Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Financial fraud is everywhere and it's I think only gonna
get worse, and the bad guys are getting smarter, so
the good guys have to get smarter too. The Common
Sense Institute is going to have an event talking about
financial fraud, the true cost of financial fraud.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
So joining us to talk about the event.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
And then another guest joining us to talk about financial
fraud itself. Kelly Cawfield is executive director of the Common
Sense Institute and Tracy Dowd a Special Agent in charge
of the Economic Crimes Unit with the CBI. Good morning
to both of you, and I'll just start with Kelly
if you could just give us the details.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Of the event, and then we're.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Gonna jump in with Tracy on nuts and bolts about
financial crimes.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Thanks so much, Ross. Yes.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Next Tuesday, Tuesday, August twenty sixth, the Common Sense Institute
will be having a very exciting event partnership with the
Colorado Bankers Association, where we're going to be hearing more
from Tracy who's on your show today, as well as
Jen Waller, the head of the Colorado Bankers Association, Adam
Gregg with the Iowa Bankers Association, and one of Common
(01:05):
Sense as economist Zach Milne, and we'll be diving deep
into the economic costs of financial fraud here in Colorado,
and that panel will be able to explain not just
the impacts in Colorado, but across the country, as this
is something impacting consumers in every state.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
And for folks who are interested in going, it's next Tuesday,
four thirty pm to six pm. You can sign up
at the Common Sense Institute website. I've also linked to
it on my blog at Rosscominski dot com. But CSI
coo dot org is an easy URL to get there.
CSI like Common Sense Institute, COO like Colorado CSI coo
(01:43):
dot org. It'll get you to the to the longer
ur L and you can sign up there. Just go
to the events tab and you will find it.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
All.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Right, let's go. Let's go to Tracy dud.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Who again special Agent in charge of the Economic Crimes
Unit with CBI.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
So let's just start with something very basic.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
What does the term economic crimes cover?
Speaker 4 (02:02):
Well, these days, you know we could we could just
simplify it and say anything that has to do with
a loss, criminal activity involving finance, and something that impacts
the economy I would say these days, though, I look
at it more like it's high tech crime, right, Every
every financial crime that we have here, especially with n CBI,
(02:24):
has some sort of cyber enabled criminal activity attached to it.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
So I think you have.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
A lot of different aspects to it. It's really evolved
over the years.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
I mean, it's one of the things I wonder about.
I'm getting, you know, spanned with this stuff multiple times
every day.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
I don't know who gets fooled by these.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Things, you know, I get these I get these texts
that are from an international phone number saying that there's
a problem with my Coinbase log in, right, and and
I don't even have a coin Base account, and I
just get these and multiple emails. I got one five
minutes ago seeing there's a problem with your tax filings
and so sound like a sarcastic question, but but it isn't.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Why are so many people fooled.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
By things that I might think are obviously scams.
Speaker 4 (03:10):
I think a lot of times it's a it's a
part of the opportunity of the moment. But I think
it's also awareness. Even though we feel like we talk
about this stuff, and in my world, I work with
this stuff all day. There's a lot of people that
still are not aware that these type of schemes are happening,
or that somebody is out there just you know, targeting
them for this purpose. So I feel like and then,
and and quite frankly, the bad actors are pretty good
(03:32):
at what they do, right. They are a well oiled
business and very good at getting people and directing them
to different websites and getting them to spend money.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
What's your estimate as to the percentage of these bad
actors who are in the United States of America.
Speaker 4 (03:45):
Well, that brings up an amazing point. You know, in
our in our unit here at the CBI, we do
work with Colorado bad actors, right, we see that. But
for the most part, and I think what's a great
topic of conversation here is that the this is about
an absolute, relentless assault of financial exploitation that's really being
committed by transnational organization you know, all across the globe
(04:09):
for the most part, Right, these are transnational organized crime
groups and are targeting you know, victims individually, small businesses
here in Colorado, and large corporations on every level.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
I mean, would it still be correct to say there
are significant bad actors in India and near India, Nigeria
and near Nigeria, Russia and near Russia are those.
Speaker 4 (04:37):
I would say, I would say definitely, those are points
I would also highlight right now, there's a lot of
awareness being out there, like Cambodia, for example, a lot
of big scam centers, you know, big businesses being set
up there to basically market these scams like this.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
So when you describe it that way, and it almost
sounds to me like you've got I'll use the term
very loosely, entrepreneurs setting up call centers and the people
sitting in the cubicles are scammers rather than customer support.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Is that some of it?
