Keeping your parents safe online — without taking over

Linda is 72, sharp, and runs her own finances without help. One Tuesday afternoon she got a call from someone saying they were from her bank's fraud team. They told her there was suspicious activity on her account and walked her through moving her savings to a so-called safe account to protect it.

She did exactly what they asked, because they had her name, her address, her bank's logo on the page they sent her, and a calm, professional voice. By the time she called her daughter that evening, eighteen thousand euros were gone. Linda is not naive — these scams are now good enough to fool a careful person on a bad day.

The first is the fake bank call, where a stranger pretends to be from the fraud team and asks to move money or read out a card number. The second is the grandchild-in-trouble call, a panicked voice claiming to be a relative who needs money sent right now. The third is the fake virus warning, a pop-up on the screen saying the computer is infected, with a phone number to call for help.

The fourth is the romance scam, a new online friend who builds trust over weeks and then asks for money for an emergency. The fifth is the fake government message, a notice claiming a tax bill, a pension form, or a fine is overdue, with a link to pay. All five work the same way — they create urgency, and they ask for money or a password before there is time to think.

Talk about the scams without making it about your relative, by sharing stories of other people getting caught so they do not feel singled out. Agree on one simple rule together: any unexpected call asking for money, a password, or a code is a scam until proven otherwise. Make it easy for them to check with you, and say plainly that they can call you before doing anything, at any time, no matter how small it feels.

Set up two-step login on their email and bank, walk them through it once, and keep the backup codes somewhere safe. Save your number, the bank's real number, and a few real service numbers under clear names in their phone, so they always have a trusted starting point. Never scold when something goes wrong, because shame is the one thing that stops people asking for help, and shame is exactly what scammers count on.

Sorinify is built for people who do not want to think about security every time they open an email. Install it once on their computer, and it checks every page that opens, with no settings to configure and no pop-ups when everything is fine. If they click a fake bank link, a fake pension page, or a fake support page, it is blocked before it loads and they see a clear warning instead.

You can add their account to your family plan, so the protection covers up to five people in your household under one bill. Their activity stays on their own device, so you do not see what they browse and they do not see what you browse, which keeps trust intact. It is the safety net that does not ask them to learn anything new.