What the Hack?

Kate is a reservation school teacher in South Dakota. She’s financially responsible, and understands a thing or two about cybersecurity. Unfortunately, everything she knew flew out the window when her car got repossessed. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As a Daily Show correspondent, comedian Roy Wood, Jr. knows a thing or two about fake news and truthiness as well as the truth-and-a-half that is comedy. By skewering the media and the people in the news, he has special insight into how misinformation affects the way we think about the world and what we know. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bob Sullivan does a lot for his trusty golden retriever Rusty, including the maintenance of a busy social media presence. So, you can imagine his horror after losing his phone and with that his access to Rusty’s account. How’d it happen? Cyber! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jessica Roy’s wallet was stolen in a bar and soon her identity was stolen, too. Listen to this cyber-savvy reporter’s saga about doing everything right to protect herself while crime after crime was being committed in her name. And that was before things took a turn for the worse. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Question: What happens when you try to make money off an international crisis by posing as a former Navy signals intelligence guy? Answer: Not much. Just back from Ukraine, Malcolm Nance is a high profile legionnaire, which made him a target for scammers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

No deep fake here. This week, Al Franken does his own impersonations of Bernie Sanders, Mitch McConnell, Chuck Grassley, Sherrod Brown and Susan Collins in this mock Senate Hearing featuring Siri (played by the actual voice-over talent Susan Bennett) and Al’s fellow SNL alum Laraine Newman playing the part of Alexa. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jennifer Kraus knows her way around the world, and is not an easy target for scammers, which is why they targeted her mother. Scams these days slip and slide from analog to digital. The one that we’re talking about today cost about $1000. It arrived via snail mail and email to the same home. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You have heard us talk about two-factor authentication, and if you’re not using it wherever possible you should be. Having said that, hackers know how to get around it these days. In this episode, cybersecurity professional Adam Burley is back to tell us the story of a hacked C-suite client whose situation was more sophisticated than it seemed at first. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Philippa’s business software wasn’t working right, so she Googled for tech support and called the first number listed. Almost immediately, hackers were in her computer looking for sensitive data. This week we explore a new attack vector: online ads and business listings used as lures for unsuspecting victims, and how to avoid getting “got” by them. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

WTH superfan Fumiko dated a sniper she met on the triathlon circuit who was not awesome and left her with questions that Oprah could have answered with great aplomb, but she asked us because, well… We don’t know. But we’re super grateful to have a superfan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Penetration testing may sound a little skeevy, but it is a term of art in the security business. Physical penetration testing….well. Deviant Ollam is a big name in that world with well-documented adventures in getting into places that are supposed to be, well, impenetrable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week Beau goes on a road trip to the Big House in Michigan where he ran afoul of a parking scam outside the third-largest sports arena in the world. We’re going to have to call this one a limited bandwidth / zero available parking scam. Check it out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you have never listened to Chris Hutchins explain how to get free travel, you’ve probably been paying too much for your vacations. Turns out, a threat actor was listening to him and stole his miles. Download this week’s episode to hear how he hacked the situation to score even more points. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Red Queen Dynamics founder Tarah Wheeler knows a thing or two about smashing norms in the cybersecurity industry. But as a human being, she also has some experience being compromised. You’ll definitely want to tune in as she tells us about her own goal as a cybersecurity executive, and how she practices cybersecurity in her own life. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Joelle was on the launch team for the What the Hack podcast, so she knows a thing or two about scams. But when her credit card was hit for thousands of dollars, even we didn’t know what happened–that is, until Travis figured it out (sort of). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Investigative journalist and podcaster Andrew Gold talked to us before about the way magicians work. His second appearance on the show explores a more serious topic. This is not an easy listen, but Germany’s controversial approach to potential sex offenders raises some privacy and ethics issues that are central to the topics we discuss on WTH. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Caitlin Brodnick hosts the ScamWow podcast where she talks about what we talk about, and she has a must-listen podcast. When she’s not in front of a microphone, she spends a lot of time trying to figure out if Reality TV is actually real. Here’s what we found out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

