As technology evolves, so do the tactics used by scammers. Unfortunately, seniors often find themselves targeted by fraudsters who exploit their trust and unfamiliarity with emerging payment systems. The consequences of these scams can be devastating, both financially and emotionally.

It’s crucial for seniors, their families, and caregivers to understand the risks and learn how to safeguard against them.

Common Payment Scams Targeting Seniors

• Phishing Emails and Texts: Scammers impersonate legitimate organizations, such as banks or payment apps, asking seniors to provide personal information or payment details. These messages often create a sense of urgency, warning of account closures or suspicious activity.
• Tech Support Scams: Fraudsters pose as representatives from well-known tech companies, claiming that a senior’s device or account has been compromised. They convince victims to grant remote access or make payments for “fixes” that are unnecessary or fraudulent.
• Grandparent Scams: These scams prey on seniors’ love for their family. Scammers pose as grandchildren in distress, urgently requesting money for emergencies like bail, medical expenses, or travel mishaps.
• Sweepstakes and Lottery Scams: Seniors are informed they’ve won a prize but need to pay fees or taxes upfront to claim it. In reality, there’s no prize—just a fraudster collecting their money.
• Medicare and Healthcare: Scams Scammers pretend to be Medicare representatives to extract personal information or payment details, often by promising unnecessary medical services or equipment.

How to Stay Safe

Awareness is the first line of defense against these scams. Here are key steps seniors can take to protect themselves:

• Verify Requests: Always double-check unsolicited communications, especially those requesting personal or financial information. Contact the organization directly using official contact details.
• Use Strong Passwords: Secure online accounts with unique, complex passwords and enable multi-factor authentication whenever possible.
• Be Skeptical of Urgency: Scammers often pressure victims to act quickly. Take time to verify the legitimacy of a request before taking any action.
• Educate Yourself on New Payment Systems: Familiarize yourself with how digital wallets, peer-to-peer payment apps, and other systems work. Understanding these tools reduces the risk of falling for scams.
• Report Suspicious Activity: If you suspect fraud, report it to your bank, payment provider, and law enforcement immediately. Early reporting can minimize losses and help authorities track down scammers.

A Community Effort

Family members, caregivers, and community organizations play an essential role in preventing elder fraud. Regular conversations about financial safety and staying informed about new scam tactics can make a significant difference.

Join Our Webinar on Elder Fraud

The IPA is proud to partner with the Benjamin Rose Institute on Aging for a vital member-only discussion:
"A Multi-faceted Approach for Working with Older Adults who have Experienced Fraud and/or Scams"

• Date: Tuesday, January 23, 2025
• Time: 3:00 PM ET
• Register Now

Learn about effective strategies, real-world case examples, and actionable steps to prevent financial exploitation of older adults from industry experts, including Dr. Jessica Bibbo, Courtney Reynolds, and Ianto "Tony" Hill.

Additional Resources

If you’ve been the victim of a scam or want to help protect others, there are numerous resources available to assist:

• Visit the IPA’s scam resources page for guidance and tools: https://www.ipa.org/scamresources.html
• Report scams to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) here: https://www.ic3.gov/

The information provided on these webpages does not, and is not intended to, constitute legal advice. Instead, it is for general informational purposes only.

Remember, victims of fraud are just that – victims. Scammers use sophisticated methods to exploit vulnerabilities, but with the right resources and support, recovery is possible. Take action today to protect yourself and others from financial harm.

Rep. French Hill (R-AR) was recently elected to be the chair of the House Financial Services Committee, and that’s likely to be positive for the payments industry.

Rep. Hill spoke at the IPA’s annual conference in 2019, and while we need to be careful about making predictions based on anything from the pre-pandemic era, his talk does offer some clues as what we might see going forward.

At the time, Mr. Hill said that Congress needed to focus on a number of issues including:
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• Data aggregation and consumer use of third-party apps;
• Data privacy and breach notification;
• Developing a faster payments system;
• Streamlining Compliance.
  
  

These issues all remain relevant as we go into 2025, and they are joined by new ones including a renewed interest in cryptocurrencies and the growth of artificial intelligence.

In addition, Rep. Hill laid out some of his plans for community banking in a press release even before he was elected. He focused on issues like brokered deposits and making it easier for banks to partner with fintechs.

Under his leadership, we can expect the Committee will be interested in the issues that affect the payments industry. This should provide opportunities for making sure that legislation and regulations are tailored to protect the industry and its customers while providing room for innovation.

The other benefit to having Rep. Hill as the chairman is that he recognizes the political realities of Washington. In 2019 and in his recent statement, he noted that many financial services issues have bipartisan agreement. In a narrowly divided House, and with a Senate that has a filibuster, having both sides of the aisle on board for a bill is helpful.
Bipartisan legislation also tends to be more moderate than extremely partisan bills.

Finding areas of bipartisan agreement have another benefit – it keeps the industry from being whipsawed every time control of Congress changes.

He laid out his underlying philosophy at our conference back in 2019.

“The ultimate beneficiary of this should be the American consumer,” Mr. Hill said.
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It will be up to the industry to show how the right regulatory regime serves that end. 

The payments industry is closing out 2024 with a range of unresolved issues, from regulatory uncertainty to the evolution of open banking and fraud mitigation.

