When “opportunity” knocks, don’t answer.
Dave Bittner: Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Hacking Humans podcast, where each week we look behind the social engineering scams, the phishing schemes, and criminal exploits that are making headlines and taking a heavy toll on organizations around the world. I'm Dave Bittner, and joining me is Joe Carrigan. Hey, Joe.
Joe Carrigan: Hi, Dave.
Dave Bittner: And our N2K colleague, Maria Varmazis. Maria.
Maria Varmazis: Hi.
Dave Bittner: We've got some good stories to share this week. Let me just pause for a second and say it's great to have the gang back together again.
Maria Varmazis: I just thought I'd throw a little change at you. I just went, hi!
Dave Bittner: No, no, it's fine. We've had people away. We've had people traveling. We've had technical issues. We've had everything, but we're all together here today. Back to normal. And it feels good. So-- All right. Before we jump into today's stories, we have some follow-up here. Joe, what do we got?
Joe Carrigan: We got a letter from Sue in Australia.
Dave Bittner: Okay.
Joe Carrigan: Sue writes, "Hello, Dave, Joe, and Maria." I am not going to do an Australian accent.
Dave Bittner: I have an Australian story when you're done.
Joe Carrigan: Okay.
Dave Bittner: Go for it.
Joe Carrigan: "I listen to your Hacking Humans podcast on YouTube. Joe, the reason your chook-- " which is Aussie for chicken, "might be missing feathers on her back is one, the hen is naturally going through a molt." Which is what happens with chickens. They will just shed their feathers from time to time. And Sue notes that the combs will become lighter in color. They stop laying, and they lose feathers. The feathers are easier to pull out. "The chook will molt at least once a year."
Dave Bittner: Okay.
Joe Carrigan: "And the other reason is your rooster likes this hen too much. Roosters will have a favorite hen. And when the rooster mounts the hen, he claws the back, the hen's back, as he positions himself to do the business." And then she says, "You can put this product on a hen to protect it." And she sent a link to something called chicken saddles, which I had much higher hopes for this. I'm like, you know what I need for a chicken-- a giant chicken, and then a chicken saddle.
Maria Varmazis: A dinosaur, in fact.
Joe Carrigan: A dinosaur, right. But this is actually like a little bit of chicken armor that goes on the back so that when the rooster mounts the chicken, that the hen-- that he doesn't pull feathers out. So I'll tell you, I was working on the roof of this over the last weekend. I haven't finished the roof, but it doesn't look like the ramshackle redneck solution I had up before. Now I actually have a peak and rafters going across. I just got to put some on top of it. Anyway, that hen-- or that rooster was wearing out these hens. He was going at it.
Dave Bittner: So you do have a rooster?
Joe Carrigan: Oh, yeah. I have a rooster. His name is Diesel.
Dave Bittner: Oh, all right.
Joe Carrigan: Good name for a rooster.
Dave Bittner: Yeah.
Joe Carrigan: I also think I mentioned the chicken feeding problem I always have. And Sue follows up with that. "I use the Grandpas bird feeder on my chooks and have to vouch that it works very well. The hens have gotten used to using it, but the rooster will take longer to learn how to use it. I have purchased similar products on Amazon, but it does not work as well as the original creators." And then she sent a link to Grandpas feeders. So I took a look at grandpa's feeders. It looks pretty nice. It's not cheap. It's like 200 bucks. But I think the first thing I'm going to try to do is build some cheap PVC feeders and see if that works. If not, I will probably break down and buy the Grandpas feeder and hope that my chickens will figure it out before they starve to death. But Sue adds, "Keep up the chook talk." So there's a fan of all the chicken news.
Dave Bittner: So chook is Australian for chicken.
Joe Carrigan: Yes, it is.
Dave Bittner: Okay. All right. That's good.
Joe Carrigan: My chooks, they're doing well.
Dave Bittner: So speaking of Australians, while I was away.
Joe Carrigan: That's right.
Dave Bittner: I met an Australian.
Joe Carrigan: You did?
Dave Bittner: I did.
Maria Varmazis: Just this guy.
Dave Bittner: Just this guy.
Maria Varmazis: Some dude.
Dave Bittner: So I was at the RSA conference, and the closing keynote speaker was Hugh Jackman, Australian of note.
Maria Varmazis: Some guy, yeah.
Dave Bittner: Yeah, a really nice guy. I had a little meet-and-greet after the thing that I was fortunate enough to be invited to. So had a few moments with Mr. Jackman, and we had a nice little exchange. But--
Joe Carrigan: Did you sing "The Music Man" songs?
Dave Bittner: I did, yes. Or should I say, we did.
Joe Carrigan: Excellent.
Maria Varmazis: Yay.
Joe Carrigan: I hope that's on video somewhere.
Dave Bittner: It's not. But basically, what happened was I introduced myself, and then I said, "Either you're closing your eyes to a situation you do not wish to acknowledge." And he looked back at me and he said, "Or I'm underestimating the caliber of disaster indicated by the presence of a pool table in my community." And I said, "You got trouble, my friend." And he said, "Right here in River City."
Joe Carrigan: Awesome.
Dave Bittner: And then I took the picture. Anyway--
Maria Varmazis: I love that so much.
Dave Bittner: Yeah, it was great.
Maria Varmazis: Without missing a beat, I'm sure, on his part.
Dave Bittner: Oh, it's in his head.
Maria Varmazis: With all the roles that he's done, he's still, without missing a beat, he just was right on it. That's impressive.
Dave Bittner: No, no, let me tell you, as someone who learned the song Trouble, when you learn the song Trouble, it is hardwired into your brain for the rest of your life.
