People Are Giving Billions to Scammers. Bank Tellers Are Intervening
The New York Times | By the time a scam target walks into a bank to make a withdrawal or transfer, they’ve usually been groomed to believe that anyone who tries to prevent them from getting the money is working against them.
The person on the other side of the counter in the local bank branch is often the last chance to prevent a scammer from succeeding.
Cybercrime presents new opportunities for scammers, which means more challenges for financial institutions. Technology handles some of those challenges, but others require innately human approaches to address the psychological and emotional components of scams. Companies like JPMorgan Chase are investing in training customer-facing staff members to recognize the signs of fraud and intervene.
More than 1,500 financial institutions use a course from AARP’s BankSafe Initiative to train front-line employees to recognize red flags and how to react.
With the help of a behavioral scientist, Chase has created “scam interruption teams” to help call-center and branch staff work with customers who may be being guided by a scammer.
Scammers leverage emotions to manipulate people to give them money. Whether it’s a romance scam, a fraudulent investment, or another type of crime, the perpetrators focus on creating a sense of urgency and heightened emotions to get people to move money quickly.
Read more in the full article in The New York Times: Customers Are Giving Billions to Scammers. Tellers Are Intervening.
Learn about the AARP BankSafe Initiative and training programs.
