce customer relationships: an interdisciplinary conceptual typology. Int. J. Electron. Commer. 6(2), 35–59 (2001)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Das, S., Echambadi, R., McCardle, M., Luckett, M.: The effect of interpersonal trust, need for cognition, and social loneliness on shopping, information seeking and surfing on the Web. Mark. Lett. 14(3), 185–202 (2003)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Hung, K., Li, S.Y., Tse, D.K.: Interpersonal trust and platform credibility in a Chinese multibrand online community. J. Advert. 40(3), 99–112 (2011)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Trongmateerut, P.: The impact of assessment procedures and need for cognition on fraud risk assessments (2011). https://research.libraries.wsu.edu/xmlui/handle/2376/2847. Accessed 27 May 2020

  22. Venkatraman, M.P., Marlino, D., Kardes, F.R., Sklar, K.B.: Effects of individual difference variables on responses to factual and evaluative ads. Adv. Consum. Res. 17(1), 761 (1990)

    Google Scholar 

  23. Gross, E.A.: Elderly victims of telemarketing fraud: demographic, social, and psychological factors in victimization and willingness to report. University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California (2001)

    Google Scholar 

  24. Reiboldt, W., Vogel, R.: A critical analysis of telemarketing fraud in a gated senior community. J. Elder Abuse Neglect 13(4), 21–38 (2001)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. DiTommaso, E., Brannen, C., Best, L.A.: Measurement and validity characteristics of the short version of the social and emotional loneliness scale for adults. Educ. Psychol. Measur. 64(1), 99–119 (2004)

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  26. Grasmick, H.G., Tittle, C.R., Bursik, R.J., Arneklev, B.J.: Testing the core empirical implications of Gottfredson and Hirschi’s general theory of crime. J. Res. Crime Delinq. 30(1), 5–29 (1993)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Cacioppo, J.T., Petty, R.E., Feinstein, J.A., Jarvis, W.B.G.: Dispositional differences in cognitive motivation: the life and times of individuals varying in need for cognition. Psychol. Bull. 119(2), 197–253 (1996)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Eysenck, H.J., Eysenck, S.B.G.: Manual of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire: (EPQ-R Adult). EdITS/Educational and Industrial Testing Service, San Diego, California (1994)

    Google Scholar 

  29. Miró, F.: Routine activity theory. In: Michalos, A.C. (ed.) The Encyclopedia of Theoretical Criminology. Springer, New York (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  30. Russell, D., Cutrona, C.E., Rose, J., Yurko, K.: Social and emotional loneliness: an examination of Weiss’s typology of loneliness. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 46(6), 1313–1321 (1984)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  31. Liang, Y.: Trust in Chinese Government and Quality of Life (QOL) of Sichuan earthquake survivors: does trust in government help to promote QOL? Soc. Indic. Res. 127(2), 541–564 (2016)

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgment

This work was supported by funding from Chongqing Municipal Natural Science Foundation (cstc2016jcyjA0406) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grants no. 71661167006).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jia Zhou .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this paper

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this paper

Xiang, H., Zhou, J., Xie, B. (2020). Understanding Older Adults’ Vulnerability and Reactions to Telecommunication Fraud: The Effects of Personality and Cognition. In: Gao, Q., Zhou, J. (eds) Human Aspects of IT for the Aged Population. Technology and Society. HCII 2020. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 12209. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50232-4_25

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50232-4_25

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-50231-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-50232-4

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics