Beyond the Whack-a-Mole: Systemic Change & the War on Fraud Ecosystems

About this episode

Karisse Hendrick discusses systemic changes in fraud prevention with Kathy Stokes from AARP, focusing on the need for collaboration and intelligence sharing in combating fraud.

In this episode of Fraudology, Karisse Hendrick provides a comprehensive debrief following her long-awaited conversation with Kathy Stokes, the Senior Director of Fraud Prevention for AARP. Kathy shares her highlights and lowlights from leading the Fraud Watch Network, cutting through the general consumer education hype to provide practical insights for fraud and payments professionals. The conversation explores the evolving mechanics of fraud victimization in commerce, detailing how organizations like AARP are now identifying systemic vulnerabilities by monitoring "invisible" behaviors, such as how society naturally blames the victims of these crimes. Kathy provides an inside look at why the industry must move away from simply playing "whack-a-mole" at the point of transaction, moving toward shared intelligence to avoid the massive financial and emotional liabilities of sophisticated networks. We also explore the "hot topics" dominating the fraud landscape today: The Private-Public Intelligence Threshold: How the National Elder Fraud Coordination Center (NEFCC/NEFSI) is bringing enterprise giants like Amazon, Google, and Walmart together with law enforcement to drastically turn…

People in this episode

Host: Karisse Hendrick

Guest: Kathy Stokes

Topics covered

• fraud prevention
• systemic change
• consumer education
• fraud victimization
• collaboration
• intelligence sharing

Keywords

• fraud ecosystems
• AARP
• fraud watch network
• consumer education
• financial institutions
• organized crime
• data sharing

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: AARP, National Elder Fraud Coordination Center, Amazon, Google, Walmart

More episodes of Fraudology Podcast with Karisse Hendrick

• Devious Gift Card Scams, AI Weaknesses in Major Banks, & The Scaled Threat to Community Lenders · June 2, 2026 · 37 min
• The Fall of Crypto ATMs: Bankruptcies, AI Acceleration, and the "Scam Formula" · May 26, 2026 · 47 min
• AI Hallucinations & Mastercard’s New Scam Thresholds · May 19, 2026 · 30 min
• The Strategic Human Firewall: Why Trust is the Greatest Vulnerability in an AI Era · May 12, 2026 · 55 min
• Humans in the Loop: Why AI Can’t Replace Your Fraud Strategy · May 5, 2026 · 42 min
• Scam Centers, Agentic Commerce Liability, and the Fraud Leadership Crisis · April 28, 2026 · 40 min