Speaker 4 (05:11):
Yes, one hundred percent. If you've seen the movie The Beekeeper,
have you seen that and say them, it's kind of
obviously that glamor, you know, it puts a lot of
glamor on this. But if you can imagine the hotel
sized call centers being set up, that what they know
now And we can get into this later, but just
so you know, what we know now is the folks
that are committing these crimes are actually a lot of
(05:33):
times under their human trafficking victims themselves they're being in
these compounds basically as indentured servants committing these crimes. So
you have victims on all sides here.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
All right, I've only got about ninety seconds left, so
I've got one more question for Tracy, and then I'll
have Kelly reiterate the information about next Tuesday's event. What
are the top one or two bullet points you would
advise people on to avoid being avoid.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Becoming a victim of one of these financial crimes.
Speaker 4 (06:04):
Recognize that online dating and being a victim of an
online dating scam is still one of the number one
ways to facilitate a lot of these scams. And then
taking an overall on whether you're a small business or individual,
taking a look and doing the threat assessment of your
individual space, making sure that you have correct cybersecurity in place,
and always independently verify anything that comes into you, whether
(06:27):
it's that UPS tracking, that DMV notice, separate yourself from
that text or email and independently verify it.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Great, that's fantastic advice.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
All right, Kelly, remind us just briefly the details of
the event next Tuesday.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
Sure can hear more from Tracy and our economists unpacking
the economic cost of financial fraud to our state. Please
join us next week and it's a free event Tuesday
August twenty six, four thirty to six at our building
at AMG National Trust in Greenwood Village. And as Roth said,
you can register on our website a shortcut csico dot org.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Thanks so much, awesome.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
Kelly Caawfield is executive director of the Common Sense Institute,
where I am very proudly the Michae Loprino Free Enterprise
Fellow this year.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
And Tracy Dowd.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
Is Special Agent in charge of the Economics Crimes Unit
with CBI. Thanks to both of you, it's a great conversation.
We'll do it again. Thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Thanks Ross.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
All right, we'll take a quick break, be right back
on Kowa.
Financial fraud is everywhere and it's I think only gonna
get worse, and the bad guys are getting smarter, so
the good guys have to get smarter too. The Common
Sense Institute is going to have an event talking about
financial fraud, the true cost of financial fraud.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
So joining us to talk about the event.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
And then another guest joining us to talk about financial
fraud itself. Kelly Cawfield is executive director of the Common
Sense Institute and Tracy Dowd a Special Agent in charge
of the Economic Crimes Unit with the CBI. Good morning
to both of you, and I'll just start with Kelly
if you could just give us the details.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Of the event, and then we're.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Gonna jump in with Tracy on nuts and bolts about
financial crimes.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Thanks so much, Ross. Yes.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Next Tuesday, Tuesday, August twenty sixth, the Common Sense Institute
will be having a very exciting event partnership with the
Colorado Bankers Association, where we're going to be hearing more
from Tracy who's on your show today, as well as
Jen Waller, the head of the Colorado Bankers Association, Adam
Gregg with the Iowa Bankers Association, and one of Common
(01:05):
Sense as economist Zach Milne, and we'll be diving deep
into the economic costs of financial fraud here in Colorado,
and that panel will be able to explain not just
the impacts in Colorado, but across the country, as this
is something impacting consumers in every state.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
And for folks who are interested in going, it's next Tuesday,
four thirty pm to six pm. You can sign up
at the Common Sense Institute website. I've also linked to
it on my blog at Rosscominski dot com. But CSI
coo dot org is an easy URL to get there.
CSI like Common Sense Institute, COO like Colorado CSI coo
(01:43):
dot org. It'll get you to the to the longer
ur L and you can sign up there. Just go
to the events tab and you will find it.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
All.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Right, let's go. Let's go to Tracy dud.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Who again special Agent in charge of the Economic Crimes
Unit with CBI.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
So let's just start with something very basic.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
What does the term economic crimes cover?
Speaker 4 (02:02):
Well, these days, you know we could we could just
simplify it and say anything that has to do with
a loss, criminal activity involving finance, and something that impacts
the economy I would say these days, though, I look
at it more like it's high tech crime, right, Every
every financial crime that we have here, especially with n CBI,
(02:24):
has some sort of cyber enabled criminal activity attached to it.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
So I think you have.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
A lot of different aspects to it. It's really evolved
over the years.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
I mean, it's one of the things I wonder about.
I'm getting, you know, spanned with this stuff multiple times
every day.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
I don't know who gets fooled by these.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Things, you know, I get these I get these texts
that are from an international phone number saying that there's
a problem with my Coinbase log in, right, and and
I don't even have a coin Base account, and I
just get these and multiple emails. I got one five
minutes ago seeing there's a problem with your tax filings
and so sound like a sarcastic question, but but it isn't.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Why are so many people fooled.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
By things that I might think are obviously scams.
