The Ransomware War
Easy Prey
Ransomware isn’t a lone hacker in a hoodie. It’s an entire criminal industry complete with developers, brokers, and money launderers working together like a dark tech startup. And while these groups constantly evolve, so do the tools and partnerships aimed at stopping them before they strike. My guest today is Cynthia Kaiser, former Deputy Assistant Director of the FBI’s Cyber Division and now the Head of the Ransomware Research Center at Halcyon. After two decades investigating global cyber threats and briefing top government leaders, she’s now focused on prevention and building...
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Opportunistic Crimes
Easy Prey
Criminals are always adapting. Whether it’s copper wiring stripped from job sites or porch pirates grabbing deliveries in broad daylight, they keep finding new ways to take what isn’t theirs. But maybe prevention isn’t about harsher punishment or more cameras. Maybe it’s about smarter design and understanding what drives people to steal in the first place. My guest today is Dr. Ben Stickle, a professor of criminal justice at Middle Tennessee State University and one of the country’s top researchers on property crime. Before entering academia, he worked in law enforcement, which gives...
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Post Scam Guidebook
Easy Prey
Fraud usually gets talked about in numbers like how much money was stolen, how many people were affected, how many cases got filed. But behind every one of those numbers is a person who’s been blindsided, manipulated, or left trying to rebuild trust in others and in themselves. This episode shifts the focus back to those human stories and the fight to protect them. My guest, Freddie Massimi, has spent more than a decade helping scam victims find both financial and emotional recovery, bringing empathy and understanding to a field that too often feels cold and procedural. As a certified...
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Can You Trust Anything Online
Easy Prey
You think you’d never fall for a scam until you meet someone like Kitboga. He’s a software engineer who’s turned his curiosity about online fraud into a full-time mission to outsmart scammers and protect the people they target. His YouTube channel, The Kitboga Show, has millions of followers and nearly a billion views, thanks to his mix of humor, empathy, and clever ways of exposing how scams really work. In our conversation, Kit opens up about how this all started, what it’s really like to spend hours pretending to be a scam victim, and how organized crime has turned fraud into a...
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Real Time Fraud Detection
Easy Prey
Everywhere you turn, someone’s trying to fake something like an image, a voice, or even an entire identity. With AI tools now in almost anyone’s hands, it takes minutes, not days, to create a convincing fake. That’s changed the game for both sides. The fraudsters have new weapons, and the rest of us are scrambling to keep up. The real question now isn’t just how to stop scams, but how to know who or what to trust online. My guest today, Bala Kumar, spends his days on the front lines of that battle. He’s the Chief Product and Technology Officer at Jumio, a company working to make...
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Child Predator Tactics
Easy Prey
Kids spend more time online than ever, and for the most part it feels normal. They’re gaming, watching videos, and chatting with friends. But hidden in those same spaces are adults who know how to pose as kids, build trust, and push conversations into dangerous territory. Parents might think it couldn’t happen to their child, yet detectives see how quickly an “innocent” interaction can turn into grooming or extortion. That’s the world Detective Seth Cockerham works in every day. He’s been in law enforcement in Texas for close to a decade, and the last few years have been dedicated...
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Identity Trafficking
Easy Prey
Some people are willing to hand over their identities for cash, while organized fraudsters are lining up to buy them. What used to be a matter of stolen credit cards has turned into a global marketplace where personal details fuel large-scale fraud. Now with AI, automation, and deepfakes making impersonation easier than ever, it’s becoming much more difficult to protect identities. To understand how we got here and what can be done, I spoke with Ofer Friedman, Chief Business Development Officer at AU10TIX. Ofer has spent more than 15 years in the identity verification and compliance...
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Technology, Trust & Time
Easy Prey
Technology is moving faster than our ability to process its impact, forcing us to question trust, motivation, and the value of our time. Few people have had a closer view of those shifts than Esther Dyson. With a background in economics from Harvard, Esther built a career as a journalist, author, commentator, investor, and philanthropist, with a unique ability to spot patterns across industries and challenge assumptions before they become mainstream. She is the executive founder of Wellville, a ten-year nonprofit project dedicated to improving equitable well-being in communities across the...
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The Global Scam Battle
Easy Prey
Cybercrime continues to evolve in sophistication and scale, with attackers running their operations much like businesses. From ransomware gangs with customer support desks to AI-generated phishing campaigns that erase traditional red flags, scams are becoming harder to detect and stop. In this episode, David Bittner, host of the CyberWire Daily Podcast, shares his perspective on the changing landscape of fraud and cyberattacks. Drawing on his background in media, theater, and podcasting, as well as years of reporting on security issues, he explains how both criminals and defenders are using...
