April 9, 2025 • 44 mins
Empowering Family Safety with Open Source Intelligence
In this episode of The Secure Family Podcast, host Andy Murphy welcomes Ricky Alonzo, an open source intelligence expert also known as Rickynomics.
The discussion centers on empowering parents to protect their families through informed decision-making and the use of open source intelligence (OSINT). Ricky shares his journey and expertise and explains how OSINT can be used to safeguard family safety, conduct background checks, and understand potential threats. He also shares how to protect your home’s title from being taken from you.
Ricky gives valuable advice on how parents can assess potential threats their children might face online and offers strategies to decentralize personal information to make it harder for malicious actors to exploit. The episode is a comprehensive guide to using intelligence skills to enhance family security in today's digital age.
For more from Ricky Alonzo: https://institutionoftheamericas.com/
Take control of your data with DeleteMe. Because they sponsor the podcast you can get 20% off a privacy plan from DeleteMe with promo code: DAD.
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00:00 Welcome to The Secure Family Podcast
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:10):
This is The Secure Family Podcast.
Welcome friend.
I'm Andy Murphy, the host andfounder of The Secure Dad.
This show is all about empowering parentsto protect themselves and their family.
I believe that security is thefoundation of happiness, and I want
your family to be safe and happy.
The information I share on this podcastis for general information purposes only.
(00:33):
My goal is to empower you tomake safer decisions for yourself
and for your family because oursafety is our own responsibility.
Today, I chat with an open sourceintelligence guru about what we can do to
use information to protect our families,and also protect the titles on our homes.
All of that and more coming upon The Secure Family Podcast.
(00:59):
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That's JoinDeleteMe.com/dad code DAD.
Ricky, thank you so much fortaking time outta your schedule
to be on the show today.
Introduce yourself to everybody.
Thank you, Amy.
I'm super hyped to be here.
So I'm, uh, Ricky Alonso, known asRickynomics on, uh, on Instagram.
(02:11):
So, uh, my background is I grew up twoColombian parents, first generation
American, and grew up in Queens.
Traveled around the world.
I was blessed with that andthat incorporates into a lot of
the perspectives that I have.
And when I applied to my analysis,went to St. John's University,
major in criminal justice, Marine,homeland, corporate security.
(02:33):
After that I was like, you know, I reallywanna apply these skills somewhere.
So went to the Army.
I went as a military intelligenceanalyst, uh, stationed in Fort
Carson, went to Afghanistan.
That was dynamic.
And then after that experience I waslike, I really wanna wrap up my MBA.
So I got my MBA return customer toSt. John's University and I got,
(02:58):
uh, I got my con, I was able to adda concentration into real estate.
And that's pretty 'cause that's prettymuch what my family business is and that's
what, uh, lends itself to my economicand financial understandings as well.
while I was getting my MBA, we havea mutual friend, uh, cyber Alisa.
Um,
Yeah.
yeah, and so was working with her inthe counter human trafficking fight.
(03:21):
Still very good friends, uh,and around doing trainings.
Another mutual friend, Ed, Ed Calderon.
So I did a
Mm-hmm.
with him and.
Go to Columbia and I also do myfirearms and com and uh, strategic
trainings down there as well.
And that is what, and I use RickEconomics to kind of take all my
(03:41):
experiences and it helps back up my,uh, open source intelligence abilities,
uh, how to actually write in a waythat makes it matter to everybody to
whoever you're trying to cater it to.
So that's the breadthof what I am, I guess.
Man, that that's like, you've had,you know, I have so many like,
(04:03):
really interesting people like onthis show, and you're just like,
oh, like I, I have these degrees.
I served in the military,I did all this stuff.
You just casually just mentionedthat you've, you've, I mean,
I, you're younger than me and Ithink you've done more than me.
So congratulations on that.
Um, so you've had like this.
Really cool, like career arc. Like what,what attracted you to the OSI field?
(04:27):
What made this say like, Hey, thisis where I wanna spend my time,
this is where I wanna put my energy.
You know what?
It's something that I reflect,even when I do my writings today.
It's like, how am I, how amI writing about the economic
collapse of Venezuela today?
And how am I making thatmatter to individuals?
How do I, and it comes all theway back to how my mom raised me,
(04:48):
where she took, uh, not knowing.
As not an excuse.
So she always made me search whetherit was the library, whether it
was looking at public records.
So for example, like my, mymom's a professional and so is my
father in the real estate field.
And it's like sometimes youneed to know everything about
the deal before it happens.
(05:10):
she kind of has this, she hadthis pressure and it was a
healthy amount of pressure.
It's like, well listen, you'reyoung, you know, technology.
Go and find these things out orgo into the court, uh, go to the
public records, go figure this stuffout so that we don't waste time.
And that lent itself to beinglike, I didn't even know.
That was like thebeginnings emergence of osi.
(05:33):
But then when I went to St.
John's and I had all these detectives andcolonels and all these people like, and
the criminal justice program was like new.
So these guys were just like, I'mjust gonna share all the experiences
we have and we'll see that
Oh, that's cool.
So it was like, wow.
You know, it's not justlike textbook stuff.
It's like, this was a case Ihad, this is how we found him.
(05:54):
This is how he did this,this is how he did that.
This is how you don't get in.
Trouble, which is a big deal, you know,like, and how to actually construct
your evidence in such a way that youcan bring it to a court, uh, rather
than looking like a stalker then it'sall, and again, lands you in jail.
So, and I took all of that.
(06:14):
And then I would say the big refiningpoint was going into the army using.
types of, uh, technologiesthat are super advanced.
But then you realize like, youknow what if I look at social media
accounts, you know what I mean?
Like, and you can kind of figure,you can gauge what people care
about, what people are doing,and that's how the osint ability
(06:37):
capability starts to grow even more.
Just like it, the inceptionof making it apply to business
then growing into like, wow.
We really need to kind of figureout what's going on in this
sector of the world in a way thatdoesn't require like a a million
dollar satellite, you know, like,
Sure.
uh, yeah.
So that's, I would say that is whatactually drives my passion for Osint to
(07:02):
make it matter, not just for intelligenceprofessionals, but for people like,
like you and people in the audience thatwant to use it to defend their families.
Right.
So you have said the term osint.
So have I. We've saidopen source intelligence.
Give everybody what your definitionof open source intelligence is.
Right.
So, um, let's, uh, let's clarifylike where this falls into, like in
(07:27):
terms of what is intelligence, right?
Mm-hmm.
is the refinement of data into usableinformation for, to achieve a goal.
That's
Okay.
really, like, it's like you can, soimagine, it's like you take a bunch
of pictures of a car accident, right?
And then it's like, okay.
hand these pictures just to yourboss and it's like, well, what?
(07:50):
What the heck does this mean?
The intelligence is like, well, itactually looks like he, he didn't
break and he intentionally hit the carbecause of X, Y, Z. Oh, so this changes
it from an accident to a collision.
So that's making that matter.
So that's intelligence at that point.
The open source part.
(08:10):
this the legal gray area, Where youare going to public records that
can be from, and, and it doesn'tmatter what capability you're using.
It can be from the computer, it can be,it can be from, uh, going to a website,
it can be talking to professionals.
(08:31):
You're using different capabilitiesthat are available to the public.
And that means even looking at, uh.
Social media and things like that.
So when you take all that andthen you refine it and you make it
matter, putting in intelligence,that's open source intelligence.
I guess what we, we kind of alludedto before this was when people
(08:56):
are, nowadays are looking at itfrom like the hacker point of view.
They're looking it fromthe software point of view.
They're looking at, theypeople are going to look at it.
Such a way based on their trade.
So that's
Hmm.
I, I, and, and what and, and that I'mguilty of that because I'm looking
at it from the finance point of viewand the intelligence point of view.
(09:18):
So you can come at it in anyway that you want in terms of
how you want to engage osi.
Yeah.
Gotcha.
Yeah, it's really is, youknow, what is your intent?
What is the informationthat you hope to gain?
And that's really, reallywhat it means to you.
Alright, so there are people who arelistening who, who wanted the answer to
this type of question, so I'll ask it.
(09:38):
You know, I'm gonnaplay the dad card here.
Let's say I've got, you know, a.20 something year old daughter
and she just started dating anew guy that she met at work.
How do I found out, how do I findout more about him and the interest
in just protecting my daughter?
I'm not trying to like creep on theguy, but I just wanna make sure that I
think he's okay to be dating my child.
What?
What would I need to do?
(10:00):
I would say.
It's really easy to belike, use this program.
You can find
Mm.
about 'em.
And I can give you a list of websitesin terms of like what, can find
out a lot about this individual.
what's really gonna matter isbefore you even start, right, you
have to know what makes somebodya threat to your daughter, right?
(10:23):
So if you start by saying, well,somebody who is violent, okay, well, how
do you find out the person's violent?
Well, let's, do a basic background check.
And now there's a freeway to do it, right,
Mm-hmm.
you send a piece of paper toyour local police department
(10:43):
and guess what that does?
Now your name is attachedto that background check.
Anything happens to this guy?
Now you're in trouble.
You know what I mean?
Right.
But if you use like common websitesand people will be like, oh, but if you
state the common websites that's like.
You're paying for the service and it's
Mm-hmm.
looking normal.
