Innovative app targets rising financial fraud against seniors
As our world becomes increasingly cashless, we are more reliant on digital banking than ever before.
From credit cards available through phone taps to Venmo, Zelle and Apple Pay, many businesses are inclined to accept digital payment over cash. This makes caring for and protecting our elderly parents and family even more challenging from a financial perspective.
Greenlight is a financial technology company initially created to teach children and teens about financial literacy. The company is recognized as a top money and safety app, helping caregivers find peace of mind as they navigate growing economic and safety risks.
After a recent survey, Jennifer Seitz, director of education at Greenlight, said. “Financial literacy is one of the most challenging skills to teach children and teens, because parents often feel that they lack the tools to oversee or educate their own children on skills they may not have learned from their own parents or had access to when they were younger.”
When developing the app, the co-founders, who were parents themselves, believed there had to be an easier way to navigate financial literacy in the digital age. Their company and services have continued to evolve over the years and started when their kids were in elementary school. As their children got older, they watched how their kids approached money management — saving, budgeting and even investing, starting with as little as one dollar — so that teens could learn this skill confidently.
A new facet of Greenlight debuted in May 2025 — Family Shield, a subscription plan designed to help protect aging loved ones from financial fraud and personal safety threats.
The launch comes amid new data from the FBI’s Internet Crime Report, which found that fraud losses among Americans aged 60 and above surged 43%, reaching $4.88 billion in 2022. Family Shield will address this crisis with new tools tailored for those in the “sandwich generation,” who manage and care for both their children and aging parents.
While helping older relatives maintain autonomy and financial independence, Greenlight’s Family Shield offers an additional layer of protection and peace of mind.
You may think you or your parents are too savvy to get scammed, but the reality is that fraudsters would not be so consistently persistent if the scams were not successful. As scammers get more sophisticated, our elderly population becomes more vulnerable.
Family Shield is meant to be a collaborative approach to handling family finances, while caregivers do not need to have access to all of their relatives’ banking information. Greenlight’s technology fosters a sense of safety for the entire family group while also preserving the independence and autonomy of elderly family members.
CEO and cofounder Tim Sheehan told us, “My father-in-law was a victim of a tech support scam. He accidentally clicked on something that installed malware on his computer. A pop-up appeared claiming he needed tech support, and when he clicked it, he was directed to scammers posing as legitimate technicians. The scammers had convinced him to buy gift cards, and he had bought the gift cards and was about to give the gift card information to the scammers when he called me, and I immediately told him this was a scam.”
Scammers like this can either use the gift card numbers directly or clone debit cards to quickly access cash. A telltale sign is the repeated pressure for an untraceable and immediate payment method.
A solid piece of advice is to ensure your elderly relatives are cautious about calling numbers that appear on their screens or clicking on emails or texts from people they don’t have in their contacts. The IRS will not call or text you, and neither will the DMV. If you have a question about a credit card call, always hang up and call the number directly on the back of your card.
Key features include:
- Financial fraud and scam alerts: Caregivers can monitor their senior loved ones’ checking, savings, investing, and credit card accounts in one dashboard and receive alerts for suspicious activity.
- Personal safety tools: Real-time location tracking, place alerts for hospitals and banks, SOS alerts and crash detection to ensure senior safety.
- Greenlight debit card with spend controls: Caregivers can provide a Greenlight debit card with custom spending limits and real-time alerts.
