Investment Traps
Easy Prey
Investment losses can be confusing because they do not always tell the whole story. Sometimes money is lost because the market has changed. Other times, an investor was sold something they did not understand, pushed into a product that was never appropriate, or denied the information they needed to make a real decision. Courtney Werning has built her career in that space, helping investors sort through what happened and whether someone can be held responsible. Courtney is a named partner at Meyer, Wilson, and Werning, a national investor protection firm that has recovered more than $350...
info_outline
Elder Exploitation
Easy Prey
Aging parents often rely on the people closest to them for help, but what happens when that help becomes a way to take control? For Charles Wallace, the warning signs started small. His mother’s fridge was suddenly overfilled. A caregiver refused to provide receipts. Spending patterns began to shift in ways that did not make sense. At the time, each concern could be explained away. Looking back, they were part of something much larger. Charles spent 15 years in banking and finance, and after his mother’s death, he used that experience to reconstruct more than 3,000 transactions. What he...
info_outline
Art Heists
Easy Prey
The world of art theft looks glamorous in the movies, but the reality is far more complicated. From multi-million dollar forgery schemes to undercover FBI operations recovering stolen national treasures, art crime is a global industry hiding in plain sight. This conversation digs into how these crimes actually play out and why the people who pull them off often end up stuck with the very pieces they thought would make them rich. My guest today is Robert Wittman, a former FBI special agent and the founder of the FBI’s Art Crime Team. Over a 20-year career, he worked undercover in more...
info_outline
The Power of Prediction
Easy Prey
We make predictions all the time including about the weather, about traffic, about what someone is going to say next. It feels natural, even rational. But when algorithms start making predictions about us, whether we'll repay a loan, reoffend after prison, or respond to a medical treatment, something fundamental shifts. The forecast stops being a guess and starts becoming a verdict. My guest today is Carissa Veliz, a philosopher and associate professor at the University of Oxford, where she also researches at the Oxford Internet Institute. Her work focuses on the ethics of technology, privacy,...
info_outline
Privacy vs Reality
Easy Prey
Online security advice often sounds simple until you actually try to follow it. Between password managers, privacy settings, and data brokers, protecting yourself can start to feel like a full-time job. That gap between what sounds easy and what’s actually realistic is where a lot of people get stuck. My guest today is Yael Grauer, a freelance investigative technology reporter who covers privacy, security, digital freedom, hacking, and mass surveillance. She also works as a program manager of cybersecurity research at Consumer Reports, where she manages Security Planner, a free resource that...
info_outline
Wired to Trust
Easy Prey
It’s easy to think scams only work when someone misses something obvious. In reality, most of them don’t look obvious at the start. They show up as normal situations with just enough friction to notice, but not enough to stop. That small gap is where people tend to move forward instead of stepping back. My guest today is Tali Sharot, a cognitive neuroscientist who studies how we form beliefs and make decisions. She’s known for her research on the neural basis of human optimism, and her work has been published in leading journals. In her books, The Optimism Bias and The Science of...
info_outline
Intimate Partner Fraud
Easy Prey
Most scams leave a digital trail. A fake email, a spoofed number, a fraudulent website. You can trace them, report them, sometimes even reverse them. But what happens when the scam has no digital trail at all, because it isn't happening on a screen? What happens when the con is standing right in front of you, making you laugh, meeting your friends, and planning a future with you? My guest today is Tracy Hall. She's an author, keynote speaker, and senior marketing executive with over 25 years at some of the world's most recognizable tech companies including eBay, Virgin, GoDaddy, and...
info_outline
Identity without Passwords
Easy Prey
Every day, employees at hotels, restaurants, and resorts across the country are doing exactly what they were hired to do: being warm, responsive, and eager to help. It's what makes hospitality work. It's also what makes hospitality one of the most targeted industries in cybersecurity. When your entire workforce is trained to say yes, teaching them to be suspicious is an uphill battle. The smarter solution might be to take the target off their backs entirely. Jasson Casey is the co-founder and CEO of Beyond Identity, a company built around one idea: making identity-based attacks impossible....
