Scams & Cons
Scammers don't steal your money, they create a world where it makes perfect sense to hand your cash over to them. Three-card-monte, the longest running show on Broadway, seems easy. You're watching the tosser and you always see the queen. What you don't see is a group of shills working you into the gate where you'll lose everything you have.Sometimes a large sum of money is accidentally sent to you and the sender asks for the additional cash to be sent back. In the meantime, they empty your bank account.We'll tell you all about the scams, how they work and why people fall for them. Don't become a sucker. Listen in.
Episodes
If you bought tickets to a pop-up taco museum restaurant in San Antonio, you got scammed. If someone wants to hook you up with a priest who does exorcisms, beware. But we begin with the story of a brand new scam called call merging. It involves merging your phone call with a scammer and a bank’s two-factor authentication system, stealing your secret code.
More than 60 hotels are conned by a man who dirtied rooms with roaches and condoms, and scammers are showing up at people’s doors to collect money they say they are owed. And I want to tell you the tale of a gambit that I can't call a con, but it's a great way to lose your money.
We're all vulnerable to scams, but we don't have to be willing victims. Today I'm doing something I should have done a long time ago -- tell you just what to do to thwart scammers.
A new scam is moving across the country that can capture the information on your credit card's chips, plus Minnesota legislators are considering a law that would reimburse victims of scams.
What some of you may remember as the Scopes Monkey Trial is a scam. If you don’t know about the trial, you may know about the movie, “Inherit the Wind,” which – and I’m being charitable here – took poetic license with the truth. Today, as we near the 100th anniversary of the trial, I tell you why.
Alabama leads the nation in losses from online scams and a Massachusetts butcher shop owner says he was scammed out of $60,000 of meat. Plus, we'll update you on the Frye Festival scheduled for Mexico, but who knows where in that country it will be?
There are con artists who have pulled off major cons. What they do is so ballsy, it’s hard to believe anyone would fall for them. Yet, in the annals of history, they live on.
Today on Scams And Cons, we'll tell you their stories.
We'll tell you the story of con artists who preyed on the elderly with home remodeling scams. One was brazen enough to outright tell the homeowner what needed to be done and begin work.
Is this written by me or an AI? Will you hear my voice or an AI voice in this podcast? (Spoiler, you'll hear both)
AI voices and images are so easy to create these days that it's easy to throw someone into a money-gushing panic if they get a phone call from a friend claiming to be in trouble.
The key is not to try and recognize the voice, but to recognize the scam. We'll tell you how and...
In this week's news, Thailand takes the unusual step of cutting off electricity to 500,000 people to stop scammers and con artists are staging car crashes to collect insurance money.
Plus, Georgia exempts banks from protecting customers from scammers even though they say they want a law requiring them to do so.
Listen at ScamsAndCons.com or wherever you get podcasts.
Is this written by me or an AI? Will you hear my voice or an AI voice in this podcast? (Spoiler, you'll hear both)
AI voices and images are so easy to create these days that it's easy to throw someone into a money-gushing panic if they get a phone call from a friend claiming to be in trouble.
The key is not to try and recognize the voice, but to recognize the scam. We'll tell you how and...
A man got taken by a scammer and called a local TV station for help. The scammers weren't caught, but they later called the man back, pretending to be the anchor and tried to shake him down again.
It didn't go well for the scammers.
Hear this story and more on Scams & Cons News
Groups of con artists roam the country, sweeping into a community and taking it for all they can until the police get wise.
They're called Travellers and we'll tell you how they work and why they are different from other scammers.
The pigeon drop -- and oldie, but a goodie -- is misdirecting people so their new expensive purchases can stolen and fake Amazon customer service agents targeted a woman and tried to clean out her bank accounts.
Support the podcast
If you've been scammed, will you get your money back? Will you get justice? The answer, unfortunately, is no.
While it may be your life savings, the amounts are generally too small and police have such limited resources that they can't help. Your best hope is that your scam was part of a much larger operation that police can get resources to chase.
This week we tell you wh...
Your child is safe at home, but scammers are calling to get info about them to put into a state "registry." It's a scam ... don't fall for it.
Hear this story and more on Scams & Cons News.
It's easy to think of a scammer as a slick, sophisticated character, ready to outsmart your every move.
Not so fast.
Scammers do stupid stuff too, and we're here to tell you about them. Listen in for a good laugh and relief that they aren't as clever as we think they are.
In the early days of computing, we were afraid that if we pushed one wrong button, we'd lose all our work -- and that frequently happened.
Nowadays, the risk isn't so high and total losses are rare, but scammers have figured out how to convince you to push just one button that allows them to steal your money and anything else personal on your computer.
We'll tell you ...
We're kicking off season 8 with a look at some really stupid scammers, then come back by asking if victims can ever really get justice.
The news is back with some changes and we'll be taking several dives into how AI is being used by scammers and con artists.
Plus, beginning this season, you'll be able to text me with your comments, questions or anything that's o...
People are coming back from the future. Some want computers to help solve problems for which the need ancient software, while others need some cold, hard cash to survive in this primitive world of ours.
People are handing money over to these con artists without asking a simple question: Why are future IT people too stupid to keep their technology up-to-date and they need to travel back in ti...
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