What the Hack?

What the Hack?

"What the Hack?" is the award-winning true cybercrime podcast--the place to hear memorable stories and get good advice.

Episodes

December 9, 2025 46 mins
How do you stay safe online? (Wrong answers only.) Avoid public Wi-Fi, QR codes, charging stations. Cyber OG Bob Lord (Yahoo, DNC, CISA) wrote an open letter tackling the real harm caused by bad advice, and offering a better path with proven practices to stay safe online.Check out https://www.hacklore.org/letter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Sextortion scams targeting teenage boys doubled this year—and Paul Raffile says the platforms knew it was happening. Learn how Instagram's default settings let criminals to weaponize friends lists for blackmail, and how social media continues to fail the children it claims to protect. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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The giant glittering scam and fraud trap of the holidays is here. Beau reunites with former co-hosts Adam Levin and Travis Taylor to talk about about fake websites, why gift cards are still a huge vector for fraud, and how to avoid the many pitfalls of the season. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Jeff Williams on the business of moving money: who gets blocked, what slips through, and why checking the right boxes doesn’t always mean a win in the nascent AI-powered sanctions compliance space. From fentanyl money to shell companies, we follow the (often filthy dirty) money. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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When a young engineer uncovered a sizeable click fraud situation at Google, he discovered a bigger problem; namely, the perverse ingenuity that drives online fraud and scams. "Big Breaches" author Neil Daswani joined us to talk click farms, data breaches, AI exploits, and the big picture of cybercrime today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Cybercrime expert Gary Warner joins to discuss Nigerian confraternities, the "campus cults" rooted in idealism that morphed into a multi-billion dollar transnational organized crime network. Learn about the "money blessing," the coded language and insider access, and the elite thug playbook for exploiting trust. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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When scammers tried to steal Graceland, it seemed like a fluke, but deed fraud is very much on the rise. Del Denney of the Land Trust Company explains how criminals steal homes and how to stop it from happening to you. Plus, we revisit Adam Levin's wallet ripper about a twice-targeted beachfront property. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Forensic expert Heather Barnhart (SANS Institute) decoded Osama Bin Laden's phones and helped convict quadruple murderer Brian Kohberger. Learn how surviving her own harassment fueled her mission, plus the digital "pattern of life" hack and simple steps to combat AI deepfakes and stay safe online. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Marketing visionary Seth Godin explains how the Internet got hijacked by an attention-stealing spam economy that keeps us in an endless loop of badly targeted marketing. Godin's anti-spam playbook: demand companies earn your attention with awesomeness, and break the digital slop loop that broke the Internet. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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A locked account. A call for help. What happened next left Tony questioning everything he thought he knew about the Internet. This week is about trust, technology, and how quickly things can unravel when those we count on aren’t who they seem. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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September 30, 2025 43 mins
Former federal prosecutor Tom O’Malley takes us inside the strange, high-stakes world of modern fraud—where victims are presumed guilty, families lose fortunes, and the fight against global crime rings starts at home. Three lessons that could make a difference. Voting: https://vote.signalaward.com/PublicVoting?utm_campaign=signal4_finalists_finalistnotification_092325&utm_medium=email&utm_source=cio#/2025/individual-episodes/genre...
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September 23, 2025 50 mins
Every click, swipe, and post fuels the data economy. Credit cards, apps, even maps—our lives are scraped, stitched, and sold. It feels like a heist, and sometimes it is. Identity Theft Resource Center CEO Eva Casey-Velasquez insists the picture isn’t entirely bleak. This week we talk about the good, the bad, and the ugly of data brokers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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September 16, 2025 43 mins
It started with a slow roll of weird emails and phone calls. And then award-winning filmmaker Dan Sturman found himself in the crosshairs of serious hackers. With parallels to another case of mistaken identity and an assist from security expert Reuben Moretz, this week we explore bad social engineering. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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September 9, 2025 47 mins
Feeling watched? Join us as Vermont Attorney General Charity Clark breaks down the new reality of digital surveillance. From school apps to AI scams, we dive into how companies collect your data and how to take control of your online privacy. The war for privacy is real—and it's a fight you can't afford to lose. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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A fake Microsoft pop-up cost Ken Westbrook’s mom her life savings. But they scammed the wrong family. Westbrook is former CIA. These days he’s sounding the alarm on how foreign crime rings steal billions from Americans with smishing campaigns, scareware, and gift cards. We talked about solutions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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In this second installment of our DEF CON two-parter, we talked to SocialProof Security CEO Rachel Tobac about how and why people are often the weakest link in so many cybersecurity protocols and how making yourself a harder target will cause most threat actors to move on to an easier mark. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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At DEF CON’s Social Engineering Village, contestants have 22 minutes to charm real employees at real companies into revealing real details that could lead to a breach. We step inside the booth to see how persuasion, improv, and psychology fuel both ethical hacking and the rise of cybercrime worldwide. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Kurtis Minder knows the dark web better than most—and he’s not just watching from the sidelines. As a ransomware negotiator, he’s helped victims talk their way out of seemingly impossible situations. This week, we explore how cybercriminals operate, what makes them tick, and what you need to know to avoid becoming their next target. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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A not-entirely innocent moment at a concert set the internet on fire. But what if that was just a symptom of a bigger problem? New York Times journalist Kashmir Hill, author of Your Face Belongs to Us, helps us explore the chilling reality of ambient surveillance, and how facial recognition could be the end privacy as we know it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Online fraud isn't just annoying; it's a national crisis. Last year alone, it may have siphoned $158 billion from the U.S. economy. This episode features AARP's Kathy Stokes, who reveals how fraud has morphed into a sophisticated, global operation and what's being done to fight back against this evolving threat. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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