Love, lies, and a fake 49er.
This week, hosts of N2K CyberWire Maria Varmazis and Dave Bittner alongside Joe Carrigan are discussing the latest in social engineering scams, phishing schemes, and criminal exploits that are making headlines. We start with some follow-up on Joe’s chicken coop, which apparently looks amazing—and we may even get a little into the mechanics behind it. Dave looks at the growing scam crisis in the U.S., including how victims are often targeted a second time by recovery scammers after losing money in the first scam. Joe covers a massive identity-theft operation allegedly offering more than 153 million stolen driver’s license records for sale on the dark web, with investigators working to determine where the data came from. Maria explores a multimillion-dollar romance and investment scam in which a man allegedly posed as an NFL player, using fake identities, relationships, and phony investment accounts to defraud at least 26 women. Our Catch of the Day comes from a listener who clicked a suspicious Calendly link and lived to tell the tale.
Resources and links to stories:
- Scams in the US are at a record high. Yet most victims get no help and some end up losing even more
- Microsoft Plugs Nearly 1,000 Security Holes
- Man Posing as San Francisco 49er Charged with Defrauding Over Two Dozen Women Out of More than $1.3 Million
- "It's hard to feel bad when it's as easy as just Googling it": Jason Kelce left stunned after fake 49er Daejon Love's alleged $1.3M+ romance scam
- Clicked on Phishing Link From “Calendly”
Have a Catch of the Day you'd like to share? Email it to us at hackinghumans@n2k.com.