Maria Varmazis: That's amazing.
Joe Carrigan: For me, it's "Hello, Dolly."
Dave Bittner: Yeah, yeah.
Joe Carrigan: I think I counted that show when I was working in high school. I think I saw close to 100, either rehearsals and live shows of "Hello, Dolly." Like, I never want to see "Hello, Dolly" again.
Dave Bittner: I've done "Hello, Dolly" three times.
Joe Carrigan: Have you?
Dave Bittner: So Hugh Jackman, as part of his keynote, he taught the audience how to speak Australian. And so now I'm going to teach you.
Joe Carrigan: Ah, excellent.
Maria Varmazis: Oh, no way. Oh, geez. Okay. We're going to lose all of our audience in Australia right now. Sorry, Sue.
Dave Bittner: Who should be my victim? Should it be Joe or Maria?
Joe Carrigan: Pick me.
Dave Bittner: All right, Joe.
Maria Varmazis: Okay.
Dave Bittner: So in your regular American accent, I want you to say these words after me.
Joe Carrigan: Okay.
Dave Bittner: Rise.
Joe Carrigan: Rise.
Dave Bittner: Up.
Joe Carrigan: Up.
Dave Bittner: Light.
Joe Carrigan: Light.
Dave Bittner: Say it again. Rise.
Joe Carrigan: Rise, up, light.
Dave Bittner: Rise up light. Now say it quickly.
Joe Carrigan: Rise up light.
Dave Bittner: What is the tool that a man uses to shave his face?
Joe Carrigan: Rise-up-light.
Maria Varmazis: That's terrible.
Joe Carrigan: It's a razor blade, Dave.
Dave Bittner: Rise-up-light. Yeah. It is a little more authentic when Hugh said it, but I like it nonetheless.
Joe Carrigan: That's good.
Dave Bittner: Yeah.
Maria Varmazis: That's good.
Dave Bittner: All right. Let's move on to our stories here. I think I have the honors this week of leading us off here. I have a story from the folks over at hackread.com and actually some research from the Cofense, Phishing Defense Center. And this is about a phishing campaign that is going after folks using LinkedIn as the lure, I guess, as the misdirection.
Joe Carrigan: I think LinkedIn is just a scam platform now.
Dave Bittner: Well, it is. And in fact-- well, there's a story that's breaking, as we record this tomorrow, about some behind-the-scenes tracking that LinkedIn has been caught doing. So we'll see if that story has any legs or not.
Joe Carrigan: Oh, really?
Dave Bittner: We'll see.
Joe Carrigan: I'd be shocked, shocked to learn that LinkedIn was doing tracking that they hadn't shared with their users. Let me put on my pearls so I can clutch them.
Dave Bittner: There you go. Anyway, what happens is you get a fake LinkedIn alert, and that sends you to a counterfeit login page that's built to capture your credentials and your account data. So the scam starts with an email, and it looks like a normal LinkedIn notification. It has all of the right logos, all the right fonts. And what it says is that a representative from a reputable company has sent an urgent message about a business opportunity. So right away, Joe, urgency.
Joe Carrigan: Right.
Dave Bittner: Right?
Maria Varmazis: Yep. Mm-hmm.
Dave Bittner: And everything looks legit. But the sender's address doesn't match LinkedIn. And typically, they come from domains that were spun up only, you know, moments ago.
Joe Carrigan: Yes.
Dave Bittner: So they are domains that have no history, which of course is always a red flag that there may be scamming at play. So when the user clicks on a button in the email, instead of going to LinkedIn, it sends them to a fraudulent login page that uses a lookalike address that looks like the words LinkedIn, but it's not. It's close, you know, it's a lookalike.
Joe Carrigan: LinkedIm with an m.
Dave Bittner: Right, exactly.
Maria Varmazis: InkedIn.
Dave Bittner: So the researchers at Cofense say the attackers choose a name that visually resembles LinkedIn, but it's not. So at first glance, it's easy to fall for it. They say that this was set up about two months before the campaign, and they used multiple internet addresses to stay online. Then, once the user enters their password, the attackers take that information, and then they have access to your LinkedIn account and all the personal data that comes with that. And they're pointing this out in particular because it doesn't really rely on any malware. It's a very quiet sort of exploit. It relies on your habits, your trust, and urgency. So your habit of checking for messages from LinkedIn, your trust that you have in LinkedIn as a platform, that's where they'd lose me.
Joe Carrigan: Right. They've already lost me with the first requirement and the second. It's not making it easier.
Dave Bittner: And urgency, you know, that this is-- you can't-- here's an offer you can't refuse from someone from a legit company who has some sort of business that they want to do with you.
Joe Carrigan: Yeah. I got to tell you, I would see this and be like, I do not care what somebody who paid to send me a message on LinkedIn, even, you know, if this fooled me, it would fool me into not caring. And I would delete the email.
Dave Bittner: Yeah.
Joe Carrigan: Oh, look, somebody from LinkedIn has a very urgent message for me. Ah, sure. It's probably another one of those recruiters that wants to offer me a six-month contract position at $30 a month.
Dave Bittner: Right.
Joe Carrigan: Or an hour, rather.
Maria Varmazis: $30 a month, I'd pass on that. Yeah.
Dave Bittner: Yeah, absolutely. But you've got to think. I mean, I have weaned myself off of LinkedIn. I only go there when there's no other alternative. And because of the cesspool that it's become.
Joe Carrigan: Yeah.
Dave Bittner: And, Maria, you pointed out a few weeks ago about one of the Reddit groups that highlights-- what's it called? Like "LinkedIn Loonies" or something?
