As members of the older generation spend more of their lives online, they become increasingly susceptible to fraud. Fortunately, new tools are available to help combat scammers.
Charlie—a banking services fintech designed for individuals 62 and over—launched an anti-fraud feature called SpeedBump, focused on slowing down unlawful transactions to allow sufficient time to prevent them.
Whenever a new payee or an unfamiliar device is added to an account, or when an account owner transfers more than $100, SpeedBump pauses the transaction for up to six hours. During this pause, Charlie sends notifications to the account owner through the app, text, and email about the transaction. The delay is designed to be long enough to reverse fraudulent transactions but not so long as to interfere with ordinary financial activities.
The focus on older victims is warranted. The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center estimates that there was $1.6 billion in losses among elderly Americans from January to May 2024, up nearly $300 million from the same period last year. In all of 2023, a total of $3.4 billion losses were reported.
Time to Think
Time is a crucial factor in many internet fraud attempts.
“Scammers rely upon a sense of urgency,” said Jennifer Pitt, Senior Analyst, Fraud and Security at Javelin Strategy & Research. “When anyone has been presented with a fearful or urgent situation, if they have not prepared ahead of time for what they will do, the automatic fight, flight, freeze, or fawn response kicks in. The brain wants to get rid of that fearful or urgent situation as soon as possible. In the case of scams, unfortunately that oftentimes means fawning and providing money or information to appease that person—which the victim may not realize is a scammer.”
Pausing transactions for a few hours disrupts the immediate response to the urgency of the situation, allowing the person to take a breath and think rationally. While the transaction is paused, SpeedBump also sends educational resources and scam tips, helping jog the person’s memory about recent correspondence, account changes, or transactions. This gives them time to reconsider and potentially prevent fraudulent activity.
“Since older adults are often more trusting than younger ones, intentionally breaking the brain’s automatic urgency responses will be key to fighting fraud perpetrated against older adults,” said Pitt. “As fraud fighters, we need to start thinking outside the box. These products do just that.”
