ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Aging and Public Health
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1585851
Examining Older Adults' Vulnerability to Online Health Scams: Insights from Routine
Provisionally accepted
- 1Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
- 2Butler University, Indianapolis, Indiana, United States
- 3University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut, United States
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Online health fraud targeting older adults in China has resulted in substantial financial losses.This study sought to explore the mechanism of online health fraud targeting and victimization among older people. We surveyed retirees in July 2022, resulting in a final sample of 471 after excluding incomplete responses. Analyzing the survey data, we found that those who installed many applications, used social network sites frequently, and engaged in risky Internet activities are at higher risk of health fraud targeting. Moreover, respondents who received promotional messages online and offline and had chronic disease conditions reported a higher frequency of health fraud exposure. Next, we found that younger family intervention lowers elder health fraud loss after fraud exposure, while older individuals lacking protection skills are at higher risk of fraud victimization. In this study, we have refined Routine Activity Theory (RAT), traditionally used to elucidate the origins and patterns of crime, by dissecting online health fraud into two distinct phases: exposure to fraud and subsequent victimization. We enriched the RAT framework and shed light on factors that lead to online health fraud victimization among older adults.
Keywords: routine activity theory, online health fraud, exposure to fraud, fraud victimization, older adults
Received: 01 Mar 2025; Accepted: 14 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Chen, He, Xu and Atkin. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Hongliang Chen, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
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