Speaker 4 (03:10):
I think a lot of times it's a it's a
part of the opportunity of the moment. But I think
it's also awareness. Even though we feel like we talk
about this stuff, and in my world, I work with
this stuff all day. There's a lot of people that
still are not aware that these type of schemes are happening,
or that somebody is out there just you know, targeting
them for this purpose. So I feel like and then,
and and quite frankly, the bad actors are pretty good
(03:32):
at what they do, right. They are a well oiled
business and very good at getting people and directing them
to different websites and getting them to spend money.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
What's your estimate as to the percentage of these bad
actors who are in the United States of America.
Speaker 4 (03:45):
Well, that brings up an amazing point. You know, in
our in our unit here at the CBI, we do
work with Colorado bad actors, right, we see that. But
for the most part, and I think what's a great
topic of conversation here is that the this is about
an absolute, relentless assault of financial exploitation that's really being
committed by transnational organization you know, all across the globe
(04:09):
for the most part, Right, these are transnational organized crime
groups and are targeting you know, victims individually, small businesses
here in Colorado, and large corporations on every level.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
I mean, would it still be correct to say there
are significant bad actors in India and near India, Nigeria
and near Nigeria, Russia and near Russia are those.
Speaker 4 (04:37):
I would say, I would say definitely, those are points
I would also highlight right now, there's a lot of
awareness being out there, like Cambodia, for example, a lot
of big scam centers, you know, big businesses being set
up there to basically market these scams like this.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
So when you describe it that way, and it almost
sounds to me like you've got I'll use the term
very loosely, entrepreneurs setting up call centers and the people
sitting in the cubicles are scammers rather than customer support.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Is that some of it?
Speaker 4 (05:11):
Yes, one hundred percent. If you've seen the movie The Beekeeper,
have you seen that and say them, it's kind of
obviously that glamor, you know, it puts a lot of
glamor on this. But if you can imagine the hotel
sized call centers being set up, that what they know
now And we can get into this later, but just
so you know, what we know now is the folks
that are committing these crimes are actually a lot of
(05:33):
times under their human trafficking victims themselves they're being in
these compounds basically as indentured servants committing these crimes. So
you have victims on all sides here.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
All right, I've only got about ninety seconds left, so
I've got one more question for Tracy, and then I'll
have Kelly reiterate the information about next Tuesday's event. What
are the top one or two bullet points you would
advise people on to avoid being avoid.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Becoming a victim of one of these financial crimes.
Speaker 4 (06:04):
Recognize that online dating and being a victim of an
online dating scam is still one of the number one
ways to facilitate a lot of these scams. And then
taking an overall on whether you're a small business or individual,
taking a look and doing the threat assessment of your
individual space, making sure that you have correct cybersecurity in place,
and always independently verify anything that comes into you, whether
(06:27):
it's that UPS tracking, that DMV notice, separate yourself from
that text or email and independently verify it.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Great, that's fantastic advice.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
All right, Kelly, remind us just briefly the details of
the event next Tuesday.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
Sure can hear more from Tracy and our economists unpacking
the economic cost of financial fraud to our state. Please
join us next week and it's a free event Tuesday
August twenty six, four thirty to six at our building
at AMG National Trust in Greenwood Village. And as Roth said,
you can register on our website a shortcut csico dot org.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Thanks so much, awesome.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
Kelly Caawfield is executive director of the Common Sense Institute,
where I am very proudly the Michae Loprino Free Enterprise
Fellow this year.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
And Tracy Dowd.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
Is Special Agent in charge of the Economics Crimes Unit
with CBI. Thanks to both of you, it's a great conversation.
We'll do it again. Thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Thanks Ross.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
All right, we'll take a quick break, be right back
on Kowa.
The Ross Kaminsky Show News
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark
My Favorite Murder is a true crime comedy podcast hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Each week, Karen and Georgia share compelling true crimes and hometown stories from friends and listeners. Since MFM launched in January of 2016, Karen and Georgia have shared their lifelong interest in true crime and have covered stories of infamous serial killers like the Night Stalker, mysterious cold cases, captivating cults, incredible survivor stories and important events from history like the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. My Favorite Murder is part of the Exactly Right podcast network that provides a platform for bold, creative voices to bring to life provocative, entertaining and relatable stories for audiences everywhere. The Exactly Right roster of podcasts covers a variety of topics including historic true crime, comedic interviews and news, science, pop culture and more. Podcasts on the network include Buried Bones with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes, That's Messed Up: An SVU Podcast, This Podcast Will Kill You, Bananas and more.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.