That's the thing, because if you get a,if you get a background check from White
(11:05):
Pages, it doesn't look nefarious at all.
'cause employers use it.
Everybody use it.
It's common use.
So what is that gonna tell you?
It's not gonna tell youthe person's a good person.
It'll tell you the, it's gonna tellyou this person was caught, you know,
Mm-hmm.
immediately write 'em off.
So, oh, assault and bat like, andit's also knowing what the words mean.
(11:25):
Assault and battery, you know,
Mm-hmm.
order.
It's like, oh, these are signsthat this person could be violent.
So engage with that.
You're gonna bump into a bunch ofwebsites that say it's free, and
then you're gonna click through 10different types of panels, and then
it's gonna tell you, but for only 9 99.
Just go use, just go use
Right.
(11:46):
You know what I mean?
And if it's just for that, forthis one instance, and this
person's pretty serious, thenit's kind of worth it, right?
Mm-hmm.
you can also check for free if thisperson is a sexual predator, right?
So family
Mm-hmm.
is one, and there's a bunch ofother websites that use that.
Make sure you're using differentsources so that you're not getting
the wrong name, you know what I mean?
(12:07):
And make sure that it all lines up.
Right.
so.
That's just to find out if this person'sbeen caught being violent or deviant
right now, what is the traits ofsomebody that could be a risk to anyone,
like to your daughter, to your son?
What is something that happensmore than just physical attacks?
(12:29):
It's, uh, like reputation destruction.
Is this person on the, in, onsocial media is this person?
Socially disparaging other people like, soand so ripped me off, so and so did this.
If you gotta look for someonewho's bombastic, someone who's
(12:50):
really willing, who, who projectstheir resentments, you're looking
for negative personality traits.
So it's not just about looking atthe page, it's about going deeper
into the person's personality.
like, because here'swhat's gonna happen, right?
You're gonna be like, you're a dadthat's gonna talk to your daughter.
(13:11):
almost like you're gonna haveto present this as a case.
You know, when you compile everything.
Because if you say, look at allthese screenshots, you know, look
at him like, like he still talksabout his ex, he still does this.
He still does.
What does that matter?
When you come at it and you have someevidence, and it's like, well listen,
people who've display this personalityis somebody that's going to be a risk to.
(13:35):
Future to your reputation and toyour, and to your mental health
because this is a person thatcannot be mature on the internet.
And I think that is what'smore important to look for.
Now, gaining the, and, and whenyou can go into that, you don't
need like all this hyper technologyto do such a light litmus test.
(13:59):
It's like, is thisperson competent enough?
Right?
So that is what you're looking for.
When you go into the Facebook, when yougo into, when you go into Instagram,
when you go and maybe he makes videos,find out what kind of videos he makes.
Like, because, for example,I, I train with firearms.
That
Mm-hmm.
make me a violent person.
(14:19):
It makes me capable, but
Correct.
not in itself makes me a bad personbecause that's the le that's, that's the
lens that's gonna have to come through it.
Now I've come across casesthat someone shows me, right?
person, love people who hunt, butthis person hunted and he showed
(14:39):
photos that he was mutilating animals.
it's like that's somebody that you, it islike, that is somebody that has a tendency
that can be adverse to your daughter.
You know what I
Mm-hmm.
So it's going through a differentlenses, and I'll be honest with you,
the thing that's helped me the most whenI'm looking at these cases is having
a basic understanding of psychology.
(15:02):
mother, other than her accounting degree,she grew up, she had a child edu uh,
early child education background raisedme on psychology books and I was just
reading those and then, and then like Ihad a concentration of forensic psychology
while I was going into St. John's.
And having those perspectives and lenseswhen you're looking at, at these things
(15:23):
on the screen is what actually helps megauge how threatening someone can be.
So if I were to say a good place to start.
knowing what a threat looks like beforeeven engaging in the whole trajectory of
finding out who this person is online.
Got it.
That's, that's a really good answer.
It's not like, Hey, just goto White pages.com and see
(15:45):
if they've been arrested.
Because the, the point that you made, um,is that this, this is just showing that
if you've been caught or not, and you.
And I both well know, um, from, uh,the, the, the me educating parents
and you protecting people, um, that,you know, creeps don't always get
caught or they'll hurt a lot ofpeople before they ever have any sort
(16:07):
of government record, uh, to do it.
So yeah, man, that's,that's a really good point.
You can't just take a look at it andsay, oh, well, there's no arrest,
so you must be a good person.
That's not necessarily the case.
Not.
Exactly, exactly.
It's just a negative.
It's just a, like
Right,
tested negative forbeing caught, you know?
(16:28):
right.
They, they tested negative.
I like that.
Uh, so kind of, um, give me a waythat I can, as a parent, use Osint to
better understand any sort of potentialonline threats that my kids may face.
I know that's a really broadquestion, but, um, what, what's,
what's your first thoughts there?
Um.
(16:50):
And this is where I think itreflects back to like understanding
the psychology of the problem.
Where it's like, you ha what?
What are kids looking for nowadaysin the internet that they're
not getting from the real world?
Attention.
looking for acceptance.
They're looking for recognition.
(17:11):
They're looking for things that youwould normally find before the internet.
in sports teams, what's inwas in going into going to the
arcade, going to these places.
So now the internet is a place to
Mm-hmm.
satisfaction, social media, TikTok withtheir inflated numbers, you know, and
(17:35):
like, and going into, uh, like going intothe games that are now popular with kids.
Then you have to, and the appsthemselves are, well, I, it's
kind of hard to say, right?
They are kind of bad 'cause they'rewired to keep, to keep your attention.
But these are just places, thesame places that abductions
can happen in a physical place.
(17:57):
People manipulating and groomingkids can happen in these places too.
Making the child aware of aproblem that they can succumb to.
Giving them the tools to, to identifysomebody who's trying to get a
inappropriate amount of gratificationfrom them, protect your reputation,
(18:20):
to protect your things is kindof like the first shield, right?
And is it's, it's educatingthe kid that listen.
So for a game like Roblox, wherepeople can actually create environments
in any way, shape, or form, whichcan be look non nefarious, but.
Even like cartels are using themto reenact their assassinations,
(18:43):
even though that's likenot, you know what I mean?
Like,
I had no clue that was happening.
Yeah.
that.
That is very, I, I'm careful with this.
That's very on brand, but wow.
That's
Wow.
yeah.
No, they're, they have an, theyhave an incredible, uh, marketing,
uh, department, you know, and, uh,
(19:03):
and that's, and that's, it's alsoimportant to know what kind of violence
are you looking for as a parent, right?
are you aware that, uh, people canactually see reenactments of violent
crimes on something like Roblox?
Or they can actually.
Engaged in these really crazyconversations with full-blown adults.
You know, are youmonitoring their behavior?
(19:25):
How much time are they on these things?
Because the more time somebody's,the more time somebody's at a
bar, the more likely they're gonnaget in a, in a fist fight, right?
So it's just like how, like, soit's just like, take that analogy.
It's like, well if he's only playingfor 30 minutes you could kind of su
kind of somewhat pseudo supervise that.
(19:46):
Least likely someone's gonna beable to fully engage with your
child and do something nefarious.
So controlling time is anotherway of like, of getting them off
the X and making sure they'renot gonna go into these problems.
But just making sure you'reaware of the capabilities,
video sharing, audio sharing.
Is it disappearing messages?
(20:07):
If this is checking off all those blocks,then it's like this is something I
have to actually look, because I couldgive a list of like, these are the
websites that you need to be careful of.
But the websites change.
Once something becomesuncool, they hop around.
But if you know how to look forcapability, if you know what, what
bad looks like then, and it has to beaccording to your own moral code as well.
(20:31):
Because if you're, if you don't even knowwhat bad looks like, know, how the heck
are you gonna know how to look for it?
that takes a lot of self-educationand it's a lot of pressure, uh, on
families today to get acquainted.
And, and I would say to savetime, don't be, don't try to
look for every bad website.
(20:52):
Know what a bad website looks like.
So then when you see it, you, you,you can, our first approach be like.
That's being capped at 10 minutesor that's being capped at no time.
Or actually I'm just gonna flatout block this from their device.
So that's, that would be the initiate,the, um, how you would initiate
using Osis I and using that mindset.
(21:14):
'cause it's, I, it's, it's funny howeverything in the training world,
like mindsets become super popular.
You know, like, oh, it'sa, it's a, it's a train.
It, it's, it's so knowingwhat wrong looks like.
And teaching that to the kid actingaccordingly is gonna be your best bet.
Rather than searching through,memorizing a list of websites
(21:35):
that's gonna be non-existentin like three months from now.
that's,
That's, that's all fantastic information.
Like you are, you're expanding myhorizons here and I felt like I was pretty
educated on this, uh, before we started.
So I'm was, I'm gonna call you ProfessorRicky from here on out, so, um.
In addition to all the thingsthat you have done, you have an
(21:56):
MBA in real estate, uh, from St.
John's.
You told us about that.
Uh, a big question that I've had, youknow, for, you know, about a year now,
because this blew up on, you know,social media, is how much information
can somebody find out about my home,
Mm-hmm.
my mortgage?