Maria Varmazis: "LinkedIn Lunatics." Yeah.
Dave Bittner: Lunatics. There you go.
Maria Varmazis: Yeah. I got to say, though, the InfoSec world is not-- I mean, there are certainly people who are very active on LinkedIn, but I compare it to the space world that I also kind of dip my toes in. And that sector is a lot more active on LinkedIn, which I found very, very interesting. Yeah, so I do wonder if there's some of this is industry-specific, that some industries use it a lot more than others. And it may have something to do with the age of the cohort. I know a lot of folks in space are kind of old. So I wonder about that. But, yeah, I know in InfoSec, people go dark for years, and that's totally normal. Yeah, my husband has a joke. He's a software engineer. He goes on there for his obligatory once-a-year just to check, and then he signs off for another year. He just doesn't want to touch it. So lucky.
Dave Bittner: Did we-- I can't remember if we highlighted the LinkedIn translator.
Joe Carrigan: Oh, yeah.
Dave Bittner: We did?
Maria Varmazis: Yeah, we did.
Dave Bittner: It's hard for me to keep track of what I've talked about where.
Maria Varmazis: Well, when you've met Hugh Jackman, it's hard to keep these details. It's okay. It's okay, Dave.
Dave Bittner: It's true. Let me just say for the record, he is dreamy. He's dreamy.
Maria Varmazis: I bet he is.
Joe Carrigan: How tall is he?
Dave Bittner: How tall is he?
Joe Carrigan: Yeah.
Dave Bittner: You know, his Wikipedia page says he's six foot two. I'd say he's about six foot.
Joe Carrigan: Okay.
Dave Bittner: Yeah. He's tall. And I learned also that Wolverine is canonically supposed to be like five foot three.
Maria Varmazis: Yes. Wolverine is supposed to be a short, angry Canadian. It's true.
Dave Bittner: Yeah. So instead, they got a tall Australian. What are you going to do?
Joe Carrigan: In one of the Deadpool-- in one scene of the Deadpool and Wolverine thing, they have a short Wolverine.
Dave Bittner: Oh, okay.
Joe Carrigan: It's kind of one of the jokes.
Dave Bittner: Well, that's probably where it comes from.
Maria Varmazis: Hopefully, he says bub a lot.
Dave Bittner: All right. Well, that is my story this week. We'll have a link to that in the show notes. Joe, you're up next. What do you got for us?
Joe Carrigan: Well, I got a story that I imagine is not going to be relevant to a lot of our audience.
Dave Bittner: Oh, good.
Joe Carrigan: Or a very small segment. However--
Maria Varmazis: That's some good podcasting, Joe. Right there. You won't care about this story. All right. That's a great start.
Joe Carrigan: I'm not saying they won't care. I'm not saying they won't care. I think I picked this story because I'm like, nobody in our podcast audience is going to go climb Mount Everest.
Maria Varmazis: Oh, you never know. I bet you we've got some listeners who want to or have done it. I really bet we do.
Joe Carrigan: Right.
Dave Bittner: Please send us a note. If you have, in fact, climbed Mount Everest or are itching to do so, hackinghumans@n2k.com.
Joe Carrigan: So this is a story that comes from "The Independent."
Dave Bittner: Okay.
Joe Carrigan: Which, by the way, whenever they talk about themselves in their article, they italicize their name. But it's from Amelia Neath and Shweta Sharma, who have written this article. And let me just read the headline. "Everest guides accused of poisoning foreign climbers to force fake rescues in $20 million scam." So, you know, you don't climb Mount Everest by yourself.
Dave Bittner: No.
Joe Carrigan: Right?
Maria Varmazis: What?
Joe Carrigan: Yeah. There's an industry around this. There's, you know, Sherpas and guides and things like that that will actually walk up with you, and they'll take you to the base camp or even up to the peak. But the investigators are saying that more than 4700 climbers have been affected by this scam between 2022 and 2025. So what happens is when you start climbing, these guys were inducing the effects of altitude sickness by either preparing food for climbers with tons of baking soda in it, which will produce something like, I guess, stomach bends. I don't know. I've never climbed to high altitudes. But it's--
Dave Bittner: I've also never consumed massive amounts of baking soda.
Joe Carrigan: Well, I have.
Dave Bittner: Oh, okay.
Maria Varmazis: What? Okay.
Joe Carrigan: I was trying to replicate a Thomas Edison experiment when I was a child.
Dave Bittner: Whoa.
Joe Carrigan: It wasn't mass amounts. You never heard that story about Thomas Edison?
Dave Bittner: No.
Joe Carrigan: Feeding one of his friends a bunch of baking soda to see if it would make him fly, but it only made him sick.
Dave Bittner: Oh, okay.
Joe Carrigan: Yeah.
Maria Varmazis: This story is taking some wild turns.
Joe Carrigan: Yeah. So the scam appears to be vast. Police said that more than 300 cases of allegedly fake rescues have been uncovered, and their billing has totaled about $20 million. So what they would do is-- they'd also-- one of the other things they do to physically induce these symptoms is they would give them medication. They would make them sick along with large amounts of water. And that's apparently very bad when you're at altitude. So that'll give you-
Maria Varmazis: You want to be dehydrated at altitude? That's interesting.
Joe Carrigan: I don't know. When I went to Denver, which is about the highest I've ever been-- I'm going to let that stand there. You should have seen Dave. You leaned into the microphone, he's like--
Maria Varmazis: Elevation. Elevation.
Joe Carrigan: -- you're going to say something, aren't you? I'm like, nope.
Dave Bittner: College.
