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Customers Are Giving Billions to Scammers. Tellers Are Intervening.

With cybercrime continuing to rise, some banks are testing new prevention strategies. JPMorgan Chase hired a behavioral scientist.


Karen Battista, who works at a Chase Bank in Scarsdale, N.Y., prevented a customer from transferring $9,000 into an unknown account. Vincent Alban/The New York Times

By Tara Siegel Bernard
June 7, 2026

Karen Battista and Angela Castaldo have spent a combined 47 years behind the teller counter at a Chase branch in Scarsdale, N.Y., an affluent suburb just north of Manhattan. They know which customers just returned from vacation, whose children were recently married and who just lost a beloved dog.

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