AARP and Google focus on online fraud prevention

When it comes to fighting online fraud, AARP enlists Google as an ally.

AARP’s director of fraud prevention programs, Kathy Stokes, sat down with Laurie Richardson, vice president of trust and safety at Google, to discuss how artificial intelligence has changed the online landscape and presents new challenges, especially when it comes to high-tech scams. In a Q&A published on Google Public Policies pagethe two cover the latest innovations to protect older adults from fraud and how to improve digital literacy.

Communication and collaboration between organizations like Google and AARP help raise awareness, educate consumers, and defend against these types of cyber threats. In 2022, thanks to a tip from the AARP Fraud Watch Network Helpline, Google successfully pursued its first consumer protection lawsuit. The scammer in this case misused Gmail and Google Voice to target older adults during the pandemic.

This kind of teamwork keeps everyone safe online. “AARP research shows that people who trust technology embrace technology,” Stokes said.

A fraud revolution

AI has become a powerful weapon for criminals, Stokes said in the interview.

“AI’s ability to improve and scale fraud tactics is the equivalent of the industrial revolution for fraud criminals,” said Stokes. She cites an example of a “grandparent scam” in which an impersonated grandchild claims to be facing an emergency and is in desperate need of financial help. AI technology that can mimic voices now makes this tactic much more convincing.

But the same AI technology can also be deployed to fight back. Consumers want to see the industry prioritize fraud detection with artificial intelligence, Stokes said.

Google is building these new tools, Richardson noted. Gmail now blocks 99.9 percent of scams, she said, and “on Android devices, we use artificial intelligence to automatically detect and flag scam calls.”

The challenge is staying ahead of “every change in technology,” Richardson said.