Kind of walk me through what'sall the public information about
(22:17):
the property that I may own.
Okay, so I can come at thisbecause I actively do this,
Mm-hmm.
disclosure.
So I actively do this.
For example, there's a lot of peoplewho don't want to, who are older.
They're in retirement age andthey don't wanna sell their home.
And listen, I live, I live in New Yorkthere's a lot of people who don't want to
(22:40):
go to the sixth Borough, which is Miami.
You know what I mean?
and.
What happens is it's like outof, out of a sense of like
compassion, to be completely honest.
Like, well, if you can't really affordto be in your home, I'd rather you
take out something called a hecu,which is like a, it's kind, it's a,
it's a loan program where the bankpretty much pays them to stay in the
(23:03):
home using the equity of the house.
And how do you find outif someone qualifies?
Well, there's programs, you know, theage of the person who lives there.
So if they are in that, if they'rein that age bracket of 65, right.
And over.
If, how much equity they have in thehouse that's available, uh, there's a lot
of programs out there that I can see howmuch of your mortgage has been paid off.
(23:25):
And I can also see if you areactually still making payments
or you're going into foreclosure,or if you're having a tough time.
this part is like, well, this is forthe marketing, but how can somebody
use this in a ver, in a nefarious way?
Well, if I know the name of your bank.
I can just look and see thelogo of it and everything else.
(23:48):
I can just send a fake, uh,letter from the bank going to
that elderly person's home.
Right?
And then it's like, Hey, listen, uh, youactually have to pay into this account
and not the mortgage that you still have.
Right?
And then this person'sgonna be falling behind.
(24:09):
that is the, that's just basicallywhat you can pull from the internet.
Uniquely, Suffolk Countyhas like a different problem
because they were hacked.
So a lot of the documents havebeen kind of like disarranged.
So that's kinda in, in a, an indirectform of protection that that has.
So against people looking up documents.
(24:30):
But for the rest of the country, peoplecan find out how much you've been paying.
Are you paying on time?
Are you susceptible to deception likethis, you know, if someone sends a
letter pretending to be your bank.
that is the kind of threat that canoccur, against people nowadays, just
basically with how much availabilitypeople have now, the county that I
(24:54):
usually work in the most has a wayof protecting people against that.
It's called the House system.
Uh, it is called the house system.
It is like housing prote, likesomething with protection.
I wish I could remember theacronym, but I know it works.
'cause I, I can see when peoplelook up the deed, so it's your
local county and your, and uh,and your public records office.
(25:18):
That gives you a heads up somebody'slooking at your deed, somebody's
trying to pull title and letting youknow like things are happening to
your house that you should know about.
this is when you contact them and say,I'm not authorizing any of this, so people
can't just steal your D from under you.
that seems to be a really devastatingtactic that's been more popularized now.
(25:43):
Right?
Like how, how realistic is it be thatsomebody could actually steal your deed?
And is this something that canbe done legally or is this just
something that is outright illegal?
I.
Let's look at something that is like agray area, and then we're gonna work our
way to the dark, darker, darker, darker.
You know what I mean?
So what happens is, is thatnow with the, so many policies
(26:08):
flying through the air right now.
might not know which taxes they,they need to pay if the, if, if their
property taxes had been adjusted.
So what happens is, is that youprobably see like ads for this as
a quick way to be a millionaire.
Questionable.
But it's like you can buy people's,uh, uh, real estate tax debts, you
(26:28):
know, so if somebody owes a thousanddollars on real estate taxes and
you pay it off, then that, then nowthere's a lien on the property to you.
It's like maybe you paid nothing.
Like, like maybe they, they've been payingtheir mortgage straight for 20 years, but
they couldn't afford the property taxes.
(26:50):
then all of a sudden now you havesomebody that's like saying, Hey, you
know what, um, I, you owe me and I'mnot gonna accept any payment from you so
you can be pushed out of the property.
I can start an eviction process.
So, you see like, and, and thenguess what he, but he did pay
the tax debt and you can pull up.
Everyone who owes you taxes, uh, whoowes taxes, uh, from a public records
(27:14):
office, because that's public information.
And that's, uh, and it's notfinancial advice and nor do I
Right, right.
Yes.
Understood.
So,
This is for educational purposes only.
only, yes.
But, uh.
But yeah, but hey, make sure you'reup to date on everything, on what
(27:34):
you're paying because you could besusceptible to an attack like that.
So that's just one instance.
Another instance is, uh, people put peopledoing works on your home and putting like
different forms of mechanics, liens on it,
Mm-hmm.
it.
That's another way people can.
Anything that leveragessomebody against you with debt.
(27:59):
Mm-hmm.
their unwillingness to takepayment 'cause they'd rather
have the house than the payment.
So that is the commonway of being leveraged.
That's why knowing that you're upto date with your mortgage, knowing
that you're up to date with yourtaxes, knowing that you're like,
Hey, listen, this guy's calling meand he's saying that I owe this.
I know for a fact don't owe X, Y, Zbecause I'm on top of my finances.
(28:23):
And knowing where everything'sgoing and, oh, I don't, I don't
get physical correspondence frommy bank 'cause I did paperless.
So you see like, and, and that's inthese little ways of knowing what you
owe and knowing who the people who youowe that to, what they look like is
gonna be your best defense right now.
(28:43):
And having something like an alertof knowing that somebody's looking
into your property, you know,
Okay.
if it's not in your public records office.
I don't know, contact your congressman.
Make sure that they make that, uh, aprotection because it's, it's, it's
more widely accepted now to have apublic records on protect people now.
So that's pretty, yeah,
(29:05):
Right.
And I can go to my, the public recordsoffice and look up my stuff and just make
sure that everything is still kosher.
Right.
also look up who's beenlooking at your stuff,
Okay.
So they'd be like, Hey,why is this company.
Like, you know, like, why isthis company looking at my stuff?
Like, what the heck?
You know?
And, and then that'll give you a headsup and where you're gonna act from there.
(29:28):
Okay, so it might just be worthit, you know, twice a year, go
meet a friend for lunch downtown.
Head over to the records office,ask for that to be pulled.
Look at it, and then you're on your way.
Actually you can, uh, you can probablyget it from their, uh, from their website.
I mean, it might look archaic 'causemost government websites do, but
sometimes they do have a download yourrecords here, you know, and, you just
(29:50):
have to prove that you're the owner.
If they have that step, that's a goodindicator that it's harder for people to
pull for information about your property.
Right.
yeah.
right.
So from your, your time in realestate and with all the osint stuff,
is there a story that you have thatyou can share with us that kind of
illustrates how these things work?
So it's, it would be outsideof the realm of real estate.
(30:13):
It was actually an incident.
is something that, uh, unfortunatelyis what I, what I'm really glad to
have known these capabilities for.
I had a very good friend goes to the uni,who went to the University of Anti oia.
It's kind of like saying theywent to the MIT of Columbia.
Mm-hmm.
I mean?
It's like a really good university.
So it's a public university,and unfortunately because it's
(30:36):
a public university and theiradministration can't tell a difference
between a riot and a protest.
So what happens is, like you have violentactivity that occurs on the campus,
and she was, and she was cornered ina corner of a, in a, in a building.
(30:57):
She didn't want to move out because theywere throwing what was like potato bombs,
which is like an inert bomb that if oncedispersed, it doesn't have any shrapnel.
But you know, it's, itcan lead to concussions.
If there is debris on theground, you can have a piece of
shrapnel hitting you in the neck.
It's not as safe as the.
(31:18):
Rioters think it is.
I dunno what the heck they're thinking.
But, uh, but what happens is, isthat I was like, okay, so I already
had the map of the campus, right?
And I'm like, well, most of thesepeople who do riots are also kind of
narcissistic, so they're gonna video this.
So where are they videoing this?
So I looked at snap maps.
(31:39):
And I looked at X, right?
And I saw that there was people like,yeah, we're here, we're doing this.
I'm like, okay, he's in building A andthat guy's in building B. then I was
like, well, let me pull up the historyof all the riots that happened here.
Oh, 80% of them happened near the library.
So what I did was, I, this was alllive, she's on the phone, you know,
(32:04):
like, you know, scared obviously, right?
I'm using, uh, Google, uh, GoogleEarth Pro excellence tool if you wanna
Mm-hmm.
Because then I started drawinglines on the map of where they're
ne, where these protests neverhappen, right on the campus.
And she used that path toevade all the problems.
(32:28):
that was like, you're using something,you're using social media, you're
using tools that are accessible to you.
You have to understand how peoplebehave in that situation, right?
and also address the,also address the threads.
Like she just wants to avoid theproblems and she doesn't want to get a
potato bomb landing next to her foot.
(32:48):
So it's like, okay, well let's,this is the path you need to go.
And that was some, and.
That is how I use sen,like live on the fly.
I always use it for route,uh, just for route planning.
Mm-hmm.
to, I go to Latin America a lot and I usethat to look at the same tools, right?
(33:12):
And I can see if people are blockinga road, I can see and I can also
understand why they're doing it ifI'm a target, you know what I mean?
If these are people who are just like.
example, when I, in 2021, we werestill in the plague era, right?
We were still in the, you and alot of people were, uh, people were
(33:32):
inside, but people took advantage.
And you know, I live on like a 24th floor.