All Dara Starr Tucker wanted was an affordable place to live not quite in the center of things–a place to breathe easy. When she found what looked to be a dream rental for a third of her budget, she was excited, but when she got there her Spidey-sense told her to run. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When it comes to privacy, Ann Cavoukian is a legend. She created Privacy by Design during her tenure as Privacy Commissioner of Ontario, which landed her in the upper echelon of cybersecurity peeps. And she’s Raffi’s sister! Check it out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you followed the news in the early 2000s, you probably remember the ShadowCrew cybercrime group. Brett Johnson rolled with them. These days he’s on the right side of the law, helping people avoid getting hacked, scammed and otherwise crimed… You don’t want to miss this one. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Looking for the blue checkmark on Instagram is the easiest way for consumers to tell if they are dealing with a cloned account, but it’s not so easy to get. The site provides crucial exposure to creatives of all stripe. The problem is scammers are everywhere. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rudy Shepherd was not used to selling his own work online. He had a gallery for that. But when the relationship with that gallery ended, he had to fend for himself, giving new meaning to the phrase, “learning on the job.” Listen in as he takes us on a tour of the Zelle hell with a scammer who knew just what to say. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There are tens of millions of small and medium-size businesses in the United States alone, and depending on their state incorporation, many are in danger of business identity theft. Andy Pham is an American hero by many standards, for sure with regard to the right to become wildly successful. He’s truly living the American Dream. Having grown up in Communist Vietnam for the first ten years of his life, his mom sent him to the United States where she believed he would have a better life and avoid being drafted into the war in Cambodia. She was right. His story of success is eye-popping, but what happened to him on the scam front is almost beyond belief. Download the latest episode to hear how a nasty dentist managed to steal a five million dollar project from Pham, and how he got it back. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Time flies when you’re having fun talking to people from all walks of life about getting scammed, hacked or otherwise cyberbamboozled. It seems like yesterday that we launched What the Hack with Adam Levin, but, this week marks our first anniversary! With highlights and noteworthy moments, our anniversary show is like a chocolate sampler, minus the gross ones with orange jelly that Travis likes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Michelle Waters was a middle school teacher before getting into the teaching tools business, so she has nerves of steel. But when her Facebook account was misappropriated and badly misused, she learned that even veteran teachers have a melting point. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Covid-19 pandemic put millions of people out of work and put billions of dollars in unemployment benefits up for grabs. What was a lifeline for the unemployed became a goldmine for scammers. In this episode, the scammer sometimes rings twice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Social engineering is still a new term for some people. We break it down in this episode by focusing on how reporters and magicians use it. (Get it? There’s a trick involved!) Check out this wide-ranging conversation with journalist Andrew Gold that covers shamans, a classic girlfriend’s mother tale and nose picking. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You may have a little deja vu since Beau is constantly trying to get scammed, but in this episode, Adam, Beau and Travis talk about the scams they’ve stared down in the past–and of course Beau talks about the scam he fell for. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

An ugly divorce becomes fertile ground for an ex’s hacking skills as Hope is persistently compromised by forgotten backdoors to old devices and even a secret dressing-room camera. Hear how he kept getting in and what you can do if you’re worried about cyberstalkers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ever wonder if your phone was listening to you? Have you stared at one of your smart home cameras and got the vibe that you were in the first act of a horror movie? Well, this episode proves that the worst you can imagine is just one bad relationship away! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Adam was a guest on the Date/Able podcast recently, and he had a lot of fun. With a head full of “The Tinder Swindler,” he invited them to be guests on What the Hack to discuss something near and dear to our hearts: Gutting faux-meo catphishers for fun and whatever the opposite of not-losing money and precious time looks like for you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jeff Williams has been on the cybersecurity beat before it had a name. Currently the Global Head of Security at Avast, Jeff was working the ramparts at Microsoft in the mid-oughts when he was tasked with bombing the botnets and making spam email a thing of the past. Your inbox reveals the outcome, but the journey will make you safer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Retired Secret Service Chief of Staff Brian Ebert is back to talk about the time two Romanian hackers accidentally hit security cameras with ransomware that were monitoring the inauguration of Donald Trump. Hear how a sketchy Amazon vendor selling smoking guns (the culinary kind) led the Secret Service to the hackers days before the inauguration. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

