A 60-minute, psychology-first fraud prevention workshop that teaches people to recognize the moment a scam takes hold and break the cycle before the money moves.
Most fraud prevention solutions try to out-technology the scammer; spam filters, caller ID, fraud alerts. These tools help, but they fail at the decisive moment: when a real human being is on the phone with someone who has manufactured a crisis.
Stop the Rush takes a fundamentally different approach. We teach the psychology of why scams work; urgency, authority, isolation, and we give attendees two simple, sticky tactics that short-circuit the scammer’s playbook. No apps to install. No passwords to remember. Just a permanent shift in how you respond to manufactured pressure.
It is okay to be rude to a stranger. If a call feels wrong, hang up immediately. You do not owe a stranger on the phone your politeness, your time, or your bank details. Seniors are taught to be polite; scammers exploit that reflex. The Rude Rule gives people explicit permission to break it.
Establish a secret family password. If someone calls claiming your grandson is in jail and needs bail money, ask for the safe word. No safe word? It is a scam. This one tactic neutralizes the most emotionally devastating fraud type; the grandparent scam, permanently.
60 minutes. No slides to read. No lectures to endure. Pure participation.
We reframe fraud. Attendees learn they are targets not because they are gullible, but because they are valuable. This removes the shame barrier and opens them to learning.
We teach urgency as the scammer’s primary tool. Attendees learn to recognize manufactured panic and practice the Rude Rule and the Family Safe Word through guided examples.
Interactive group exercise. We play a realistic scam call scenario and ask the audience what they would do. This is where the tactics become muscle memory.
We distribute the Safety Shield fridge magnets and walk through the Victim Recovery Guide. Attendees leave with physical reinforcement they will see every day.
Open Q&A. Attendees share personal experiences, ask questions, and connect with each other. This is often the most powerful part of the session.
Our end-users are adults 65+ and newcomers to Canada. Accessibility is not a feature we added, it is the foundation everything else is built on.
Every element of the program meets Ontario’s Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act standards.
Digital materials meet Web Content Accessibility Guidelines for contrast, text size, navigation, and alternative text.
Safety Shield magnets and guides use large, legible type on high-contrast backgrounds, readable by ageing eyes without glasses.
All materials avoid jargon, acronyms, and complex sentence structures. The workshop uses conversational tone, not institutional language.
Whether you represent a municipality, a bank, a library, or a senior centre, we will scope a pilot to your audience and return a proposal within three business days.