I have an apartment down in ColumbiaI'm overseeing people going out
and like burning a building, likewhat looks like a structure, right?
I'm like, oh my God,this is freaking crazy.
And like the people burn the structure.
They were running out.
(33:53):
I had like, listen, I had, uh,night vision because I was able
to get that in Columbia somehow.
Right.
I, uh, a bulletproof door.
I made sure that thing was sealed,uptight, you know, I was observing
and I was, and then a cop over,like was in an altercation and shot
a 17-year-old guy in the chest.
(34:15):
And I was like watching that.
the whole entire townstarted coming alive.
And then you saw Riot Police, they didn'tdo their route planning because I call
that part of Town Hotel California.
once you're in, you don't come back out.
'cause there's only a oneway in, one way out entrance.
(34:36):
So all these rivalries had to goin, they're getting firebombed,
they're getting everything.
And they were, they were going around.
They had to go all the wayaround through the town.
To come back out the same way they did.
So that car did not lookthe same on way back out.
but then I'm like, oh mygosh, why is this happening?
(34:57):
You are looking like, it's becausewas a toll booth that was supposed
to be removed four years ago.
if you could imagine there was a milddistance between the new toll booth and
the, and the old one that's supposedto be, and they kept both of them up.
So all the people who were livingin between this space were really
(35:21):
pissed that this thing was still up.
So what
Mm.
mean if I knew that context?
They're not attacking foreigners,they're not attacking, I'm not a target.
have a goal, and it means that ifI had to navigate the situation.
I could have just pretended to be like,yeah, screw this toll booth and then just
Yeah.
(35:41):
go right around.
You know?
And, and that being able tofamiliarize yourself with the
problem before approach is the goalof the open source intelligence.
It's, it's the goal of like, you know,everything before you're landing, you
know, everything before you're goingin there and you're using something
that people are commonly using tounderstand, uh, the circumstances.
Uh, those were, I wouldsay, two scenarios that was.
(36:05):
That happened actually recently, so, yeah.
That's, uh, that's wild.
Yeah.
Like your, your whole point of, okay,I see all of this violence that's
happening, you know, 23 stories below.
Mm-hmm.
Why is this happening?
I don't think that's a questionthat I. That a lot of people would
stop to think because like if I werethere as an American, I'm thinking,
(36:26):
oh, maybe they're protesting.
You know, America has donesomething that they don't like,
so I'm instantly gonna be afraid.
But having that context that it's thistoll road booth, that's really the issue.
It's like, oh, okay, well, you know,it is still not, I'm not gonna go, you
know, you know, jump rope in the street,but like I, I know that they're not
gonna be like, Hey, let's go get thatguy just because he looks different.
(36:47):
So that's, that's a really good point.
Yeah, it.
Uh, knowing the context, you know, andit's, it's such a, it's such a, and, and
how do you identify the violence that canpersonally impact you what's gonna make
all this analysis make sense is, and, andhow you use the tools and everything else.
It's, it's here.
That has to get trainedfirst, you know, so,
(37:10):
Absolutely.
So, uh, professor Rickey, beforeI let you go, if I want to.
Keep my information private.
If I, you know, wanna make myselfhard to research, what are some
things that I can do for that?
Um, if you wanna do, if you wanna startfresh, and I would say if you're somebody
that's getting a lot of spam mail, ifyou're somebody that's getting a lot of,
(37:33):
uh, like, like spam phone calls and stufflike that, you already know that you're
saturated with your, you already knowthat your information's already out there.
Um.
You can use like services.
Uh, I, I think like, what is it,cogni and all these other DeleteMe.
DeleteMe.
Yep.
to just, yeah, if you can just, if you canjust wipe yourself, you know, uh, from,
(37:56):
from that as a good fresh start, fine.
It's unfortunate that you kind of haveto do that now and have somebody and
sublet that responsibility rather thanyou going to each website and do that.
Mm-hmm.
uh, I would say that's probably, ifyou are somebody that's getting that.
those problems, that's somethingyou should probably do.
And, but if you're not, but youjust want to like, make sure
(38:19):
you can control who sees you.
If, for example, if I'm looking intosomebody I see that they have no
presence online, it's a red flag for me.
Mm-hmm.
like, oh, so you do keep secrets, right?
You like, because it's, because now notbeing in social media is a, is a choice.
(38:42):
It's not the default anymore.
The default is you have, social media
Mm-hmm.
like from a, from a sociologicalpoint of view, right?
So what I would say is you have,rather than trying to make yourself
impenetrable and no one knowswho you are, this is the time.
history where you can controlthe narrative of who you are.
(39:03):
So having different emailsfor different purposes.
One, that's one that's you're dedicatedto banking, decentralizing your identity
in that matter, like this is gonna befor the money that disappears from my
account, which is Netflix, Hulu, andeverything else that's gonna be for that.
(39:23):
Gonna be, this is gonna be forcertain social media pages.
So if somebody does compromiseit, they can only control one
part or one aspect of yourself.
And it's not gonna be like, oh, thesame email that I used for my banking
is the same one I used for my Facebook.
It's like, oh, oops.
You know, it leaks into it.
but in terms of like socialcontrol, like a nosy employer.
(39:47):
Or something like that.
You can develop a social media pagewhere it's like it's your face, but
it's you with photos that you'vein places you never frequent.
Right.
Mm-hmm.
this is my favorite bar.
You never go to that bar.
You ne you're ne, you're like,like, oh, these are people I love.
They're ai.
They're not, they're not real.
(40:09):
like, and you feed enough for curiosity.
You give the, you give the perspective.
Like, oh, this guy just doesn't post alot, but I can kind of gauge who he is.
And then the search kind ofjust backs off from there.
if it's like, and it's public, realaccount your real communications can be.
(40:29):
on something like Signal, ifpeople who really wanna reach you,
where they're gonna reach you.
Not because it's the most secureand end all, measure of security.
You know, if someone's contactingyou there, they are, at least within
that social circle that you know,that this, that, that, that's how
they're gonna reach out to you.
And the spam call isn't gonna be like,oh my God, I'm in Mexico, I need money.
(40:53):
And, uh, instead of like, youknow, that's not gonna be real.
So.
Decentralizing your identity to throwpeople off is probably your best bet.
Um, instead of trying to vanish completelyand decentralizing your emails for like,
for different purposes and create andcreating narratives like, this is a,
(41:15):
this is an account that you send youracquaintances, your job, your employers,
and that's what you send them to.
You send 'em to that account.
If they, if they get, if you wanna promotethem to your real account, then boom, you.
Whatever, or they just staythere and they'll never know.
So that, that is, I would say,an easier way of doing it.
(41:37):
Um, VPNs are pretty useful if you'regonna do transactions and activity.
Uh, again, not the endall, be all security.
It just makes you harder.
All you're doing nowadays is buying time.
You're
Hmm.
If someone really, really, really,really wants to get to you.
least you're putting all thesewalls and measures that's going
(41:58):
to make it difficult, know?
But being impenetrable is, uh, a flipphone that your phone, that it's not
even your phone, it's your buddy'sphone and like you're off the grid
and it's all, and that's, that's it.
But this is the risk of existingnow, the only thing we can do
is put as many barriers now.
And, uh, and unfortunately that'sjust, that's the world we live in.
(42:22):
The risk of existing.
That is, yeah, that's, that is oneof your, your, your observations.
That is sad but true here, man.
That's, that's cool.
Alright, so Ricky, if people wannaknow more about you and what you're
up to, where can they find you online?
so, uh, I, I do a lot of my public postingon, uh, Instagram, uh, Rickynomics.
(42:42):
It's gonna have, uh, this logo right here.
Oh, it vanished, but there we go.
Uh.
Um, and also I do some short formaton, uh, on X. So it's Rickynomics212,
a lot of my papers research and evenlike a beginning, the beginnings
of OSINT for everybody else.
That form's gonna be up andit's gonna be on my Patreon, and
(43:04):
that's gonna be accessible toeverybody for an amount of time.
But I'll be doing, uh, seminars on there.
I'm going to be presenting like, likethreat, uh, like how to actually assess
threats and those type of lessons plans.
But the heavy duty stuff ison my Patreon as Rickynomics.
how people can reach me.
Very cool.
(43:25):
So Professor Ricky, thank youfor, for hanging out with us
today and for educating us onjust a wide range of stuff here.
This has been phenomenal, man.
I appreciate you.
You, God bless you in what you're doing.
God bless you too.
Thank you so much.
It's been an amazing experience.
That's all that I have for TheSecure Family Podcast for today.
(43:47):
Thank you, friend for listening.
Thanks again to ProfessorRicky for being on the show.
For more on him, visit Rickynomics.com.
As he heard in the interview today,you can take back your privacy and
personal data with help from DeleteMe.
Get 20% off a privacy plan whenusing the code DAD at checkout.
DeleteMe is the official dataremoval service of The Secure Dad.
(44:09):
Learn how to spot the signsthat a predator may be
targeting your child online.
Find out what you need to know.
With my ebook Level Up, I'll showyou how to create a safer online
gaming experience in your home.
Get your copy today at thelink in the show notes.
If you'd like to know moreabout The Secure Dad, join
me on Instagram and TikTok.
