Plato, artificial intelligence and assisted living facilities don’t have much in common.
But for Charlie Landers, a student at Western Reserve Academy, reading Plato’s “Republic” sparked an interest in the philosophy of human ethics and technology. This experience recently led him to create workshops designed to help Akron seniors avoid cyber scams.
Landers, 16, has hosted events at Heritage Crossing in Fairlawn Heights and Ohio Living Rockynol, located near Highland Square.
He tells participants that fraudsters are increasingly using artificial intelligence to create believable scams that target everyone, but especially older people, who are particularly susceptible. Last year, seniors in the United States lost more than $4.8 billion from more than 147,000 complaints — nearly 25,000 occurred in Ohio, according to the FBI.
Some scams are simple: They can involve fake text messages or tech support requests. Others are more involved, such as romance scams that prey on loneliness. Others recreate a loved one’s voice to coerce them to send money. Scammers often ask for money to be sent through gift cards and cryptocurrency because these transactions are more difficult to reverse or trace.
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“The way I look at it is it’s more of like a human flaw,” Landers said, “like people are making these moral decisions, and that basically informs the scam.”
Landers advises people to use tools such as VirusTotal to scan links for viruses, but his lessons largely focus on interpersonal elements that scammers incorporate.
“I feel like if I can just spread that education,” Landers said, “I can sort of level the playing field and help people out and [recognize] these scams.”
For instance, he said if a number or contact that you don’t know asks you to send money and instills a sense of urgency or pressure, it’s likely a scam. And, if a romantic interest that only communicates virtually asks you to send them money, it’s likely a scam.
Said Landers: “I’ve been showing them basically the playbook that the scammers use.”