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Comment by lotsofpulp | Hacker News Reader

That’s why I gave all my elders iPads.

I don't get why this is downvoted. This is exactly what I did. Reduce the attack surface as much as possible

I didn't downvote it, but remote control of your PC is only a subset of the scams. So, helpful to have them use an iPad or Chromebook, but not a panacea.

Defense in depth of the vulnerable. Being a trusted contact at financial institutions and having access and authority to screen and monitor calls are also components.

People can be monsters (as the story mentions). Prepare accordingly.

Websites telling you that your computer is broken will load just as well on mobile Safari as they do on desktop Safari. I've clicked a search result link that has redirected to them before on iOS myself.

Maybe if the scammer's script absolutely insists you use remote-desktop you might get lucky, but scammers can still scam without remoting in to your computer.

Simply making my elders accounts non-administrator worked really well for me.

Not sure why you're being downvoted. This is a legitimate solution for the vast majority of use cases.

I hope this happens while I'm in the presence of an elderly relative. I will pick up the phone, naively try to get them to give me any personal info, and record the receiver with my phone. Then I'll inform them I've just done that.

I'm not sure if that's the point of an iPod, though - those scams go a lot further than remote computer access.

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