My username for both platformsis The Secure Dad, and of course
(44:32):
my website is available allthe time at TheSecureDad.com.
I'm Andy Murphy reminding you thatour safety is our own responsibility.
This is The Secure Family Podcast.
Welcome friend.
I'm Andy Murphy, the host andfounder of The Secure Dad.
This show is all about empowering parentsto protect themselves and their family.
I believe that security is thefoundation of happiness, and I want
your family to be safe and happy.
The information I share on this podcastis for general information purposes only.
(00:33):
My goal is to empower you tomake safer decisions for yourself
and for your family because oursafety is our own responsibility.
Today, I chat with an open sourceintelligence guru about what we can do to
use information to protect our families,and also protect the titles on our homes.
All of that and more coming upon The Secure Family Podcast.
(00:59):
With a high cost of food andeveryday products, families have
to be smart with their money.
I don't think anyone here, not evenme, budgets for identity theft.
If somebody gets your private data,they could pretend to be you and do
things like open lines of credit inyour name and ruin your credit score.
One of the ways that I work toprevent this is by using DeleteMe.
(01:22):
DeleteMe is a subscription servicethat removes your personal data
from hundreds of data broker sites.
Joining DeleteMe could end up saving youthousands and help protect your good name.
This is why I have alwaysseen it as a wise investment.
Right now you can get 20%off your DeleteMe Plan.
Just go to JoinDeleteMe.com/dadand use promo code DAD at checkout.
(01:45):
That's JoinDeleteMe.com/dad code DAD.
Ricky, thank you so much fortaking time outta your schedule
to be on the show today.
Introduce yourself to everybody.
Thank you, Amy.
I'm super hyped to be here.
So I'm, uh, Ricky Alonso, known asRickynomics on, uh, on Instagram.
(02:11):
So, uh, my background is I grew up twoColombian parents, first generation
American, and grew up in Queens.
Traveled around the world.
I was blessed with that andthat incorporates into a lot of
the perspectives that I have.
And when I applied to my analysis,went to St. John's University,
major in criminal justice, Marine,homeland, corporate security.
(02:33):
After that I was like, you know, I reallywanna apply these skills somewhere.
So went to the Army.
I went as a military intelligenceanalyst, uh, stationed in Fort
Carson, went to Afghanistan.
That was dynamic.
And then after that experience I waslike, I really wanna wrap up my MBA.
So I got my MBA return customer toSt. John's University and I got,
(02:58):
uh, I got my con, I was able to adda concentration into real estate.
And that's pretty 'cause that's prettymuch what my family business is and that's
what, uh, lends itself to my economicand financial understandings as well.
while I was getting my MBA, we havea mutual friend, uh, cyber Alisa.
Um,
Yeah.
yeah, and so was working with her inthe counter human trafficking fight.
(03:21):
Still very good friends, uh,and around doing trainings.
Another mutual friend, Ed, Ed Calderon.
So I did a
Mm-hmm.
with him and.
Go to Columbia and I also do myfirearms and com and uh, strategic
trainings down there as well.
And that is what, and I use RickEconomics to kind of take all my
(03:41):
experiences and it helps back up my,uh, open source intelligence abilities,
uh, how to actually write in a waythat makes it matter to everybody to
whoever you're trying to cater it to.
So that's the breadthof what I am, I guess.
Man, that that's like, you've had,you know, I have so many like,
(04:03):
really interesting people like onthis show, and you're just like,
oh, like I, I have these degrees.
I served in the military,I did all this stuff.
You just casually just mentionedthat you've, you've, I mean,
I, you're younger than me and Ithink you've done more than me.
So congratulations on that.
Um, so you've had like this.
Really cool, like career arc. Like what,what attracted you to the OSI field?
(04:27):
What made this say like, Hey, thisis where I wanna spend my time,
this is where I wanna put my energy.
You know what?
It's something that I reflect,even when I do my writings today.
It's like, how am I, how amI writing about the economic
collapse of Venezuela today?
And how am I making thatmatter to individuals?
How do I, and it comes all theway back to how my mom raised me,
(04:48):
where she took, uh, not knowing.
As not an excuse.
So she always made me search whetherit was the library, whether it
was looking at public records.
So for example, like my, mymom's a professional and so is my
father in the real estate field.
And it's like sometimes youneed to know everything about
the deal before it happens.
(05:10):
she kind of has this, she hadthis pressure and it was a
healthy amount of pressure.
It's like, well listen, you'reyoung, you know, technology.
Go and find these things out orgo into the court, uh, go to the
public records, go figure this stuffout so that we don't waste time.
And that lent itself to beinglike, I didn't even know.
That was like thebeginnings emergence of osi.
(05:33):
But then when I went to St.
John's and I had all these detectives andcolonels and all these people like, and
the criminal justice program was like new.
So these guys were just like, I'mjust gonna share all the experiences
we have and we'll see that
Oh, that's cool.
So it was like, wow.
You know, it's not justlike textbook stuff.
It's like, this was a case Ihad, this is how we found him.
(05:54):
This is how he did this,this is how he did that.
This is how you don't get in.
Trouble, which is a big deal, you know,like, and how to actually construct
your evidence in such a way that youcan bring it to a court, uh, rather
than looking like a stalker then it'sall, and again, lands you in jail.
So, and I took all of that.
(06:14):
And then I would say the big refiningpoint was going into the army using.
types of, uh, technologiesthat are super advanced.
But then you realize like, youknow what if I look at social media
accounts, you know what I mean?
Like, and you can kind of figure,you can gauge what people care
about, what people are doing,and that's how the osint ability
(06:37):
capability starts to grow even more.
Just like it, the inceptionof making it apply to business
then growing into like, wow.
We really need to kind of figureout what's going on in this
sector of the world in a way thatdoesn't require like a a million
dollar satellite, you know, like,
Sure.
uh, yeah.
So that's, I would say that is whatactually drives my passion for Osint to
(07:02):
make it matter, not just for intelligenceprofessionals, but for people like,
like you and people in the audience thatwant to use it to defend their families.
Right.
So you have said the term osint.
So have I. We've saidopen source intelligence.
Give everybody what your definitionof open source intelligence is.
Right.
So, um, let's, uh, let's clarifylike where this falls into, like in
(07:27):
terms of what is intelligence, right?
Mm-hmm.
is the refinement of data into usableinformation for, to achieve a goal.
That's
Okay.
really, like, it's like you can, soimagine, it's like you take a bunch
of pictures of a car accident, right?
And then it's like, okay.
hand these pictures just to yourboss and it's like, well, what?
(07:50):
What the heck does this mean?
The intelligence is like, well, itactually looks like he, he didn't
break and he intentionally hit the carbecause of X, Y, Z. Oh, so this changes
it from an accident to a collision.
So that's making that matter.
So that's intelligence at that point.
The open source part.
(08:10):
this the legal gray area, Where youare going to public records that
can be from, and, and it doesn'tmatter what capability you're using.
It can be from the computer, it can be,it can be from, uh, going to a website,
it can be talking to professionals.
(08:31):
You're using different capabilitiesthat are available to the public.
And that means even looking at, uh.
Social media and things like that.
So when you take all that andthen you refine it and you make it
matter, putting in intelligence,that's open source intelligence.
I guess what we, we kind of alludedto before this was when people
(08:56):
are, nowadays are looking at itfrom like the hacker point of view.
They're looking it fromthe software point of view.
They're looking at, theypeople are going to look at it.
Such a way based on their trade.
So that's
Hmm.
I, I, and, and what and, and that I'mguilty of that because I'm looking
at it from the finance point of viewand the intelligence point of view.
(09:18):
So you can come at it in anyway that you want in terms of
how you want to engage osi.
Yeah.
Gotcha.
Yeah, it's really is, youknow, what is your intent?
What is the informationthat you hope to gain?
And that's really, reallywhat it means to you.
Alright, so there are people who arelistening who, who wanted the answer to
this type of question, so I'll ask it.
(09:38):
You know, I'm gonnaplay the dad card here.
Let's say I've got, you know, a.20 something year old daughter
and she just started dating anew guy that she met at work.
How do I found out, how do I findout more about him and the interest
in just protecting my daughter?
I'm not trying to like creep on theguy, but I just wanna make sure that I
think he's okay to be dating my child.
What?
What would I need to do?
(10:00):
I would say.
It's really easy to belike, use this program.
You can find
Mm.
about 'em.
And I can give you a list of websitesin terms of like what, can find
out a lot about this individual.
what's really gonna matter isbefore you even start, right, you
have to know what makes somebodya threat to your daughter, right?
(10:23):
So if you start by saying, well,somebody who is violent, okay, well, how
do you find out the person's violent?
Well, let's, do a basic background check.
And now there's a freeway to do it, right,
Mm-hmm.
you send a piece of paper toyour local police department
(10:43):
and guess what that does?
Now your name is attachedto that background check.
Anything happens to this guy?
Now you're in trouble.
You know what I mean?
Right.
But if you use like common websitesand people will be like, oh, but if you
state the common websites that's like.
You're paying for the service and it's
Mm-hmm.
looking normal.
That's the thing, because if you get a,if you get a background check from White
(11:05):
Pages, it doesn't look nefarious at all.
'cause employers use it.
Everybody use it.
