- [Narrator] In many ways, the internet has made purchasing goods more convenient and staying in touch easier.

But eCommerce and social media also present certain potential threats that we would all do well to keep in mind.

Residents of Davidson County who have been affected by a crime within the calendar year qualify for FiftyForward's Victory Over Crime program for older adults.

But even if you don't meet those criteria, the program can offer some helpful tips.

- The Victory Over Crime program is a victim assistance program that provides case management services to older adults who have been affected by crime.

To qualify for the program, you have to be a resident of Davidson County and a crime has to have occurred within the last calendar year.

The Victory Over Crime program has a variety of presentations that they give.

So we'll give presentations on elder abuse for service providers, financial exploitation for older adults, but a big one that we frequently give is internet safety to older adults Probably two of the main things that I want people to leave with that presentation with is be very careful when you're online about what you click.

Think before you click, because a lot of times, scammers will send messages or emails with unsecure links that'll lure you to another website where they could download malware to try to get your personal information or put ransomware on your computer.

So that's one big thing I always recommend.

And then another would be, be careful about what you share about yourself on social media.

A lot of times, the default settings on social media sites are to be very, very open with all of your information.

So make sure to look at those privacy settings and have them set to share what you feel comfortable sharing with who you feel comfortable sharing it with.

So those are probably two of the big things that I recommend at our presentation.

There are so many benefits to the internet.

There are so many new ways to engage with people and just really live online, so we don't want people to be scared about going online to get the benefits of the internet, but you can also educate yourself and get the knowledge that you need to be able to stay as safe as possible online.

So I don't want anybody to be scared to navigate the internet, but there are things that you can know to help keep yourself safe - [Announcer] Made possible by a grant from the West End Home Foundation, Senior Trust Digital Initiative.