What the Hack?

You’ve seen the scam texts. This week we go inside a global scam economy to expose human trafficking networks, lawless economic zones, and fortified compounds where victims are forced to target victims in a world of crime bosses and corrupt politicians. Make yourself harder to find, harder to hit: https://joindeleteme.com  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bob Lord (Yahoo, DNC, CISA) and Lauren Zabierek (Harvard’s Belfer Center, CISA) don't think cybersecuirty (or lack of it) should be the customer’s problem. Drawing parallels to Ralph Nader’s fight against unsafe cars, they explain how to fix the root of the problem. Make yourself harder to find, harder to hit: https://joindeleteme.com  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Former cybercrime kingpin Brett Johnson didn’t just break the law; he built the tools still used by criminals today. He's back for another episode to check in and unpack why cybercrime works, how defenses fail, and the way life itself is often the ultimate "in" for an attacker. Make yourself harder to find, harder to hit: https://joindeleteme.com  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone....

 In this year-end check-in, DeleteMe’s OSINT expert, Nicholas Olsen, explains just how much of your life is publicly exposed—and why “low-value targets” no longer exist. A practical, clear-eyed guide to privacy, data removal, and smarter habits for the new year. Make yourself harder to find, harder to hit: https://joindeleteme.com  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From AI regulation fights and North Korean laptop farms to Nigerian campus cults, the human toll of online crime, and the death of online anonymity it's time to review the year in cyber stories—the good, the bad, the unimaginable, and what to do when "they" come for you. Make yourself harder to find, harder to hit: https://joindeleteme.com  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adch...

A deadbolt clicks. This email, that voice--they sound all right. Then things go sideways. This week, 911 Cyber CEO Marc Raphael joins the pod to explore how AI makes scams faster, smoother, and harder to spot, and what you can do to stay hard to hit in the new threatscape.  Make yourself harder to find, harder to hit: https://joindeleteme.com  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/a...

How do you stay safe online? (Wrong answers only.) Avoid public Wi-Fi, QR codes, charging stations. Cyber OG Bob Lord (Yahoo, DNC, CISA) wrote an open letter tackling the real harm caused by bad advice, and offering a better path with proven practices to stay safe online. Check out https://www.hacklore.org/letter Make yourself harder to find, harder to hit: https://joindeleteme.com  Learn more abo...

Sextortion scams targeting teenage boys doubled this year—and Paul Raffile says the platforms knew it was happening. Learn how Instagram's default settings let criminals to weaponize friends lists for blackmail, and how social media continues to fail the children it claims to protect. Make yourself harder to find, harder to hit: https://joindeleteme.com  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit meg...

The giant glittering scam and fraud trap of the holidays is here. Beau reunites with former co-hosts Adam Levin and Travis Taylor to talk about about fake websites, why gift cards are still a huge vector for fraud, and how to avoid the many pitfalls of the season. Make yourself harder to find, harder to hit: https://joindeleteme.com  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jeff Williams on the business of moving money: who gets blocked, what slips through, and why checking the right boxes doesn’t always mean a win in the nascent AI-powered sanctions compliance space. From fentanyl money to shell companies, we follow the (often filthy dirty) money. Make yourself harder to find, harder to hit: https://joindeleteme.com  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone...

When a young engineer uncovered a sizeable click fraud situation at Google, he discovered a bigger problem; namely, the perverse ingenuity that drives online fraud and scams. "Big Breaches" author Neil Daswani joined us to talk click farms, data breaches, AI exploits, and the big picture of cybercrime today. Make yourself harder to find, harder to hit: https://joindeleteme.com  Learn more about yo...

Cybercrime expert Gary Warner joins to discuss Nigerian confraternities, the "campus cults" rooted in idealism that morphed into a multi-billion dollar transnational organized crime network. Learn about the "money blessing," the coded language and insider access, and the elite thug playbook for exploiting trust. Make yourself harder to find, harder to hit: https://joindeleteme.com  Learn more abou...

When scammers tried to steal Graceland, it seemed like a fluke, but deed fraud is very much on the rise. Del Denney of the Land Trust Company explains how criminals steal homes and how to stop it from happening to you. Plus, we revisit Adam Levin's wallet ripper about a twice-targeted beachfront property. Make yourself harder to find, harder to hit: https://joindeleteme.com  Learn more about your...