Joe Carrigan: Right.
Maria Varmazis: Elevation-wise, everybody. All right. Yep.
Joe Carrigan: So. In Denver, they told us, drink all the water you can drink.
Maria Varmazis: Yeah. Yeah. Same, Denver or Colorado Springs for me, my yearly thing I got to do. I am so constantly dehydrated. It's insane. So, okay. I can't even imagine Everest being-- oh, geez. Yeah.
Joe Carrigan: Yeah. But they were essentially faking these medical emergencies in climbers. Then the climbers, the trekkers, would report nausea, dizziness, body aches. And they were advised to descend and agree to costly emergency helicopter evacuations. Once a rescue was triggered, the operators inflated costs by billing each passenger as if they had taken a separate helicopter flight. So the helicopter company was in on it. The guides were in on it. The local hospitals were in on it. Because if I give you a bunch of baking soda, you're going to go down to regular altitude. You're going to belch a couple of times, and you're going to feel fine. You're going to be like, I don't need to do anything else. But you know what? My trip to the top of Mount Everest is over, so I'm just going home. So it doesn't look like anybody was seriously harmed here. But this is not the first time this happened. Back in 2018, there was a 700-page report from the Kathmandu Post. Or actually, the Kathmandu Post reported on it, prompting a 700-page report.
Maria Varmazis: Okay.
Joe Carrigan: Yeah, from the Nepalese government.
Maria Varmazis: Wow. All right.
Joe Carrigan: Yeah. So the big take here is from insurance fraud, because when you're going to climb the mountain, you buy insurance. And there are insurance companies who've said, "We're not going to do this anymore. We're not going to cover Everest summits, you know, climbing Everest anymore if this kind of fraud keeps happening, because there's no way we can continue to pay these things out." So they've arrested something like 26 people, including people who operate the helicopter companies, people who operate the tour companies, and people who work in the hospitals, who also filed fraudulent claims for people that they never saw.
Maria Varmazis: Everyone was on the take.
Joe Carrigan: Everyone was on the take. This is such a widespread scam.
Maria Varmazis: Yeah, so I can imagine years ago. Somebody was on one of these adventures to climb Mount Everest for whatever reason. And they came back going, "I swear it's a conspiracy. I swear." And everyone thought that they were just crazy. And that person was right.
Joe Carrigan: Right. Now, I did a little other researching because I thought to myself, I am never going to climb Mount Everest.
Dave Bittner: Right.
Joe Carrigan: But one thing that is still probably within my grasp for the next probably decade or so is climbing Mount Kilimanjaro.
Dave Bittner: Really?
Joe Carrigan: Yeah.
Dave Bittner: What-- give me a sense of comparison. How tall is Kilimanjaro?
Joe Carrigan: It's, I think, 19,000 feet above sea level.
Dave Bittner: Wow.
Joe Carrigan: Wow. It's a very broad volcanic cone.
Dave Bittner: Okay.
Joe Carrigan: And it is essentially like an eight-day hike. And you're constantly going up in altitude, but it's not like climbing Mount Everest.
Dave Bittner: Yeah.
Joe Carrigan: It's something that is-- they say anybody who's never climbed can do this hike, can do this, because as long as you're in good physical condition, you can do it. But they say about one in three people who climb Mount Kilimanjaro get altitude sickness and have to go home.
Dave Bittner: That makes sense.
Joe Carrigan: Yeah. So if you're climbing Mount Everest and you know the odds are similar, one in three, or maybe it's because it's Everest, it's one in two, and then your entire party gets sick, gets altitude sickness, maybe that would raise a red flag for somebody. Why do we all get altitude sickness? That seems very unlikely. And then they-- you know, you all go home on one helicopter ride, but they bill for four helicopter rides.
Dave Bittner: Any idea what the bill is? Does the article say, like--
Joe Carrigan: How much--
Dave Bittner: What does an emergency rescue cost off of--
Maria Varmazis: Can't be cheap.
Joe Carrigan: Yeah, I don't know. They say they-- I guess we could do the math here. They're $4700 into $20 million. So, hold on. Let me get my calculator.
Dave Bittner: I mean, it's not like you're price shopping, you know, calling around.
Maria Varmazis: Wait, are you a network? I'm not sure about this. Yeah.
Dave Bittner: Right, exactly.
Joe Carrigan: Each one of these evacuations costs $4000, 4200 bucks.
Maria Varmazis: Yeah, that's a lot of money. Yep.
Joe Carrigan: Yeah, it is.
Dave Bittner: It is, but it seems reasonable to me, given that a trip to Everest is in the tens of thousands of dollars.
Joe Carrigan: Yeah, if I spent tens of-- if I started feeling altitude sickness on Everest, I'd be willing to pay 4200 bucks to get home.
Dave Bittner: Yeah.
Joe Carrigan: You know, or to get off the mountain.
Dave Bittner: Place is a dump too, isn't it? It's like, just like a dumpster. It's literally, it's covered in trash.
Joe Carrigan: And frozen bodies.
Maria Varmazis: And frozen bodies. Yeah.
Joe Carrigan: That's what I've heard.
Dave Bittner: "Once very motivated people."
Joe Carrigan: Right.
Maria Varmazis: Yep. Oh, there was a blog post about that years ago that I'm sure is still on the internet that of-- oh. Sorry. Just, it talks about all the certain dead bodies that have become landmarks for other climbers. Like, it's so gross.
Joe Carrigan: Turn left by dead John. Then up the hill.
Maria Varmazis: I can't imagine. That's a heck of a sky burial. Let me tell you. Anyway.
