Episode summary
Mike Piper: Scammers Are Getting Smarter. Is Your Financial Security Keeping Up?
The Long View
· · Guests: Mike Piper
Summary
Mike Piper argues that cybercrime has become both more frequent and more dangerous for older adults because attackers now have better tools while many people’s defenses have not changed. He says AI has made scams easier to write, easier to personalize, and cheaper to scale, which helps explain the sharp rise in reported cybercrime against victims aged 60 and up.
A major theme is how to reduce risk by changing habits and account design. Piper recommends treating incoming emails, texts, calls, QR codes, and links as suspicious, and instead contacting banks or brokerages through a known-good channel. He also favors password managers, long random passwords or passphrases, and especially passkeys, which he says are both stronger and more phishing-resistant than passwords.
The other big focus is aging and cognitive decline. Piper says financial deterioration can appear years before a dementia diagnosis, so households should build oversight before there is an obvious problem. He urges families to assign someone responsibility for cybersecurity and account monitoring, and to be willing to bring in a professional when an older adult needs more help or when a DIY investor can no longer manage safely.
Key takeaways
- Piper says cybercrime against victims 60 and up rose 11.9 times from 2018 to 2025, driven partly by aging and better AI tools.
- Piper says passkeys are stronger than passwords because they are generated to be cryptographically strong and are resistant to phishing.
- Piper warns that multifactor authentication codes are highly sensitive because thieves may already have enough personal data to reset accounts.
- Piper says financial problems can begin about six years before a dementia diagnosis, making them an early warning sign.
- Piper recommends that every household designate one person as the chief information security officer to maintain a cybersecurity checklist.
Notable quotes
“the tools that the bad guys have essentially have become much stronger as AI capabilities have improved dramatically”
“the financial problems are themselves the early warning sign”
How the episode opens
Please stay tuned for important disclosure information at the conclusion of this episode. Hi and welcome to the long view. I'm Christine Benz, director of personal finance and retirement planning for Morning Star.
And I'm Amy Arnod, portfolio strategist with Morning Star. Our guest on the podcast today is Mike Piper. Mike is the author of several personal finance books, the latest of which is called Household Cyber Security, a CPA's Guide to Protecting Your Accounts and Personal Information.
Mike also writes a wonderful blog called Oblivious Investor, and he's developed a free tool exploring Social Security claiming decisions called Open Social Security. So Amy, one thing I loved about the conversation with Mike and about Mike's book is his attention to the interplay between cyber crimes and cognitive decline as we age. He has a lot of helpful tips for troubleshooting that issue.
Yeah, I thought one of the really interesting points he made was that financial problems can be actually an early warning sign of cognitive decline for an older parent or other family member. I was taking a bunch of notes for my to-do list while we were recording. And I thought one helpful idea was when he was talking about why you should create a guest network that's separate from your main network at home and how that can improve your cyber security.
Yeah, there were a lot of uh simple helpful tips that are easy to implement. Let's get into the conversation. Mike, welcome back to the lawn view.
Thank you for having me. It's great to be back.
Well, it's great to have you and I loved the book. I think it's the right book at the right time by the right person because this is a complicated topic and we're looking forward to delving into it with you today.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- ai scams
- passkeys and authentication
- multifactor authentication
- account cybersecurity
- cognitive decline and financial security
Companies and tickers mentioned
- MORN
- Morningstar
- Vanguard
Watch the episode
Watch “Mike Piper: Scammers Are Getting Smarter. Is Your Financial Security Keeping Up?” on YouTube
Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
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The Long View, this episode and its artwork belong to Morningstar, Christine Benz - Director of Personal Finance and Retirement Planning, Ben Johnson - Head of Client Solutions, Amy Arnott - Portfolio Strategist. Octagon is not affiliated with the show; this page is an independent summary.