Forensic expert Heather Barnhart (SANS Institute) decoded Osama Bin Laden's phones and helped convict quadruple murderer Brian Kohberger. Learn how surviving her own harassment fueled her mission, plus the digital "pattern of life" hack and simple steps to combat AI deepfakes and stay safe online. Make yourself harder to find, harder to hit: https://joindeleteme.com  Learn more about your ad choic...

Marketing visionary Seth Godin explains how the Internet got hijacked by an attention-stealing spam economy that keeps us in an endless loop of badly targeted marketing. Godin's anti-spam playbook: demand companies earn your attention with awesomeness, and break the digital slop loop that broke the Internet. Make yourself harder to find, harder to hit: https://joindeleteme.com  Learn more about yo...

A locked account. A call for help. What happened next left Tony questioning everything he thought he knew about the Internet. This week is about trust, technology, and how quickly things can unravel when those we count on aren’t who they seem. Make yourself harder to find, harder to hit: https://joindeleteme.com  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Former federal prosecutor Tom O’Malley takes us inside the strange, high-stakes world of modern fraud—where victims are presumed guilty, families lose fortunes, and the fight against global crime rings starts at home. Three lessons that could make a difference. Make yourself harder to find, harder to hit: https://joindeleteme.com  Voting: https://vote.signalaward.com/PublicVoting?utm_campaign=sign...

Every click, swipe, and post fuels the data economy. Credit cards, apps, even maps—our lives are scraped, stitched, and sold. It feels like a heist, and sometimes it is. Identity Theft Resource Center CEO Eva Casey-Velasquez insists the picture isn’t entirely bleak. This week we talk about the good, the bad, and the ugly of data brokers. Make yourself harder to find, harder to hit: https://joindel...

It started with a slow roll of weird emails and phone calls. And then award-winning filmmaker Dan Sturman found himself in the crosshairs of serious hackers. With parallels to another case of mistaken identity and an assist from security expert Reuben Moretz, this week we explore bad social engineering. Make yourself harder to find, harder to hit: https://joindeleteme.com  Learn more about your ad...

Feeling watched? Join us as Vermont Attorney General Charity Clark breaks down the new reality of digital surveillance. From school apps to AI scams, we dive into how companies collect your data and how to take control of your online privacy. The war for privacy is real—and it's a fight you can't afford to lose. Make yourself harder to find, harder to hit: https://joindeleteme.com  Learn more abou...

A fake Microsoft pop-up cost Ken Westbrook’s mom her life savings. But they scammed the wrong family. Westbrook is former CIA. These days he’s sounding the alarm on how foreign crime rings steal billions from Americans with smishing campaigns, scareware, and gift cards. We talked about solutions. Make yourself harder to find, harder to hit: https://joindeleteme.com  Learn more about your ad choice...

In this second installment of our DEF CON two-parter, we talked to SocialProof Security CEO Rachel Tobac about how and why people are often the weakest link in so many cybersecurity protocols and how making yourself a harder target will cause most threat actors to move on to an easier mark. Make yourself harder to find, harder to hit: https://joindeleteme.com  Learn more about your ad choices. Vis...

At DEF CON’s Social Engineering Village, contestants have 22 minutes to charm real employees at real companies into revealing real details that could lead to a breach. We step inside the booth to see how persuasion, improv, and psychology fuel both ethical hacking and the rise of cybercrime worldwide. Make yourself harder to find, harder to hit: https://joindeleteme.com  Learn more about your ad c...

Kurtis Minder knows the dark web better than most—and he’s not just watching from the sidelines. As a ransomware negotiator, he’s helped victims talk their way out of seemingly impossible situations. This week, we explore how cybercriminals operate, what makes them tick, and what you need to know to avoid becoming their next target. Make yourself harder to find, harder to hit: https://joindeleteme...

A not-entirely innocent moment at a concert set the internet on fire. But what if that was just a symptom of a bigger problem? New York Times journalist Kashmir Hill, author of Your Face Belongs to Us, helps us explore the chilling reality of ambient surveillance, and how facial recognition could be the end privacy as we know it. Make yourself harder to find, harder to hit: https://joindeleteme.co...