Bank Tellers Play Detective in Face of Rising Fraud

A spike in incidents of financial fraud has reportedly turned America’s bank tellers into quasi-detectives.

That’s according to a report Sunday (June 7) from The New York Times (NYT), which noted that this is happening against the backdrop of a five-fold increase in cybercrime losses, per FBI data. Last year, those losses came to $21 billion, compared to $4.4 billion in 2020.

The report cited the example of a Chase teller in Scarsdale, New York, who helped determine that an 81-year-old customer was being targeted by a scammer who claimed to work for the bank and had offered to set up a new account to protect her money against fraudsters.

While banks have always invested heavily in fraud prevention , cybercrime has become so invasive that many banks are shifting to new strategies, NYT added.

For example, JPMorgan Chase , America’s largest bank, wanted to understand the emotional and psychological dynamics behind fraud, which led it to hire behavioral scientist Elizabeth Huppert to work with specialists to assist call center staff and branch employees.

Huppert has studied customers’ calls with scammers to learn why people respond to the criminals’ pitches, finding that they are often conditioned not to trust their banks. The goal is to find ways to change customer behavior.

“I’m trying to lower the trust in the scammer,” Huppert said. “I’m trying to elevate the trust in us — enough that they have some doubt that they’re going to do these action steps.”

Beyond that, the report said, Chase and other banks have adopted a 30-minute course from AARP’s BankSafe Initiative, which trains financial industry employees to recognize and respond to signs of fraud .

The news comes on the heels of recent Federal Reserve data that found fraud increasing across debit, check, ACH and wire channels, driven by changing criminal tactics, wider digital exposure and continued scam activity exploiting customers and their banks.

That’s in keeping with PYMNTS Intelligence/Block research, showing that unauthorized-party fraud now accounts for 71% of incidents and losses , indicating a shift toward account takeover and credential misuse.

“This evolution signals a change in how fraud operators, well, operate,” PYMNTS wrote. “Rather than relying primarily on manipulating legitimate users into initiating transactions, attackers are gaining access to accounts and initiating activity directly. That distinction alters the defensive posture required of financial institutions, as prevention must occur earlier in the interaction and often before a transaction is initiated.”