It's common use.
So what is that gonna tell you?
It's not gonna tell youthe person's a good person.
It'll tell you the, it's gonna tellyou this person was caught, you know,
Mm-hmm.
immediately write 'em off.
So, oh, assault and bat like, andit's also knowing what the words mean.
(11:25):
Assault and battery, you know,
Mm-hmm.
order.
It's like, oh, these are signsthat this person could be violent.
So engage with that.
You're gonna bump into a bunch ofwebsites that say it's free, and
then you're gonna click through 10different types of panels, and then
it's gonna tell you, but for only 9 99.
Just go use, just go use
Right.
(11:46):
You know what I mean?
And if it's just for that, forthis one instance, and this
person's pretty serious, thenit's kind of worth it, right?
Mm-hmm.
you can also check for free if thisperson is a sexual predator, right?
So family
Mm-hmm.
is one, and there's a bunch ofother websites that use that.
Make sure you're using differentsources so that you're not getting
the wrong name, you know what I mean?
(12:07):
And make sure that it all lines up.
Right.
so.
That's just to find out if this person'sbeen caught being violent or deviant
right now, what is the traits ofsomebody that could be a risk to anyone,
like to your daughter, to your son?
What is something that happensmore than just physical attacks?
(12:29):
It's, uh, like reputation destruction.
Is this person on the, in, onsocial media is this person?
Socially disparaging other people like, soand so ripped me off, so and so did this.
If you gotta look for someonewho's bombastic, someone who's
(12:50):
really willing, who, who projectstheir resentments, you're looking
for negative personality traits.
So it's not just about looking atthe page, it's about going deeper
into the person's personality.
like, because here'swhat's gonna happen, right?
You're gonna be like, you're a dadthat's gonna talk to your daughter.
(13:11):
almost like you're gonna haveto present this as a case.
You know, when you compile everything.
Because if you say, look at allthese screenshots, you know, look
at him like, like he still talksabout his ex, he still does this.
He still does.
What does that matter?
When you come at it and you have someevidence, and it's like, well listen,
people who've display this personalityis somebody that's going to be a risk to.
(13:35):
Future to your reputation and toyour, and to your mental health
because this is a person thatcannot be mature on the internet.
And I think that is what'smore important to look for.
Now, gaining the, and, and whenyou can go into that, you don't
need like all this hyper technologyto do such a light litmus test.
(13:59):
It's like, is thisperson competent enough?
Right?
So that is what you're looking for.
When you go into the Facebook, when yougo into, when you go into Instagram,
when you go and maybe he makes videos,find out what kind of videos he makes.
Like, because, for example,I, I train with firearms.
That
Mm-hmm.
make me a violent person.
(14:19):
It makes me capable, but
Correct.
not in itself makes me a bad personbecause that's the le that's, that's the
lens that's gonna have to come through it.
Now I've come across casesthat someone shows me, right?
person, love people who hunt, butthis person hunted and he showed
(14:39):
photos that he was mutilating animals.
it's like that's somebody that you, it islike, that is somebody that has a tendency
that can be adverse to your daughter.
You know what I
Mm-hmm.
So it's going through a differentlenses, and I'll be honest with you,
the thing that's helped me the most whenI'm looking at these cases is having
a basic understanding of psychology.
(15:02):
mother, other than her accounting degree,she grew up, she had a child edu uh,
early child education background raisedme on psychology books and I was just
reading those and then, and then like Ihad a concentration of forensic psychology
while I was going into St. John's.
And having those perspectives and lenseswhen you're looking at, at these things
(15:23):
on the screen is what actually helps megauge how threatening someone can be.
So if I were to say a good place to start.
knowing what a threat looks like beforeeven engaging in the whole trajectory of
finding out who this person is online.
Got it.
That's, that's a really good answer.
It's not like, Hey, just goto White pages.com and see
(15:45):
if they've been arrested.
Because the, the point that you made, um,is that this, this is just showing that
if you've been caught or not, and you.
And I both well know, um, from, uh,the, the, the me educating parents
and you protecting people, um, that,you know, creeps don't always get
caught or they'll hurt a lot ofpeople before they ever have any sort
(16:07):
of government record, uh, to do it.
So yeah, man, that's,that's a really good point.
You can't just take a look at it andsay, oh, well, there's no arrest,
so you must be a good person.
That's not necessarily the case.
Not.
Exactly, exactly.
It's just a negative.
It's just a, like
Right,
tested negative forbeing caught, you know?
(16:28):
right.
They, they tested negative.
I like that.
Uh, so kind of, um, give me a waythat I can, as a parent, use Osint to
better understand any sort of potentialonline threats that my kids may face.
I know that's a really broadquestion, but, um, what, what's,
what's your first thoughts there?
Um.
(16:50):
And this is where I think itreflects back to like understanding
the psychology of the problem.
Where it's like, you ha what?
What are kids looking for nowadaysin the internet that they're
not getting from the real world?
Attention.
looking for acceptance.
They're looking for recognition.
(17:11):
They're looking for things that youwould normally find before the internet.
in sports teams, what's inwas in going into going to the
arcade, going to these places.
So now the internet is a place to
Mm-hmm.
satisfaction, social media, TikTok withtheir inflated numbers, you know, and
(17:35):
like, and going into, uh, like going intothe games that are now popular with kids.
Then you have to, and the appsthemselves are, well, I, it's
kind of hard to say, right?
They are kind of bad 'cause they'rewired to keep, to keep your attention.
But these are just places, thesame places that abductions
can happen in a physical place.
(17:57):
People manipulating and groomingkids can happen in these places too.
Making the child aware of aproblem that they can succumb to.
Giving them the tools to, to identifysomebody who's trying to get a
inappropriate amount of gratificationfrom them, protect your reputation,
(18:20):
to protect your things is kindof like the first shield, right?
And is it's, it's educatingthe kid that listen.
So for a game like Roblox, wherepeople can actually create environments
in any way, shape, or form, whichcan be look non nefarious, but.
Even like cartels are using themto reenact their assassinations,
(18:43):
even though that's likenot, you know what I mean?
Like,
I had no clue that was happening.
Yeah.
that.
That is very, I, I'm careful with this.
That's very on brand, but wow.
That's
Wow.
yeah.
No, they're, they have an, theyhave an incredible, uh, marketing,
uh, department, you know, and, uh,
(19:03):
and that's, and that's, it's alsoimportant to know what kind of violence
are you looking for as a parent, right?
are you aware that, uh, people canactually see reenactments of violent
crimes on something like Roblox?
Or they can actually.
Engaged in these really crazyconversations with full-blown adults.
You know, are youmonitoring their behavior?
(19:25):
How much time are they on these things?
Because the more time somebody's,the more time somebody's at a
bar, the more likely they're gonnaget in a, in a fist fight, right?
So it's just like how, like, soit's just like, take that analogy.
It's like, well if he's only playingfor 30 minutes you could kind of su
kind of somewhat pseudo supervise that.
(19:46):
Least likely someone's gonna beable to fully engage with your
child and do something nefarious.
So controlling time is anotherway of like, of getting them off
the X and making sure they'renot gonna go into these problems.
But just making sure you'reaware of the capabilities,
video sharing, audio sharing.
Is it disappearing messages?
(20:07):
If this is checking off all those blocks,then it's like this is something I
have to actually look, because I couldgive a list of like, these are the
websites that you need to be careful of.
But the websites change.
Once something becomesuncool, they hop around.
But if you know how to look forcapability, if you know what, what
bad looks like then, and it has to beaccording to your own moral code as well.
(20:31):
Because if you're, if you don't even knowwhat bad looks like, know, how the heck
are you gonna know how to look for it?
that takes a lot of self-educationand it's a lot of pressure, uh, on
families today to get acquainted.
And, and I would say to savetime, don't be, don't try to
look for every bad website.
(20:52):
Know what a bad website looks like.
So then when you see it, you, you,you can, our first approach be like.
That's being capped at 10 minutesor that's being capped at no time.
Or actually I'm just gonna flatout block this from their device.
So that's, that would be the initiate,the, um, how you would initiate
using Osis I and using that mindset.
(21:14):
'cause it's, I, it's, it's funny howeverything in the training world,
like mindsets become super popular.
You know, like, oh, it'sa, it's a, it's a train.
It, it's, it's so knowingwhat wrong looks like.
And teaching that to the kid actingaccordingly is gonna be your best bet.
Rather than searching through,memorizing a list of websites
(21:35):
that's gonna be non-existentin like three months from now.
that's,
That's, that's all fantastic information.
Like you are, you're expanding myhorizons here and I felt like I was pretty
educated on this, uh, before we started.
So I'm was, I'm gonna call you ProfessorRicky from here on out, so, um.
In addition to all the thingsthat you have done, you have an
(21:56):
MBA in real estate, uh, from St.
John's.
You told us about that.
Uh, a big question that I've had, youknow, for, you know, about a year now,
because this blew up on, you know,social media, is how much information
can somebody find out about my home,
Mm-hmm.
my mortgage?
Kind of walk me through what'sall the public information about
(22:17):
the property that I may own.
Okay, so I can come at thisbecause I actively do this,
Mm-hmm.
disclosure.
So I actively do this.