Joe Carrigan: Sky burial is something else entirely.
Maria Varmazis: I know.
Joe Carrigan: Much more gross.
Maria Varmazis: Yep. I'm trying to not go there, but I did.
Joe Carrigan: I will spare our listeners. And if anybody has a strong stomach, they can look it up.
Maria Varmazis: Nope.
Joe Carrigan: Otherwise.
Maria Varmazis: We're going to get some complaints about this.
Joe Carrigan: Yes, we are.
Dave Bittner: So, Joe, is this like an active thing that you're saving up for or something?
Joe Carrigan: No.
Dave Bittner: No. Okay. It's just an aspirational thing. It's maybe someday.
Joe Carrigan: Maybe someday.
Dave Bittner: In your retirement.
Joe Carrigan: It probably won't happen, actually, because I'm-- you know, I'm just not going to-- I don't see myself traveling that much.
Dave Bittner: Yeah.
Joe Carrigan: You know, going to Africa. I mean, there are places in Africa I'd like to visit. But, you know, they're a lot lower on my list than other places. And having 100,000 chickens. Becoming a big-time chicken farmer. I'll be the next Frank Perdue.
Maria Varmazis: Dream big, Joe.
Dave Bittner: Yeah. See what your neighborhood association has to say about that.
Maria Varmazis: The smell alone.
Joe Carrigan: There is no neighborhoods.
Dave Bittner: No, not yet. You start putting those chickens, I'll tell you. Your neighbors are going to team up and make them form one.
Maria Varmazis: Yeah, there's this HBO series called "The Neighbors." You're going to be on that one, Joe.
Dave Bittner: Yeah, oh yeah. No, no, just take a ride down to the eastern shore and see all of the abandoned chicken hutches on the way. There's plenty of them.
Joe Carrigan: Yeah, I know they look abandoned. I don't know that they are abandoned, though, are they?
Dave Bittner: A lot of them are. I mean, yeah. I mean, you know, it comes and goes. Farming, all that sort of thing. I think there's-- like everything, there's been a lot of consolidation. So it's harder for a family farm to make ends meet these days. All right. Well, we will have a link to that story in the show notes. I tell you what, let's take a quick break to hear from our show sponsor. We'll be right back after this. And we are back. Maria, you're up. What do you got for us?
Maria Varmazis: Oh, somebody had to do it. And April 15th is coming up. In the United States, that means one thing. What's it mean? Taxes. Yeah.
Joe Carrigan: I'm still working on mine.
Maria Varmazis: Same. I haven't gotten mine back from my tax preparer yet, but it's coming.
Dave Bittner: You guys pay taxes?
Joe Carrigan: Yes, Dave, and so do you, right?
Dave Bittner: No, actually, I'm pretty vigilant about it.
Maria Varmazis: Yeah, I used to-- back when my taxes were not complicated, I was a very early filer, and now I'm one of those people who's down to the last week or so. I don't like it.
Joe Carrigan: My taxes are complicated as well.
Maria Varmazis: Yeah. I'm not a fan. I'm not a fan. No, but yeah, somebody had to do the obligatory "tax season fraud and scam" story, and I figured it should be me. Why not me, right? Yeah, so there are actually two articles that I was looking at. One was from a friend at Proofpoint, and I'll mention an insight from that in a minute. But the first one was actually from the Better Business Bureau, the BBB, and they have their obligatory tax liturgical calendar-- no, scam liturgical calendar story about taxes, with some interesting-- the new wrinkles that they're seeing this year in terms of the scams. So, scams abound, tax-related stuff, yes, we know. Some of the scams that we're seeing this year that are sort of noteworthy, not necessarily new, but have the new flavors, I suppose, are versions of the scam where someone will be posing as the IRS, the scammer, and they'll tell a person usually on the phone or by email that there's a problem with your return and that they will demand immediate verification of personal information. So again, we've heard flavors of this one before, but they're seeing a lot of that. Another version of the scam-- the tax-related scams that Better Business Bureau is seeing are about people getting a call weeks after the filing deadline. So not pre-April 15th, but well after when everyone's not thinking about it anymore, basically. And again, posing as the IRS and demanding urgent payment for some sort of tax issue that was found with their file. So that one seems interesting to me because I don't know about you, but after April 15th, I'm like, I'm done. I'm not worried about this anymore.
Joe Carrigan: Yeah, I don't think about it again until January 1st of the next year.
Maria Varmazis: Yeah, I just do not want to occupy any more brain space. So if I get a call in mid-May, I would probably go, oh, it's, you know, I'm not thinking about the liturgical calendar being tax season anymore. But no, it is. It's tax Pentecost. If I'm-- sorry. Oh, man. All right. That makes somebody mad about that one.
Joe Carrigan: It's going to cost five times as much. Pentecost.
Maria Varmazis: Oh, nice. Nice. All right. And the Better Business Bureau is also warning taxpayers that deductions will never require enrollment fees. And anyone who claims that you need to pay something to access your tax benefits is absolutely trying to scam you. So please be wary. Another thing that the Better Business Bureau is warning about, something that, again, not necessarily new, but we're seeing a lot more of it every year, are ghost tax preparers. So this is not necessarily a scam you're going to get by email. This is like a little dinky shop set up at a local like abandoned storefront near you. And it might actually make you think maybe it's legit because it's one of those temporary tax filing businesses. And they might say, "Hey, we're going to make sure we get you a quick, huge refund."
Dave Bittner: It's the tax version of Spirit Halloween.
Joe Carrigan: Right.
Maria Varmazis: Yeah, but those exist, though. And they've got the people holding the signs out front.
