The best defence against modern scams? Another human being

Every day, criminals use increasingly sophisticated texts, emails, social media messages and phone calls to persuade people to hand over their savings.

As artificial intelligence makes scams harder to detect and easier to scale, an uncomfortable question emerges: who can we trust?

The answer is often surprisingly low-tech.

Across the country, building society branch staff regularly stop fraud in its tracks. They meet customers who have received messages claiming to be from a son or daughter stranded without a phone and in urgent need of money. They speak to people withdrawing thousands of pounds for rogue traders who appeared at their door that morning. They spot fake HMRC refunds, impersonation scams and convincing requests that look entirely legitimate.

In many cases, preventing fraud starts with a simple question: "Are you absolutely sure this is genuine?"

That brief conversation can make the difference between someone losing their life savings and keeping them.

At a time when much of financial services is focused on digitisation, we should not overlook the value of human judgement. Technology is an essential weapon against fraud, but it has limitations. Algorithms can identify unusual transactions. People identify unusual behaviour.

A hesitant response. A story that doesn't quite add up. A customer under obvious pressure. These are warning signs that no system can always detect.

Our latest research underlines the point. One in four building society customers say branch staff have helped them avoid or resolve a scam, while a third have received fraud prevention guidance during a branch visit. These are not simply customer service metrics. They demonstrate that face-to-face interaction has become one of the most effective fraud-prevention tools available.

This is where building societies stand out.

They don’t answer to external shareholders. Owned by their customers, their purpose is to meet customers’ needs today and in the future, not to maximise short-term returns. That creates a different set of incentives. Protecting customers' financial wellbeing is not a secondary objective; it sits at the heart of the business.

Whether helping someone save for their first home, build financial confidence or avoid becoming the victim of fraud, the goal is the same: creating long-term financial security.

Many building societies are now taking this role even further, running fraud awareness events, helping customers build digital confidence, and creating trusted community spaces where people can access support alongside digital and telephone services.

At a time when public trust is increasingly fragile, these local relationships matter.

The future of financial services is often framed as a choice between digital convenience and the branch network. That is a false choice. The winners will be institutions that combine the best of both: powerful technology supported by trusted human expertise.

As fraudsters embrace AI, financial services must continue investing in technology to keep pace. But we should also remember a simple truth. When it comes to protecting people from increasingly sophisticated scams, another human being remains one of the most powerful safeguards we have.

In an age of artificial intelligence, trust may prove to be the most valuable asset of all.

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Sarah Harrison is chief executive officer of the Building Societies Association.

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The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official LBC position.

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