For example, there's a lot of peoplewho don't want to, who are older.
They're in retirement age andthey don't wanna sell their home.
And listen, I live, I live in New Yorkthere's a lot of people who don't want to
(22:40):
go to the sixth Borough, which is Miami.
You know what I mean?
and.
What happens is it's like outof, out of a sense of like
compassion, to be completely honest.
Like, well, if you can't really affordto be in your home, I'd rather you
take out something called a hecu,which is like a, it's kind, it's a,
it's a loan program where the bankpretty much pays them to stay in the
(23:03):
home using the equity of the house.
And how do you find outif someone qualifies?
Well, there's programs, you know, theage of the person who lives there.
So if they are in that, if they'rein that age bracket of 65, right.
And over.
If, how much equity they have in thehouse that's available, uh, there's a lot
of programs out there that I can see howmuch of your mortgage has been paid off.
(23:25):
And I can also see if you areactually still making payments
or you're going into foreclosure,or if you're having a tough time.
this part is like, well, this is forthe marketing, but how can somebody
use this in a ver, in a nefarious way?
Well, if I know the name of your bank.
I can just look and see thelogo of it and everything else.
(23:48):
I can just send a fake, uh,letter from the bank going to
that elderly person's home.
Right?
And then it's like, Hey, listen, uh, youactually have to pay into this account
and not the mortgage that you still have.
Right?
And then this person'sgonna be falling behind.
(24:09):
that is the, that's just basicallywhat you can pull from the internet.
Uniquely, Suffolk Countyhas like a different problem
because they were hacked.
So a lot of the documents havebeen kind of like disarranged.
So that's kinda in, in a, an indirectform of protection that that has.
So against people looking up documents.
(24:30):
But for the rest of the country, peoplecan find out how much you've been paying.
Are you paying on time?
Are you susceptible to deception likethis, you know, if someone sends a
letter pretending to be your bank.
that is the kind of threat that canoccur, against people nowadays, just
basically with how much availabilitypeople have now, the county that I
(24:54):
usually work in the most has a wayof protecting people against that.
It's called the House system.
Uh, it is called the house system.
It is like housing prote, likesomething with protection.
I wish I could remember theacronym, but I know it works.
'cause I, I can see when peoplelook up the deed, so it's your
local county and your, and uh,and your public records office.
(25:18):
That gives you a heads up somebody'slooking at your deed, somebody's
trying to pull title and letting youknow like things are happening to
your house that you should know about.
this is when you contact them and say,I'm not authorizing any of this, so people
can't just steal your D from under you.
that seems to be a really devastatingtactic that's been more popularized now.
(25:43):
Right?
Like how, how realistic is it be thatsomebody could actually steal your deed?
And is this something that canbe done legally or is this just
something that is outright illegal?
I.
Let's look at something that is like agray area, and then we're gonna work our
way to the dark, darker, darker, darker.
You know what I mean?
So what happens is, is thatnow with the, so many policies
(26:08):
flying through the air right now.
might not know which taxes they,they need to pay if the, if, if their
property taxes had been adjusted.
So what happens is, is that youprobably see like ads for this as
a quick way to be a millionaire.
Questionable.
But it's like you can buy people's,uh, uh, real estate tax debts, you
(26:28):
know, so if somebody owes a thousanddollars on real estate taxes and
you pay it off, then that, then nowthere's a lien on the property to you.
It's like maybe you paid nothing.
Like, like maybe they, they've been payingtheir mortgage straight for 20 years, but
they couldn't afford the property taxes.
(26:50):
then all of a sudden now you havesomebody that's like saying, Hey, you
know what, um, I, you owe me and I'mnot gonna accept any payment from you so
you can be pushed out of the property.
I can start an eviction process.
So, you see like, and, and thenguess what he, but he did pay
the tax debt and you can pull up.
Everyone who owes you taxes, uh, whoowes taxes, uh, from a public records
(27:14):
office, because that's public information.
And that's, uh, and it's notfinancial advice and nor do I
Right, right.
Yes.
Understood.
So,
This is for educational purposes only.
only, yes.
But, uh.
But yeah, but hey, make sure you'reup to date on everything, on what
(27:34):
you're paying because you could besusceptible to an attack like that.
So that's just one instance.
Another instance is, uh, people put peopledoing works on your home and putting like
different forms of mechanics, liens on it,
Mm-hmm.
it.
That's another way people can.
Anything that leveragessomebody against you with debt.
(27:59):
Mm-hmm.
their unwillingness to takepayment 'cause they'd rather
have the house than the payment.
So that is the commonway of being leveraged.
That's why knowing that you're upto date with your mortgage, knowing
that you're up to date with yourtaxes, knowing that you're like,
Hey, listen, this guy's calling meand he's saying that I owe this.
I know for a fact don't owe X, Y, Zbecause I'm on top of my finances.
(28:23):
And knowing where everything'sgoing and, oh, I don't, I don't
get physical correspondence frommy bank 'cause I did paperless.
So you see like, and, and that's inthese little ways of knowing what you
owe and knowing who the people who youowe that to, what they look like is
gonna be your best defense right now.
(28:43):
And having something like an alertof knowing that somebody's looking
into your property, you know,
Okay.
if it's not in your public records office.
I don't know, contact your congressman.
Make sure that they make that, uh, aprotection because it's, it's, it's
more widely accepted now to have apublic records on protect people now.
So that's pretty, yeah,
(29:05):
Right.
And I can go to my, the public recordsoffice and look up my stuff and just make
sure that everything is still kosher.
Right.
also look up who's beenlooking at your stuff,
Okay.
So they'd be like, Hey,why is this company.
Like, you know, like, why isthis company looking at my stuff?
Like, what the heck?
You know?
And, and then that'll give you a headsup and where you're gonna act from there.
(29:28):
Okay, so it might just be worthit, you know, twice a year, go
meet a friend for lunch downtown.
Head over to the records office,ask for that to be pulled.
Look at it, and then you're on your way.
Actually you can, uh, you can probablyget it from their, uh, from their website.
I mean, it might look archaic 'causemost government websites do, but
sometimes they do have a download yourrecords here, you know, and, you just
(29:50):
have to prove that you're the owner.
If they have that step, that's a goodindicator that it's harder for people to
pull for information about your property.
Right.
yeah.
right.
So from your, your time in realestate and with all the osint stuff,
is there a story that you have thatyou can share with us that kind of
illustrates how these things work?
So it's, it would be outsideof the realm of real estate.
(30:13):
It was actually an incident.
is something that, uh, unfortunatelyis what I, what I'm really glad to
have known these capabilities for.
I had a very good friend goes to the uni,who went to the University of Anti oia.
It's kind of like saying theywent to the MIT of Columbia.
Mm-hmm.
I mean?
It's like a really good university.
So it's a public university,and unfortunately because it's
(30:36):
a public university and theiradministration can't tell a difference
between a riot and a protest.
So what happens is, like you have violentactivity that occurs on the campus,
and she was, and she was cornered ina corner of a, in a, in a building.
(30:57):
She didn't want to move out because theywere throwing what was like potato bombs,
which is like an inert bomb that if oncedispersed, it doesn't have any shrapnel.
But you know, it's, itcan lead to concussions.
If there is debris on theground, you can have a piece of
shrapnel hitting you in the neck.
It's not as safe as the.
(31:18):
Rioters think it is.
I dunno what the heck they're thinking.
But, uh, but what happens is, isthat I was like, okay, so I already
had the map of the campus, right?
And I'm like, well, most of thesepeople who do riots are also kind of
narcissistic, so they're gonna video this.
So where are they videoing this?
So I looked at snap maps.
(31:39):
And I looked at X, right?
And I saw that there was people like,yeah, we're here, we're doing this.
I'm like, okay, he's in building A andthat guy's in building B. then I was
like, well, let me pull up the historyof all the riots that happened here.
Oh, 80% of them happened near the library.
So what I did was, I, this was alllive, she's on the phone, you know,
(32:04):
like, you know, scared obviously, right?
I'm using, uh, Google, uh, GoogleEarth Pro excellence tool if you wanna
Mm-hmm.
Because then I started drawinglines on the map of where they're
ne, where these protests neverhappen, right on the campus.
And she used that path toevade all the problems.
(32:28):
that was like, you're using something,you're using social media, you're
using tools that are accessible to you.
You have to understand how peoplebehave in that situation, right?
and also address the,also address the threads.
Like she just wants to avoid theproblems and she doesn't want to get a
potato bomb landing next to her foot.
(32:48):
So it's like, okay, well let's,this is the path you need to go.
And that was some, and.
That is how I use sen,like live on the fly.
I always use it for route,uh, just for route planning.
Mm-hmm.
to, I go to Latin America a lot and I usethat to look at the same tools, right?
(33:12):
And I can see if people are blockinga road, I can see and I can also
understand why they're doing it ifI'm a target, you know what I mean?
If these are people who are just like.
example, when I, in 2021, we werestill in the plague era, right?
We were still in the, you and alot of people were, uh, people were
(33:32):
inside, but people took advantage.
And you know, I live on like a 24th floor.
I have an apartment down in ColumbiaI'm overseeing people going out
and like burning a building, likewhat looks like a structure, right?
I'm like, oh my God,this is freaking crazy.
