Help needed for elderly tech-phobe

lcc86

Hi all

Not sure if this is the right place to post this, but my mum (70s) has quite an old Samsung phone. I've no idea what she's done or how she's manahed to do it, but every time she turns it on she's bombarded with constant messages and popup notifications that appear very fishy from what she's described. I don't live with her and she doesn't know how to do screenshots (that's the level of tech-phobe we're talking about) but over Christmas I saw it and there were popup notifications about viruses. I'm not an expert but I couldn't find any dodgy apps or anything obvious. She had about 200 internet tabs open, mainly news related but some dodgy looking news sites. I closed them all, installed a free ad blocker browser and told her to use the internet through that to try and see if that helped, as that's really the extent of my knowledge.

She messaged me yesterday to say she's got lots of viruses on her phone (her words not mine), more popups etc and that she adblocker I installed doesn't work. I think we're at the point where I just need to get her a new, simple phone, and try and do my best to protect her online because I'm worried about what she's accessing, I've never known anything like it in terms of the popups etc, I've been speaking to her on the landline recently and can hear her phone constantly pinging in the background with whatever these notifications are. I'm not hugely tech-minded myself so am turning here for some advice.

- Is there a phone designed for older users that might have some built-in safeguards?
- If not, and I get her a newer Samsung, what can I do to keep her safe online, bearing in mind I'm not with her 24/7? I almost feel like she needs a phone with some sort of parental control to really limit any dodgy sites.
- Would a VPN help? I use Nord myself so was thinking I could install this, but then wondered if this could confuse her even more somehow. My Nord shows me if my email/private data has been leaked so was thinking this could be helpful.
- Should I set her up a new email address? She doesn't get loads of spam emails but not sure if she's used her email to sign up to stuff and if that's contributing to the problem.
- She has her online banking app on her phone, should I assume this may have been compromised? 

Sorry for all the questions, and how naive some of them may sound, I just have no idea how someone could do this on an android and am worried about how vulnerable she is online. She has no sense of online safety from what I can see and needs things explained really simply so I just want to set her up for "success" and keep things simple.

elsien

My mum had similar and she’d managed to accidentally download some app Which was sending very similar pop-ups to yours. She didn’t have a virus. She just had lots of messages telling her that she did. An accidentally installed that blocker was one of the culprits. 

I went through her phone, deleted  everything she didn’t need (And took the opportunity to reorganise her home screen, which was all over the place 😀), And then went through all the apps checking the notifications settings.
That did the trick.
I think she downloaded some games which came with additional bloatware and there was a dodgy PDF thing as well.
my suspicion is that your mum hasn’t got a virus just lots of really annoying messages trying to get her to sign up to things.
nuclear option might be to reset the phone to factory settings and start again depending on what she’s got on there. 

A simpler phone won’t make any difference if it’s coming from downloads and agreeing to things. it’s easier for me because I’m close by.

lcc86

elsien said:

My mum had similar and she’d managed to accidentally download some app Which was sending very similar pop-ups to yours. She didn’t have a virus. She just had lots of messages telling her that she did. An accidentally installed that blocker was one of the culprits. 

I went through her phone, deleted  everything she didn’t need (And took the opportunity to reorganise her home screen, which was all over the place 😀), And then went through all the apps checking the notifications settings.
That did the trick.
I think she downloaded some games which came with additional bloatware and there was a dodgy PDF thing as well.
my suspicion is that your mum hasn’t got a virus just lots of really annoying messages trying to get her to sign up to things.
nuclear option might be to reset the phone to factory settings and start again depending on what she’s got on there. 

A simpler phone won’t make any difference if it’s coming from downloads and agreeing to things. it’s easier for me because I’m close by.

Thanks, so I did go through her phone and couldn't find any unfamiliar looking apps. I deleted everything she doesn't use etc, I just can't figure out where it came from. We could do a factory reset, it's quite an old phone so I can't do the latest security updates on it either which is why I was thinking of getting a new one (no idea if that would actually help though tbh). She's got me bamboozled 

twopenny

Is there a help hub near her? We've had a couple start up round here where volunteers help those of us clueless with the modern technology and they are good.

I'm old but sort of tech savvy in that I've worked with technology since the beginning but having been retired for ages no longer have the contacts or keeping in touch.
Bought a new phone for 4g access and it's the terminology and what's possible that I'm clueless about.

New phone too big for my hand which is annoying. Also heavier for carrying around.
I use Duckduck go searches which blocks a lot of stuff including trackers and gets rid of a lot of adverts.

The scam ' you've got a virus ' is prevent on sites that look for the vulnerable. Not what you would expect. They can pick up from your gadget the anti virus screen to reproduce a perfect replica of threat. 
The ones I got them from was embroidery, patterns for kaftans etc. not what you'd think of as dodgy.

I was told yesterday by a phone guy in Tesco's there to help people with the closing of 3g that Chrome is the one to throw this stuff up

New phone is also throwing up endless alerts which are to download apps. I was shown how to turn this off.

As she needs someone to clear her phone . Definitely see if there are some free hubs she could visit where there will be others like her and someone who can clear and set up the phone whichever one.
They even have talks by the police about scams . You can get a free hot drink and see other people's problems so you don't feel so alone and  also you absorb stuff by osmosis 🙂

lcc86

twopenny said:

Is there a help hub near her? We've had a couple start up round here where volunteers help those of us clueless with the modern technology and they are good.

I'm old but sort of tech savvy in that I've worked with technology since the beginning but having been retired for ages no longer have the contacts or keeping in touch.
Bought a new phone for 4g access and it's the terminology and what's possible that I'm clueless about.

