Heaven Doesn't Need Furniture

It is always discussed how children are the prime targets for online predators and deception online. Children trust too easily, and are easily extorted by predators for photos and personal information. However, it is not only children who can be easily duped online. We assume children are most vulnerable due to their overtly trusting nature or inability to know how much information is TOO much to post. But, parents and seniors are just as much at risk for engaging in dangerous behaviors online.

Maybe it is because they aren't well versed in the forms of CMC, or maybe it is because they are just as trusting as their children when it comes to the internet.

Seniors are obviously more at risk than middle aged adults. They often fall victim to online theft due to their lack of knowledge and confusion, or because they are lonely and trust whoever they are speaking to. Some examples include giving information over the phone to a supposed IRS agent, or predators posing as their grandchildren to have money wired into their accounts due to some "emergency".

Going further than seniors, the deceased are also at risk. A 2012 study found that about 2.5 million deceased Americans a year are being impersonated by fraudulent people. This can be done because: 1. It takes 3+ months for people to be recognized as dead by Federal Bureaus. 2. Because family of the deceased will not realize it is happening, and once they do, it is difficult to prove your relation to the deceased and that they are actually deceased when someone has been running around pretending to be them.

It's not only the dead and (definitely) dying that are at risk. Parents, too, are over trusting. But, they are often being victims of mistrust when they are involved in topics or areas that are their most vulnerable. For example, in 2013, Sarah was involved in Facebook groups and chatrooms with supposed parents of autistic children so she and others could talk about their experiences with their children.

She became close with a male online, Phyl, to the point where he was supposed to visit her in New York. But, in Catfish fashion, he never showed. His profile vanished as well. It turns out that his disappearance corresponded with him being arrested on 20 accounts of child pornography and sexual touching charges. He was posing as an autistic adult, giving people advice on bathing their autistic children, and probing them for photos or videos of the children in baths. Sarah never complied, but some others did. In this case, the predator was being overtly manipulative over parents in their times of need, rather than predators lurking after children who are too trusting in general with strangers.

In summary, the internet is a terrifying place full of monsters, but not only kids are at risk. Parents, too, can be made a fool of, and even the ghosts of the dead can be found making furniture purchases several months after the funeral.