Dave Bittner: Speaking of ghosts.
Joe Carrigan: It's the same people.
Dave Bittner: Right.
Joe Carrigan: In the same costumes. I'm going to do your taxes. Spooky.
Maria Varmazis: So yeah, they're fly-by-night operations. And, you know, if you file with these folks, they will not do your taxes correctly or at all. And you will be saddled with high fees and screwed out of having your taxes done correctly. So, please be careful. I know a lot of people are like, "Hey, I've got a guy who does my taxes," or, "I'll find somebody." But do some due diligence around who's going to be filing for you if you're going to do it that way. And some of the other tips that the BBB is saying is make sure you are using the actual IRS website when filing your taxes electronically.
Joe Carrigan: Oh, I'll be mailing mine in.
Maria Varmazis: Yes. Oh, I do love the yearly story of like the big post office where they've got the cars lined up on April. Yeah.
Joe Carrigan: The newscasters are all standing out there looking at the long line of cars.
Maria Varmazis: Yeah.
Joe Carrigan: How's it going at the post office, Bill?
Maria Varmazis: It's like-- it's so funny. It's like Super Bowl Sunday for the post office. It's just so fun. Every year with that story.
Dave Bittner: Signing people up for Procrastinators Anonymous.
Maria Varmazis: Yeah. And they interview them like, "Yeah, I didn't feel like doing my taxes. And here I am." You know, like that kind of thing.
Dave Bittner: Every year sneaks up on me.
Maria Varmazis: Yeah. I guess I just got to get it done. Like every year that story. It's amazing. Did I just break Joe?
Dave Bittner: Pretty much. Pretty much.
Maria Varmazis: You're welcome. So if in doubt, make sure you contact the IRS directly. Don't use any email or phone thing that comes your way. So yeah, don't let-- don't. They should not be calling you. You call them.
Dave Bittner: Right. Nothing inbound.
Maria Varmazis: Yeah. Don't trust an inbound. Exactly. The IRS is not going to threaten you or demand immediate payment ever. Little asterisk, except for the situation where a previous follow-up email was saying if they've been pursuing you a long time and you're doing something very criminal.
Joe Carrigan: Right.
Dave Bittner: Right.
Maria Varmazis: But for most of us ordinary folks, they're not going to be doing threatening or demanding immediate payment. And certainly they're not going to ask for any financial details over the phone. And only allow funds to be deposited into your personal accounts. Don't let there be an in-between saying, hey, I'll hang on to it for you. Like, don't do that.
Joe Carrigan: No, thank you.
Maria Varmazis: Don't do that. And my best tip is the one that my mom always taught me was if anyone's threatening you, just yell at them, send it in writing, and hang up. Like, tell them to send you a letter.
Joe Carrigan: Right.
Maria Varmazis: Send it in writing. Hang up.
Dave Bittner: I'm imagining. I'm imagining that it was the-- forgive me, Maria. I'm imagining that with a very thick Greek accent.
Maria Varmazis: Yeah. My mom does not have a Greek accent, but my father did. No. Yeah. Sorry.
Dave Bittner: All right.
Maria Varmazis: No, no. But yes, send it in writing is good advice. Just do that and hang up.
Joe Carrigan: I got to inject here. That was my dad's first scam phone call that he got in, you know, when he was older, and he got somebody, "This is the IRS, and you owe us money." And my dad, being a CPA, was like, "All right. Well, send me a letter."
Maria Varmazis: Yeah. Yes.
Joe Carrigan: He said, "No, you got to pay us now." He goes, "No, IRS policy is the first thing you do is send the letter. So send the letter, and then I'll respond."
Maria Varmazis: Yep.
Joe Carrigan: And the guy got enraged, and my dad was just like, "Are you going to send the letter?"
Maria Varmazis: Yeah. I remember when I was in my twenties, my family was dealing with some tax issues. They were paying their taxes. It was just some weirdness with the quarterly taxes. And I was sort of amazed at how slow the process was with all this letter sending back and forth. And I was like, "Mom, it's 20-whatever. Why are we still doing stuff by letter?" And it's like, well, this is why.
Joe Carrigan: If you think the IRS is bad, try dealing with the state of Maryland and the treasury there. I have been ignored by these people for an issue I'm trying to get resolved. They just raised the issue to me like late last year, and I haven't heard from them in like a month. And I sent a follow-up email. And they're like, "Oh, we changed systems. Go here and log in, and create a ticket there."
Maria Varmazis: Yeah, it's surprisingly-- and I actually-- I'm going to give credit to the IRS on this. Slowing down is a good thing in this situation.
Joe Carrigan: Yeah, I'll agree with that.
Maria Varmazis: Yeah, so it's actually kind of great that this whole process, especially being letter-based, really does force the whole thing to slow down significantly. Yeah, because I was always like, "Why are we not doing this by email? It should be easy to resolve." And now I'm going, good thing it's not. So let it be slow. I mentioned earlier that Proofpoint also had some findings about tax scams this year. And something I wanted to note from their reporting that I thought was very interesting was about 40% of the 2026 tax fraud that they have been tracking this year specifically uses remote monitoring and management tools for fraud. Which, you know, remote management and monitoring tools are legitimate, but they are being linked to in phishing emails or spam emails, I should say. And then they essentially will allow for a computer takeover. So one email that they highlighted was supposedly, again, a fake IRS email saying that there was an issue with your tax returns. You need to consult the attached list for details. And the way that you have to consult that attached list is to use the IRS transcript viewer. And it has a big blue button that says "access the transcript viewer." And that takes you instead to a remote monitoring and management tool, which then allows the attacker to do nasty things to your machine. So--
Dave Bittner: And just to be clear, I mean, that's a tool that lets someone basically have control of your computer from afar.