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AI Supercharges Scams
Easy Prey
Cybercriminals are accelerating their attacks in ways that weren’t possible a few years ago. Artificial intelligence is giving them the ability to spin up phishing campaigns, voice clones, and deepfakes in minutes instead of days. As a result, the gap between what’s genuine and what’s fake is closing fast, making it harder for both individuals and organizations to defend themselves. I’m thrilled to welcome Brett Winterford, Vice President of Okta Threat Intelligence. Brett has had a front row seat to these changes. His team analyzes identity-based attacks and delivers insights to help...
info_outlineMost of us think of scams as random or isolated or something that just happens to unlucky people. But what if the truth is far more organized, far more disturbing? Behind many of today’s scams is a global web of criminal enterprises, structured like corporations and fueled by technology, data, and billions of stolen dollars.
In this episode, we sit down with Ken Westbrook. Ken spent over three decades in the CIA before retiring, only to return to the fight after his own mother was targeted and lost most of her life savings to a tech support scam. That moment changed everything. He founded Stop Scams Alliance, a nonprofit on a mission to stop scams before they ever reach our devices. His approach? Building bridges between tech companies, banks, telecom, government, and consumer advocates to cut these criminal operations off at the source.
Ken brings a rare blend of intel experience and personal urgency to this issue. He breaks down what’s really going on behind the scenes, why the U.S. is falling behind in this fight, and how other countries are pushing back effectively. If you think this can’t happen to you or someone you love, think again. This conversation is a wake-up call.
Show Notes:
- [00:58] Ken is the founder and CEO of Stop Scams Alliance, a non-profit dedicated to reducing scams in the United States.
- [01:21] They are focused on the left of the boom or before the scam happens.
- [01:43] Ken served for 33 years in the CIA.
- [02:28] We learn how Ken's mother was scammed on Valentine's Day of 2023. He started looking into these scams, and he was horrified.
- [03:19] As a nation, we need to do better to defend ourselves. Ken came out of retirement to do just that.
- [03:32] His board of directors has a lot of government officials who decided to join the fight. We are literally under attack by foreign organized crime, and we're not doing enough to protect ourselves.
- [04:03] 21 million Americans are scammed each year.
- [04:45] The number of scam and fraud victims are increasing.
- [05:15] It's become a business, and the scammers are getting better at what they do.
- [06:36] How Chinese criminal gangs shifted from casinos to scamming operations. People join voluntarily or are sometimes kidnapped.
- [07:24] It's also expanding around the world.
- [10:12] The British government actually has a scam czar. So does Australia. They have a strategy and a fraud policy.
- [12:08] You think you're talking to the IRS or your bank, but you're not.
- [13:45] Having a whitelist for financial advertising. Other countries are finding value in authenticating, maybe the United States should pay attention.
- [15:36] Scammers love to get people on the telephone. In many countries, telecom companies will block spoofing calls from other countries.
- [16:47] We need authenticated text messages in the US.
- [17:42] We have more companies and free enterprise, so it's more complicated in the US.
- [19:35] We need somebody in charge. It's an economic war with transnational organized crime.
- [22:34] Fake investment scams are the number one scam when it comes to losses.
- [27:46] Ken shares what happened in his mom's case. It was a tech support scam. His mom clicked on an obituary site and scareware popped up.
- [30:08] The whole point is to get you to call a fake 1-800 number that you think is Microsoft.
- [30:51] The Phantom hacker was able to look up where she banked by using her phone number. Then they put her in touch with the fake fraud department at the bank.
- [32:11] Then they sent her to Home Depot to buy gift cards and then cashier's checks.
- [33:55] Fortunately the banks intervened, but she still lost a lot of money.
- [36:38] We need to realize that we're being attacked by Chinese cyber criminals.
- [39:38] People under the age of 50 are falling victim to scams more than the elderly people.
- [41:31] The average loss last year of an older person was $83,000. Older people are being targeted because of their demographic.
- [43:31] Criminals micro-target just like advertisers.
- [44:04] We all need to be aware of the threats out there. If you get a call that you're not expecting, always assume it's not legitimate.
- [45:21] Be wary of links.
Thanks for joining us on Easy Prey. Be sure to subscribe to our podcast on iTunes and leave a nice review.