New phone too big for my hand which is annoying. Also heavier for carrying around.
I use Duckduck go searches which blocks a lot of stuff including trackers and gets rid of a lot of adverts.

The scam ' you've got a virus ' is prevent on sites that look for the vulnerable. Not what you would expect. They can pick up from your gadget the anti virus screen to reproduce a perfect replica of threat. 
The ones I got them from was embroidery, patterns for kaftans etc. not what you'd think of as dodgy.

I was told yesterday by a phone guy in Tesco's there to help people with the closing of 3g that Chrome is the one to throw this stuff up

New phone is also throwing up endless alerts which are to download apps. I was shown how to turn this off.

As she needs someone to clear her phone . Definitely see if there are some free hubs she could visit where there will be others like her and someone who can clear and set up the phone whichever one.
They even have talks by the police about scams . You can get a free hot drink and see other people's problems so you don't feel so alone and  also you absorb stuff by osmosis 🙂

Thanks for this, she lives very rurally so I'd have to look into what's available near her. I did suggest to her that she tries a local phone shop first to see if they can sort it, but she didn't want to do that and said she might as well get a new phone. However if she does all the same stuff with the new phone we end up in the same situation. I use duckduckgo myself so might see if I can talk her through downloading that in the interim.

Heedtheadvice

Doro make phones for simple use (feature phones) that are not smart mobiles so are largely immune from such problems but very limited functionality.

They are quite basic and do not have browsers etc but designed primarily for phone, text and not much else ( there are other manufacturers) the Doro 6880 is one of their best as many of the others are a pain for editing text with their basic keypad and limited navigation.

Using one though feels like a big backward step especially if you like the smart functionality so no WhatsApp, Facetime, good camera or streaming and email  so might not be of any use.

I think the idea of getting local support mentioned such as a hub or community IT centre could be a good way forward and possibly locking down the phone, if possible, to only essentials. Meeting others of a like mind would be good too.

elsien

Doro is not going be any use though if she’s doing Internet banking on her phone and various other other online activities.

It’s been a little while now and I do have the memory of a goldfish but I think we had to go into settings and turn all the adblock alerts off as well as delete the various apps. I can remember that Mahjong was throwing up all sorts of carp as well, and parent also went onto the new sites that really push ads and downloads.

if she is getting a new phone, maybe work out what she wants and finding reputable sources for her? 

TimeLord1

If you have or she has an age concern, help local if she visits so that they'll help her. Other than that, it's the provider shop, but they're fewer nowadays. 

Emmia

lcc86 said:

twopenny said:

Is there a help hub near her? We've had a couple start up round here where volunteers help those of us clueless with the modern technology and they are good.

I'm old but sort of tech savvy in that I've worked with technology since the beginning but having been retired for ages no longer have the contacts or keeping in touch.
Bought a new phone for 4g access and it's the terminology and what's possible that I'm clueless about.

New phone too big for my hand which is annoying. Also heavier for carrying around.
I use Duckduck go searches which blocks a lot of stuff including trackers and gets rid of a lot of adverts.

The scam ' you've got a virus ' is prevent on sites that look for the vulnerable. Not what you would expect. They can pick up from your gadget the anti virus screen to reproduce a perfect replica of threat. 
The ones I got them from was embroidery, patterns for kaftans etc. not what you'd think of as dodgy.

I was told yesterday by a phone guy in Tesco's there to help people with the closing of 3g that Chrome is the one to throw this stuff up

New phone is also throwing up endless alerts which are to download apps. I was shown how to turn this off.

As she needs someone to clear her phone . Definitely see if there are some free hubs she could visit where there will be others like her and someone who can clear and set up the phone whichever one.
They even have talks by the police about scams . You can get a free hot drink and see other people's problems so you don't feel so alone and  also you absorb stuff by osmosis 🙂

Thanks for this, she lives very rurally so I'd have to look into what's available near her. I did suggest to her that she tries a local phone shop first to see if they can sort it, but she didn't want to do that and said she might as well get a new phone. However if she does all the same stuff with the new phone we end up in the same situation. I use duckduckgo myself so might see if I can talk her through downloading that in the interim.

How old is your mum's phone? If it's more than about 5 years then she may no longer be getting the security/firmware updates and so if that's the case she should upgrade/replace for something newer. 

lcc86

Thanks all for your responses. @Heedtheadvice and @elsien I did think about a super basic phone but she wouldn't be able to access WhatsApp or email etc, which she does need. She doesn't need anything particularly fancy which is why I thought of potentially some sort of protective apps that might block all the guff she's getting.

@Emmia she doesn't get security updates any more, that was the first thing I checked and the last one was in 2022. Shows how old the phone is, and there's no option to download anything more recent on it.

If I get her a new phone, tell her to use duckduckgo and get a decent vpn, would this go some way to minimising the issue in future? I can't find a local tech hub near her unfortunately, I might print some info for her but it will need to be really simple.

ButterCheese

If you're going to get her a new phone anyway, I'd still get a smartphone if she wants to use internet banking.  Getting a dumb phone would probably feel like a lot of her independence had been taken away.  Get her to use duckduckgo, instead of chrome.  I probably wouldn't install a 3rd party ad blocker or antivirus as the free versions tend to throw up a lot of alerts which causes panic.  My Dad is the same, he's always saying some "scam" or "virus" has popped up on his computer, when it's actually just the AV software telling him he's at risk, wanting him to pay more to upgrade