Maria Varmazis: Yeah, and they're legitimate tools. Like the tools themselves are not malicious, but they are being used in a malicious way. So the reason why scammers really love these is these tools have legitimate IT uses. A lot of enterprises will absolutely whitelist these kinds of apps because they are used for a good purpose. So these spam emails will fly under the radar. So there is no IRS transcript viewer. Don't download anything. Don't do any stuff like that. But I thought that was very interesting that almost half of the scams are now using this kind of thing, at least what Proofpoint is seeing. So I thought that was interesting. So there's a lot more in their report. We can link it for people, but that was what I wanted to highlight from them.
Dave Bittner: All right. Yeah, for sure. 'Tis the season, and best to be vigilant, right? All right. Well, Joe, Maria, it is time for our Catch of the Day. [ Soundbite of Reeling in Fishing Line ] [ Music ]
Joe Carrigan: Dave, our catch of the day comes from the Scambait subreddit, r/scambait. This one is titled "Guy in the Woods, Seduction on Scrabble, Part One." I don't know what this means, Dave.
Dave Bittner: Well, this is going to be me and Maria.
Joe Carrigan: Okay.
Maria Varmazis: Oh, boy. This looks like a long one, Dave.
Dave Bittner: Well, Maria, since you're the victim here, feel free to pull the ripcord whenever--
Maria Varmazis: Jeez. All right.
Dave Bittner: -- you feel it's appropriate. So just to set it up for our listeners, it appears as though this conversation is happening through some kind of online Scrabble game. So the Scrabble game has a built-in chat.
Maria Varmazis: Is nothing safe? Scrabble? Really?
Dave Bittner: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I will start out here, and it goes like this. "Hello, Charlotte. Thanks for accepting my game request."
Maria Varmazis: "Hello."
Dave Bittner: "I'm Michael, and I live in L.A. Where are you playing from?"
Maria Varmazis: "America."
Dave Bittner: "Nice, another American. What part of the country are you in? I'm in L.A., as mentioned.
Maria Varmazis: "On the East Coast."
Dave Bittner: "Ah, the East Coast. So you're playing Scrabble three hours into your future. How's life on the other side of the country?"
Joe Carrigan: Point of order. She is playing Scrabble three hours into his future.
Dave Bittner: "And what state on the East Coast? I've always wanted to visit Maine."
Maria Varmazis: "North Carolina, far away from Maine."
Dave Bittner: Okay, fair point. "The East Coast is pretty long. I'll forget the vagueness this time. What part of North Carolina? I've heard it's beautiful there."
Maria Varmazis: "Wilmington."
Dave Bittner: "Good morning from L.A."
Maria Varmazis: It's a one-word answer.
Dave Bittner: "Wilmington. Nice. I've heard Wrightsville Beach is gorgeous. Have you lived in Wilmington all your life or moved there later?"
Maria Varmazis: "I've lived here for 17 years."
Dave Bittner: "Wow, 17 years. So you've basically watched Wilmington grow up. What kept you there all that time? I moved to L.A. with my late wife 30 years ago when we just got married, so I get having deep roots somewhere. What's your favorite thing about Wilmington?"
Maria Varmazis: "I work here and my children went to school here."
Dave Bittner: "That's really cool. Work. School. Family. Sounds like you planted yourselves well. So now that the children are through school, what keeps you busy these days? Besides crushing me at Scrabble, of course."
Maria Varmazis: "I am not crushing you at Scrabble. Didn't you see the score?"
Dave Bittner: "I know. But I feel you're letting me win. What keeps you busy these days? You don't stay here much."
Maria Varmazis: "I don't. I have a life to get to, and I don't play long. You seem to."
Dave Bittner: "Oh, you caught me. I do like playing along when the conversation's interesting, but no pressure at all. Whether it's just Scrabble or a little chat, I'm happy to keep it whatever works for you. Speaking of having a life to get to, I actually just landed a contract, and I'm scrambling to get ready to travel by next weekend. So that's what's been keeping me busy lately, just squeezing in some Scrabble when I can."
Maria Varmazis: "Where are you traveling to?"
Dave Bittner: "I just recently got a contract at Alberta, Canada.
Maria Varmazis: That Alberta.
Joe Carrigan: Yeah, right, in Alberta.
Dave Bittner: "This will be my first time handling a contract in Canada, and I'm excited about it because this will be a whole new experience for me. And my last job before retirement. And you, what's your job? For me, I work as a contractor in the hardwood industry."
Maria Varmazis: Excuse me a minute. Excuse me a minute. All right. Okay. "I am a CPA. So, hardwood industry, what do you sell?"
Dave Bittner: "I should clarify, I'm on the harvesting side, not sales. So I work with logging crews."
Joe Carrigan: Oh, he's a lumberjack.
Dave Bittner: "Manage forest operations."
Maria Varmazis: He's a lumberjack, and he's okay.
Dave Bittner: "Make sure the right trees get to the right mills. It's physical. It's outdoors. And it's been a hell of a career. Alberta, Canada, will be my last stop."
Maria Varmazis: "So retirement after that?"
Dave Bittner: "Yeah, that's the plan. After Athabasca. Athabasca?
Maria Varmazis: Athabasca. Athabasca.
Joe Carrigan: I don't know.
Maria Varmazis: Athabasca.
Dave Bittner: "After Athabasca, I'm hanging up the boots. It's bittersweet. This work has been my whole life. But I'm ready for what's next. What about you? Ever think about retirement, or are you a work forever type? Do you mind us talking outside here instead of waiting for turns? It's very slow."
