Two Del Norte High School students are helping senior citizens protect themselves from scams through StayCyberSafe, a San Diego-based effort that has grown into a national and international campaign with about 20 chapters around the world.
Neil and Rohan Chandra show seniors how to identify and protect themselves from the latest scams.
Brothers Neil and Rohan Chandra founded StayCyberSafe about three years ago after seeing how often they had to help their own grandmothers navigate scam texts, emails and phone calls. The students now hold workshops designed to help seniors recognize scams and protect their personal and financial information.
“Not every senior has someone right there walking them through it, telling them that this is a scam. So that was kind of our personal motivation,” Neil said.
“So when our grandma was confused, we kind of see a little bit of that in every senior we get to,” added Rohan.
At a StayCyberSafe presentation at Fredericka Manor Retirement Community in Chula Vista, seniors learned about current scams and the techniques scammers use to obtain personal or financial information.
The issue has significant financial consequences. Seniors over age 50 lost $4.8 billion to cybercrime in 2024, according to information presented during the workshop.
Paul Barr pays attention to the latest scams targeting seniors.
Chula Vista resident Paul Barr was among those attending. Like many seniors at the presentation, Barr had a story about losing or nearly losing money to a scam.
“It’s something that I always think about because it scares me,” Barr said.
The Chandra brothers are also competitors at cybersecurity events. Their StayCyberSafe presentations use that knowledge to explain tactics such as social engineering, in which scammers trick people into providing personal or financial information.
Deputy District Attorney Scott Pirrello supports StayCyberSafe’s efforts to empower seniors against scams.
Their work is advised and supported by San Diego County Deputy District Attorney Scott Pirrello, who heads elder abuse prosecution, said the volume of scams means protecting seniors requires help beyond law enforcement.
“It does take a village. We are under attack from these scammers. There’s thousands of scams coming at us every day. And it’s more than law enforcement can handle,” Pirrello said. “We really need people in the community to step forward like these young men have done.”
He explained that many scammers operate overseas and that law enforcement sees large numbers of scams every day, with many more going unreported.
What began with the Chandra brothers helping their grandmothers in San Diego has since expanded well beyond the region. StayCyberSafe now has about 20 chapters around the world.
“We would reach out to other students that we saw were motivated in other states, in other countries,” Neil said, adding that they then helped those student establish their own chapters and helped them reach out to senior centers in their communities.
“Because this isn’t just a problem located in the United States. This is all over the world,” Neil said.
For seniors, keeping up with constantly changing scams can be difficult. Barr said repeatedly hearing information about how scams work helps him stay vigilant.
“It’s information I have to hear over and over again, if I’m being honest, because I’ll forget,” Barr said right after the teens’ presentation.
Scammers can target people of any age, but seniors can have more money at risk and less time to recover financially if their savings are stolen.
This story was originally reported for broadcast by NBC San Diego. AI tools helped convert the story to a digital article, and an NBC San Diego journalist edited the article for publication.
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