ConsumerMan Herb Weisbaum is a veteran protector of all things scammable. On this week’s episode, he joined us to talk about crypto scams. If you invest in crypto you might want to check your accounts to make sure your dough's still there, because there are a lot of ways for it to go walkabout. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Daniel Arnold is a world-famous lenser known in equal parts for fashion and street photography, which may have made him a target. Tune in to hear his remarkably laid back reaction to becoming a victim of identity theft. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Retired U.S. Secret Service chief of staff Brian Ebert joined us to recount the case of an international credit card skimming operation of mind-boggling proportions. Listen in as he tells a story that will make you freeze your credit before you even finish listening. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bill knows a lot about staying safe online and he still got scammed, which is what makes him the perfect guest for What the Hack. Trying to buy some last-minute tickets for a hockey game, he was in the scammer’s sweet spot–rushed and needing something specific. Listen in as he tells us the tale of how he stalked his scammers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We like to think of our hackers (when they get you, they are yours forever) as being super STEM-smart computer lab rats, but as “Green Eggs and Dan” host Dan Ahdoot found out, sometimes they are thirteen-year-olds trying to earn some pocket money. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you’re looking for love and companionship online, you know there are tons of jerks and rabbit boilers out there. You need to be careful. Here’s a story that will make you delete that dating app forever. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Darknet Diaries host Jack Rhysider is back! This time he tells us about a superfan stalker. Ever wonder if all that personal stuff you post on social media might get you in trouble? This week’s episode features an OG cyber expert’s story about just that. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jordan Harbinger is no stranger to the trust triggers that make people do things online and in real life. So, we figured he had some firsthand experience based on his coverage of hacking and social engineering on The Jordan Harbinger Show, but we didn’t know how wonderfully devious his stories from the early days were going to be. Check out this must-listen episode, or be hacked immediately. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Identity theft, a Ghanaian car smuggling syndicate, and a mystery insurance policy that didn’t even make it into the episode – this story has it all, and from a previous guest we never imagined would become a victim of this sort of crime. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Adam Burley is a “second-generation nerd” (that’s “cybersecurity expert” to you). He makes a living protecting businesses and their networks. When the ransomware gang behind the Colonial Pipeline attack infiltrated an unprotected server, he faced a crash course in how Ransomware-as-a-Service gangs operate. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Darknet Diaries host Jack Rhysider is no stranger to cybercrime, but he’s relatively new to NFTs, a digital space still in Wild West mode. Jack joined us to talk about NFT pitfalls and the pickpocket vibes he’s encountered while investing in them, some digital wallet woes and more. He also had great advice for anyone thinking about making a move in the NFT space. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, we want to introduce you to Now, What's Next?, an original podcast from Morgan Stanley. This season of Now, What's Next looks at how the supply chain connects us all, and what happens when it breaks. The “Great Kettlebell Shortage” episode looks at why it was so hard to get kettlebells during the height of the pandemic. In this episode we meet Jay Perkins, the co-founder of Kettlebell Kings. During the beginning of the shortage, Jay sold out of two containers worth of product in about 10 minutes. While some businesses were hurting, others stepped in to fill the gap left by China. We hear from kettlebell manufacturers in Vietnam and the US who took the opportunity to make their move. Listen to Now, What’s Next? anywhere you listen to podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Valentine’s Day is Christmas for scammers. Millions of people looking for love make themselves vulnerable to strangers online every day. Sadly, the person pitching woo isn’t always who they claim to be. The catfish du jour was pretty brave, but the only bread he saw was for a cyber po’boy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We liked Brian so much, the conversation went on for a really long time. If you didn’t catch the last episode, we talked to Brian Fennimore about his ancient experience with a compromised Hotmail account after trying to find some fizzy candy online. This time around, we go deep and learn some security tricks we didn’t know about. Pro tip: If you want two episodes, fascinate us. (He really did tell us stuff we didn’t know.) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brian Fennimore does cybersecurity for a living, but even infosec pros don’t pop out of Zeus’s head perfectly formed. Listen to the story of how nostalgia, a sugar craving and a reused password landed him in trouble back before cyber was a thing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Whim wanted to teach overseas. While based on the coast of Portugal, she was offered a teaching position from two employers. She didn’t know that she was about to end up with no job at all, narrowly avoiding getting taken for a bundle of dough. Also in this episode: Adam continues to hack Beau in every way imaginable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Trolls are misunderstood creatures, but they’re so mean that it’s hard to feel for them–unless you’re sussing out their soft underbelly for a kill shot. We talked to journalist Megan Carpentier, who is no stranger to online harassment. She gave us a crash course on trolls–how to recognize them and make them go away. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices