UB-led team receives $5 million to help older adults spot online scams, disinformation

BUFFALO, N.Y. – Last year, more than 92,000 U.S. adults aged 60 and over reported being victims of online scams, according to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center.

Their losses? Roughly $1.7 billion.

To fight this problem, a University at Buffalo-led research team was awarded a two-year, $5 million National Science Foundation (NSF) Convergence Accelerator phase 2 cooperative agreement to create digital tools that help older adults better recognize and protect themselves from online deceptions and other forms of disinformation.

“Older adults did not grow up using the internet. For many of them, it can be difficult to spot online deceptions, and the results can be tragic,” says principal investigator Siwei Lyu, PhD, Empire Innovation Professor of computer science and engineering at UB.

He adds: “What we’re doing is pulling together a multidisciplinary team of experts to create a suite of digital literacy tools that older adults can use to help recognize, resist and spread awareness of online deceptions and disinformation.”

Co-principal investigators include Natalie Bazarova, PhD, professor in the Department of Communications at Cornell University, Dominic DiFranzo, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Lehigh University, Darren Linvill, PhD, associate professor in the College of Behavioral, Social and Health Sciences at Clemson University; and Anita Nikolich, director of research and technology innovation and research scientist in the School of Information Sciences at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Other team members from UB include David Castillo, PhD, professor in UB’s Department of Romance Languages and Literatures; Rohini Srihari, PhD, professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering; and Cynthia Stewart, PhD, program manager for the UB Center for Information Integrity.

Team is working with older adults

The project, Deception Awareness and Resilience Training (DART), is led by the UB Center for Information Integrity (CII), which was launched in late 2021 with internal funding from the Office of the Vice President for Research and Economic Development at UB. Lyu and Castillo serve as co-directors of CII.

DART builds upon a $750,000 National Science Foundation phase 1 grant the team received last year, when it began meeting with older adults in Western New York and South Carolina to better understand how they fall victim to online deceptions.

Both projects are funded by the NSF’s Convergence Accelerator, a program the agency launched in 2019 to support “basic research and discovery to accelerate solutions toward societal impact.”

The DART platform uses digital games – including engaging and realistic social media situations – to make learning fun. The aim is to make DART easy to use, so older adults can learn on their own, in communal settings such as adult homes or libraries, or with the aid of a caregiver.

There are many digital literacy tools available, but many are not tailored to older adults, which limits their effectiveness.

DART aims to address this limitation by including a wide range of online schemes older adults encounter. The team will update the learning materials as schemes evolve.

DART can be applied to teens, others vulnerable to online scams

NSF selected the DART team for the second phase of the accelerator’s 2021 cohort. It is one of six teams funded under the accelerator’s Track F: Trust and Authenticity in Communication Systems.

Additional DART investigators are affiliated with Cornell University, Lehigh University, and Northeastern University. The team also includes representatives from the Education Collaborative of Western New York.

Additional partner organizations include the Amherst Center for Senior Services in Amherst, New York; Clemson Downs, a retirement community in Clemson, South Carolina, and the Buffalo and Erie County Public Library system.

While focused on older adults, the DART platform is being designed so it can be adapted for use by teenagers and other groups that are vulnerable to online deceptions, Lyu says.