info_outline
When Cybercrime Gets Personal
Easy Prey
Most security breaches don't begin with sophisticated code or elaborate technical exploits. They begin with a phone call, a convincing email, or someone at a help desk who just wanted to be helpful. The human layer is often the weakest link, and the criminals who understand that are the ones causing the most damage. My guest today is May Chen-Contino. She's the CEO of Unit 221B, a threat disruption company that delivers actionable intelligence to enterprises, law enforcement, and government agencies. Her background spans cybersecurity, fintech, and SaaS leadership at companies like PayPal and...
info_outline
Stopping Phone Scams
Easy Prey
Phone scams get dismissed as background noise or just annoying interruptions and unknown numbers with robotic voices we learn to ignore. But behind that noise is an industry built on psychology, automation, and staggering profitability. My guest today is Alex Quilici. He’s an engineer, entrepreneur, and the CEO of YouMail, a company focused on protecting consumers and businesses from unwanted and fraudulent calls. Alex has spent years analyzing how robocalls and scam campaigns are designed, how they evolve, and why they continue to work despite better technology and increased awareness. What...
info_outlineFinding a solution to stop spam calls to you, your family, or your business isn’t easy. We may not win this war, but we don’t want the government making this decision for us. We can make it more manageable in the meantime.
Today’s guest is Aaron Foss. After winning the FTC Robocall Challenge in 2013, Aaron started Nomorobo. Since then, Nomorobo has stopped billions and billions of unwanted robocalls and spam texts from reaching our phones, and it was acquired by Applause group in August 2023. Aaron has been featured in The New York Times, Wired, CNN, CNBC, Fox News, and countless other media outlets. He has testified in front of Congress, not once, not twice, but three times.
Show Notes:
- [1:14] - Aaron shares his background as a serial entrepreneur in the intersection of technology and business.
- [3:57] - At the beginning, Aaron didn’t even know what a robocall was.
- [6:47] - Robocalls have this negative connotation. They can actually be good. But there are many that are unwanted.
- [8:13] - There are different types of robocalls and there is a differentiation between spam and scam calls.
- [10:08] - Aaron explains why spam emails are easier to block than robocalls.
- [12:20] - There are some robocalls that are necessary and helpful for some people. That is one reason why not all robocalls can be blocked.
- [13:40] - Not answering the phone is not a plausible solution.
- [15:50] - Nomorobo is basically a series of bots talking to other bots.
- [16:50] - Aaron describes caller ID and how spoofing a number is possible.
- [19:42] - This is such a big problem because the barrier of entry is low.
- [21:08] - It is amazing that we can call anyone in the world. But that also means that scammers can, too.
- [22:53] - This is a complicated problem, and the future solution is a combination of government regulation, companies like Nomorobo, and AI.
- [26:29] - We are never going to win the war, but we can keep it manageable.
- [29:45] - What is the role of the carriers when it comes to robocalls?
- [31:47] - Keeping scammers on the phone does not make the problem go away.
- [33:52] - Some scams are seasonal and some are evergreen, like Medicare calls.
- [36:26] - Aaron explains the different ways these scams can be done and the range of damage they can do.
- [39:56] - At best, this is an annoyance. But there are people in our lives that are vulnerable and less protected.
- [44:42] - Sometimes, Nomorobo users have to turn it off for specific reasons and specific calls they’re waiting for.
- [47:56] - This problem is an example of “death by a thousand papercuts.”
- [49:30] - There are some red flags and things you might notice if you answer robocalls that could indicate that they are scams.
- [50:46] - This seems like an easy problem to solve, but it is far more complicated than most people think.
- [52:00] - Aaron describes what it was like to testify in front of Congress.
- [56:43] - Listen and educate yourself. Talk to other people about these things.
Thanks for joining us on Easy Prey. Be sure to subscribe to our podcast on iTunes and leave a nice review.