Joe Carrigan: Bing. There's the change in platform.
Maria Varmazis: "I suppose I'll retire someday."
Joe Carrigan: Athabasca is a town in Alberta.
Dave Bittner: Okay.
Maria Varmazis: Oh, I see. Okay. "I suppose I'll retire someday."
Dave Bittner: "I'll bet you've got a good someday vision in your head. I'm still figuring out what retirement even looks like for me. Feels weird after decades of working. You seem like someone who'd land on her feet no matter what, though. Do you mind us talking outside?"
Maria Varmazis: "I don't mind."
Dave Bittner: "All right. Are you on the Teams app?"
Maria Varmazis: "Not there. I use that for work."
Dave Bittner: "Okay. What platform do you use? I prefer Teams, though. It works perfectly for me, most especially outside the state."
Maria Varmazis: [unintelligible] Are those supposed to be actual words?
Dave Bittner: I think one of them is supposed to be Signal.
Maria Varmazis: Signal, but it's missing-- Yeah, Signal.
Dave Bittner: "I haven't used any of those apps before. Are you on Google Chat?"
Maria Varmazis: "No, I'm not."
Dave Bittner: "All right. Give me your Telegram address."
Maria Varmazis: All right. So all I can see in the chat bubble is the word "sex," and the rest is blacked out. So use your imagination, folks.
Dave Bittner: It's probably like "sexy mama" or something like that.
Maria Varmazis: SexyCPA6969420@gmail.com. There you go.
Dave Bittner: You know what? We could just pull the ripcord right there.
Maria Varmazis: Pull the ripcord.
Joe Carrigan: This has gone on long enough.
Dave Bittner: That's good. It doesn't really go anywhere else. So, yeah.
Joe Carrigan: I love the one-- the Ter's responses. That's great. You know, I don't mind.
Maria Varmazis: You seem like a woman who can really land on her feet with one-word answers. Yeah, I've learned a lot about you. Yeah, great.
Dave Bittner: Oh, you're so irresistible. I've never met anyone quite like you.
Maria Varmazis: From Wilmington.
Dave Bittner: Concise and to the point. Yeah. Oh, my gosh. What do you guys make of this one?
Joe Carrigan: It seems, you know, there are words grafted onto the pictures here that say like chatbot.
Dave Bittner: Yeah.
Joe Carrigan: And at some point in time, it seems to think-- like maybe the chatbot thinks Wilmington's a person because it says you watch Wilmington grow up over 17 years.
Dave Bittner: Right.
Joe Carrigan: And some, you know, towns do grow up over time, but longer timescales than 17 years, right?
Dave Bittner: Yeah, it's odd. It is odd. And yet sort of forced seduction, right?
Maria Varmazis: I am just fascinated that I guess there's enough success trying to get people through a Scrabble app that this is being tried. I never would have suspected that, but I guess they'll phish anywhere. That's, huh, Scrabble. Not even Scrabble is sacred.
Joe Carrigan: I never play these games online because I am 100% certain that the other person is cheating. You know, it's just too easy. I do play Scrabble in person with my wife. And I lose just about every single time.
Dave Bittner: She's got like zither.
Joe Carrigan: Right, yeah. Right. And I got four Ps and two Ns and, you know, that's always what happens to me is I get the bad draws.
Dave Bittner: Yeah. I can't say I'm a big fan of board games. And we have a ton of them in the house, but we never seem to play any of them.
Joe Carrigan: Really?
Dave Bittner: Yeah.
Joe Carrigan: I just don't have time to play them. I was talking about this last night with my son-in-law, when he's like, "What are we going to do when we're both out of-- when we're out of school?" And I looked at him and said, "When does that happen?" And he just started laughing. But he's like, I'd like to play some games. I'd like to play some games too. But, you know, we play games like the Railroad Tycoon games, which are really fun.
Dave Bittner: Yeah. Well, you play video games.
Joe Carrigan: I haven't. Dave, I haven't had time to play video games in like months. In fact, the last time I played a video game, it was with Jake, and I got motion sickness from playing it.
Maria Varmazis: Yeah.
Joe Carrigan: So I'm afraid I might be done. I'm going to have to try like "Fortnite" again at some point in time to see if the same thing happens.
Maria Varmazis: You don't have to play games like that. There are so many other video games out there, Joe, that don't--
Dave Bittner: We are on a one-way trip to text adventure games, my friends.
Joe Carrigan: Yes.
Maria Varmazis: Oh, yeah.
Joe Carrigan: "Zork."
Maria Varmazis: "Look Up!" You see a Gru. Look at Gru.
Dave Bittner: Go west. Get lamp. Yeah.
Maria Varmazis: Listen, the old ways are good ways. I'm just saying.
Dave Bittner: Yeah, absolutely. All right. Well, we will have a link to that "Catch of the Day" in the show notes. And that is Hacking Humans brought to you by N2K/Cyber Wire. We'd love to know what you think of this podcast. Your feedback ensures we deliver the insights that keep you a step ahead in the rapidly changing world of cybersecurity. If you like our show, please share a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Please also fill out the survey in the show notes or send an email to hackinghumans@n2k.com. This episode is produced by Liz Stokes. Our executive producer is Jennifer Eiben. We're mixed by Elliott Peltzman and Tré Hester. Peter Kilpe is our publisher. I'm Dave Bittner.
Joe Carrigan: I'm Joe Carrigan.
Maria Varmazis: And I'm Maria Varmazis.
Dave Bittner: Thanks for listening. [ Music ]