Our President and CEO, Brian Tate, was recently interviewed by American Banker and shared insights on the fluid regulatory environment and its impact on banks, fintechs, and the broader payments ecosystem. In the article, he addresses the regulatory environment and said:

"Everything is tied by a string. There are a lot of creative ideas that are waiting in the wings, but there's a lot of regulatory uncertainty out there." 

To read what Tate and other industry leaders are saying about the challenges and opportunities in 2025, check out the full article: Payments at the end of 2024: Lots of cliffhangers

​In my last blog, I wrote about how government is more important than politics for trade associations like the IPA.
Now that we know the results of the election, the industry needs to keep in mind that nothing is guaranteed.

We all operate under certain assumptions, including that the Trump Administration will lead to a lighter regulatory burden and be better for banks. In May, The New York Times wrote that “some in Mr. trump’s circles are urging the campaign to consider more substantial – even institution-altering – changes to the central bank ... ultimately making the rules less onerous for financial institutions for instance.”

But let me ask a question.

How much does the Trump organization pay in interchange fees on transactions at its properties?

Hotels, golf courses, and resorts take in a lot of revenue, and cash is not the predominate form of payment in the United States.

Imagine someone from the Trump organization told the president elect over the next three weeks, “we found a way to save millions.”

This is purely a hypothetical, and I am not suggesting that it will happen.

But it is an example of how regulatory risks can still exist no matter who is in office.
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The industry still needs to have a voice in government, and the IPA is committed to working with its members to advocate for a regulatory environment that promotes innovation for its customers. 

With the election around the corner, politics dominates conversations and news cycles, but government is more important for the IPA and its members.  

Politics is about photo ops, sound bites, and attending events while trying to win votes. 

Government is about creating, understanding, and implementing policies. 

Elections matter. No rational person would deny that. Some might even find them entertaining, getting caught up in the horse race. 

But it is what happens after the election, when whoever wins needs to make the government work for the country; that matters more.  

For trade associations like the IPA, the important work happens on the government side. 

Regardless of who wins control of the White House, the House, and Senate compliance will still be an important part of financial services. Regulators will still be watching the industry and proposing new rules. And we may see more legislation introduced into Congress. 

Before, during, and after the election, the IPA will continue its work to create a regulatory environment that fosters innovation and competition in financial services.  

Doing requires keeping up with legislative and regulatory proposals, educating members on what they might mean, and responding appropriately to them. A lot of fine print needs to be read, and the analysis needs to include what is not said along with what is said.  

Unlike politics, government is often quiet, detailed work that doesn’t make for good LinkedIn posts, but it remains essential to keeping the industry moving ahead.  ​

“Hurry up! Do something! You’re going to lose your money!” yelled the FBI agent on a panel at the IPA Compliance Boot Camp.

Not only was I surprised, but so were all attendees.

After taking a moment to reorient ourselves, the agent explained that fraudsters know that putting people under pressure makes it harder to think clearly.

But it is not just criminals who are applying pressure. The regulators seem to be working on applying pressure to the payments industry as they release a flood of new regulations to govern just about every part of the fintech universe.
The IPA’s mission is to help the industry deal with that pressure by advocating for our members in front of regulators and legislators, and by educating our members on the latest developments and best practices in compliance.

Our Compliance Boot Camp, held earlier this month in Chicago, focused on the education part of our mission. Companies need compliance programs in place long before the regulators come knocking. As the world rapidly evolves, compliance plans need to cover the rules that are in place and anticipate what might be next. Being prepared can help compliance teams avoid mistakes that come with the pressure of regulations both new and old.
The Boot Camp’s agenda provides clues for any innovator as to the areas they need to assess in their own plans.  (The IPA would like to thank Discover for hosting this year’s boot camp, and Baird Holm for helping us to secure CLE credits for attendees.)

We started with a Regulation E refresher, because that is a foundation regulation for all payments products. Companies need to have these basics covered before they start offering payments products. By the same token, we also had the FBI present on Crypto fraud. Like so many payments products, Crypto is a tool for, though not a cause of, crime. We also covered third party oversight, because innovation involves working with companies outside the bank to make interesting products available to customers.

Looking ahead we discussed the new rules for Earned Wage Access products, and the possibilities that might be on the horizon when it comes to cannabis banking. We also spent time discussing open banking, which could create threats or opportunities for financial institutions and their partners. Whether open banking is a threat, or an opportunity will come down to preparation.

Finally, we spent time on artificial intelligence. While AI is often touted as the next technological wave, the financial services industry has been using it for decades in areas such as fraud detection and credit decisioning. AI is a place where the new meets the old, because rules like those governing fair lending don’t change just because banks add new decision-making tools. Companies will need to evaluate this new technology through a traditionalist lens as well as an innovator’s lens to make sure they avoid traps.

As the regulators move ahead with their agenda, compliance teams should take some time to plan out their agenda to ensure that they are prepared both to manage current regulators, and the new challenges that technology and regulatory changes may bring.

​IPA Compliance Boot Camp: The IPA's Compliance Boot Camp in Chicago offers a unique opportunity to deep-dive into the latest regulations and trends. From hot topics like Open Banking and Earned Wage Access to the legal implications of AI and serving cannabis businesses, this one-day event is packed with insightful sessions led by industry experts. Don't miss this chance to gain the knowledge you need to thrive in today's dynamic market.