And like the people burn the structure.
They were running out.
(33:53):
I had like, listen, I had, uh,night vision because I was able
to get that in Columbia somehow.
Right.
I, uh, a bulletproof door.
I made sure that thing was sealed,uptight, you know, I was observing
and I was, and then a cop over,like was in an altercation and shot
a 17-year-old guy in the chest.
(34:15):
And I was like watching that.
the whole entire townstarted coming alive.
And then you saw Riot Police, they didn'tdo their route planning because I call
that part of Town Hotel California.
once you're in, you don't come back out.
'cause there's only a oneway in, one way out entrance.
(34:36):
So all these rivalries had to goin, they're getting firebombed,
they're getting everything.
And they were, they were going around.
They had to go all the wayaround through the town.
To come back out the same way they did.
So that car did not lookthe same on way back out.
but then I'm like, oh mygosh, why is this happening?
(34:57):
You are looking like, it's becausewas a toll booth that was supposed
to be removed four years ago.
if you could imagine there was a milddistance between the new toll booth and
the, and the old one that's supposedto be, and they kept both of them up.
So all the people who were livingin between this space were really
(35:21):
pissed that this thing was still up.
So what
Mm.
mean if I knew that context?
They're not attacking foreigners,they're not attacking, I'm not a target.
have a goal, and it means that ifI had to navigate the situation.
I could have just pretended to be like,yeah, screw this toll booth and then just
Yeah.
(35:41):
go right around.
You know?
And, and that being able tofamiliarize yourself with the
problem before approach is the goalof the open source intelligence.
It's, it's the goal of like, you know,everything before you're landing, you
know, everything before you're goingin there and you're using something
that people are commonly using tounderstand, uh, the circumstances.
Uh, those were, I wouldsay, two scenarios that was.
(36:05):
That happened actually recently, so, yeah.
That's, uh, that's wild.
Yeah.
Like your, your whole point of, okay,I see all of this violence that's
happening, you know, 23 stories below.
Mm-hmm.
Why is this happening?
I don't think that's a questionthat I. That a lot of people would
stop to think because like if I werethere as an American, I'm thinking,
(36:26):
oh, maybe they're protesting.
You know, America has donesomething that they don't like,
so I'm instantly gonna be afraid.
But having that context that it's thistoll road booth, that's really the issue.
It's like, oh, okay, well, you know,it is still not, I'm not gonna go, you
know, you know, jump rope in the street,but like I, I know that they're not
gonna be like, Hey, let's go get thatguy just because he looks different.
(36:47):
So that's, that's a really good point.
Yeah, it.
Uh, knowing the context, you know, andit's, it's such a, it's such a, and, and
how do you identify the violence that canpersonally impact you what's gonna make
all this analysis make sense is, and, andhow you use the tools and everything else.
It's, it's here.
That has to get trainedfirst, you know, so,
(37:10):
Absolutely.
So, uh, professor Rickey, beforeI let you go, if I want to.
Keep my information private.
If I, you know, wanna make myselfhard to research, what are some
things that I can do for that?
Um, if you wanna do, if you wanna startfresh, and I would say if you're somebody
that's getting a lot of spam mail, ifyou're somebody that's getting a lot of,
(37:33):
uh, like, like spam phone calls and stufflike that, you already know that you're
saturated with your, you already knowthat your information's already out there.
Um.
You can use like services.
Uh, I, I think like, what is it,cogni and all these other DeleteMe.
DeleteMe.
Yep.
to just, yeah, if you can just, if you canjust wipe yourself, you know, uh, from,
(37:56):
from that as a good fresh start, fine.
It's unfortunate that you kind of haveto do that now and have somebody and
sublet that responsibility rather thanyou going to each website and do that.
Mm-hmm.
uh, I would say that's probably, ifyou are somebody that's getting that.
those problems, that's somethingyou should probably do.
And, but if you're not, but youjust want to like, make sure
(38:19):
you can control who sees you.
If, for example, if I'm looking intosomebody I see that they have no
presence online, it's a red flag for me.
Mm-hmm.
like, oh, so you do keep secrets, right?
You like, because it's, because now notbeing in social media is a, is a choice.
(38:42):
It's not the default anymore.
The default is you have, social media
Mm-hmm.
like from a, from a sociologicalpoint of view, right?
So what I would say is you have,rather than trying to make yourself
impenetrable and no one knowswho you are, this is the time.
history where you can controlthe narrative of who you are.
(39:03):
So having different emailsfor different purposes.
One, that's one that's you're dedicatedto banking, decentralizing your identity
in that matter, like this is gonna befor the money that disappears from my
account, which is Netflix, Hulu, andeverything else that's gonna be for that.
(39:23):
Gonna be, this is gonna be forcertain social media pages.
So if somebody does compromiseit, they can only control one
part or one aspect of yourself.
And it's not gonna be like, oh, thesame email that I used for my banking
is the same one I used for my Facebook.
It's like, oh, oops.
You know, it leaks into it.
but in terms of like socialcontrol, like a nosy employer.
(39:47):
Or something like that.
You can develop a social media pagewhere it's like it's your face, but
it's you with photos that you'vein places you never frequent.
Right.
Mm-hmm.
this is my favorite bar.
You never go to that bar.
You ne you're ne, you're like,like, oh, these are people I love.
They're ai.
They're not, they're not real.
(40:09):
like, and you feed enough for curiosity.
You give the, you give the perspective.
Like, oh, this guy just doesn't post alot, but I can kind of gauge who he is.
And then the search kind ofjust backs off from there.
if it's like, and it's public, realaccount your real communications can be.
(40:29):
on something like Signal, ifpeople who really wanna reach you,
where they're gonna reach you.
Not because it's the most secureand end all, measure of security.
You know, if someone's contactingyou there, they are, at least within
that social circle that you know,that this, that, that, that's how
they're gonna reach out to you.
And the spam call isn't gonna be like,oh my God, I'm in Mexico, I need money.
(40:53):
And, uh, instead of like, youknow, that's not gonna be real.
So.
Decentralizing your identity to throwpeople off is probably your best bet.
Um, instead of trying to vanish completelyand decentralizing your emails for like,
for different purposes and create andcreating narratives like, this is a,
(41:15):
this is an account that you send youracquaintances, your job, your employers,
and that's what you send them to.
You send 'em to that account.
If they, if they get, if you wanna promotethem to your real account, then boom, you.
Whatever, or they just staythere and they'll never know.
So that, that is, I would say,an easier way of doing it.
(41:37):
Um, VPNs are pretty useful if you'regonna do transactions and activity.
Uh, again, not the endall, be all security.
It just makes you harder.
All you're doing nowadays is buying time.
You're
Hmm.
If someone really, really, really,really wants to get to you.
least you're putting all thesewalls and measures that's going
(41:58):
to make it difficult, know?
But being impenetrable is, uh, a flipphone that your phone, that it's not
even your phone, it's your buddy'sphone and like you're off the grid
and it's all, and that's, that's it.
But this is the risk of existingnow, the only thing we can do
is put as many barriers now.
And, uh, and unfortunately that'sjust, that's the world we live in.
(42:22):
The risk of existing.
That is, yeah, that's, that is oneof your, your, your observations.
That is sad but true here, man.
That's, that's cool.
Alright, so Ricky, if people wannaknow more about you and what you're
up to, where can they find you online?
so, uh, I, I do a lot of my public postingon, uh, Instagram, uh, Rickynomics.
(42:42):
It's gonna have, uh, this logo right here.
Oh, it vanished, but there we go.
Uh.
Um, and also I do some short formaton, uh, on X. So it's Rickynomics212,
a lot of my papers research and evenlike a beginning, the beginnings
of OSINT for everybody else.
That form's gonna be up andit's gonna be on my Patreon, and
(43:04):
that's gonna be accessible toeverybody for an amount of time.
But I'll be doing, uh, seminars on there.
I'm going to be presenting like, likethreat, uh, like how to actually assess
threats and those type of lessons plans.
But the heavy duty stuff ison my Patreon as Rickynomics.
how people can reach me.
Very cool.
(43:25):
So Professor Ricky, thank youfor, for hanging out with us
today and for educating us onjust a wide range of stuff here.
This has been phenomenal, man.
I appreciate you.
You, God bless you in what you're doing.
God bless you too.
Thank you so much.
It's been an amazing experience.
That's all that I have for TheSecure Family Podcast for today.
(43:47):
Thank you, friend for listening.
Thanks again to ProfessorRicky for being on the show.
For more on him, visit Rickynomics.com.
As he heard in the interview today,you can take back your privacy and
personal data with help from DeleteMe.
Get 20% off a privacy plan whenusing the code DAD at checkout.
DeleteMe is the official dataremoval service of The Secure Dad.
(44:09):
Learn how to spot the signsthat a predator may be
targeting your child online.
Find out what you need to know.
With my ebook Level Up, I'll showyou how to create a safer online
gaming experience in your home.
Get your copy today at thelink in the show notes.
If you'd like to know moreabout The Secure Dad, join
me on Instagram and TikTok.
My username for both platformsis The Secure Dad, and of course
(44:32):
my website is available allthe time at TheSecureDad.com.
I'm Andy Murphy reminding you thatour safety is our own responsibility.
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