Hacking Humans
Recent Episodes
This week, while Maria Varmazis (also host of the T-Minus Space Daily show) is out at a conference, hosts Dave Bittner and Joe Carrigan are joined by friend of the show Michele Kellerman, as they are sharing the latest in social engineering scams, phishing schemes, and criminal exploits that are making headlines. Our hosts start with some follow-up on Joe’s egg story, including his latest update and a brief detour into unexpected “big chicken news.” Joe’s story is on a massive USDA loan fraud scheme where Nikesh Patel fabricated fake government-backed farm loans, duped investment firms out of hundreds of millions of dollars, and continued running similar scams under aliases and even from prison, ultimately earning decades more in sentencing. Michele’s story is on a breaking report about the ShinyHunters group using targeted voice phishing and custom phishing kits to abuse Okta SSO, steal MFA credentials, and gain privileged access for data theft and extortion. Dave’s story is on LastPass warning users about an active phishing campaign impersonating the company, designed to steal master passwords and potentially expose all credentials stored in affected vaults. Our catch of the day comes from the Reddit, where two people we're approached by scammers through text messaging and both dealt with their scammers in different ways.
This week, hosts Dave Bittner, Joe Carrigan, and Maria Varmazis (also host of the T-Minus Space Daily show) are sharing the latest in social engineering scams, phishing schemes, and criminal exploits that are making headlines. Joe has two stories this week, starting with scammers cashing in on a Verizon outage by luring customers with fake credits, and ending with a rare cybercrime comeback as a woman who lost nearly $1 million gets her money back and then some. Dave’s story looks at scammers cashing in on the Ozempic and GLP-1 craze, as Wisconsin consumers lose hundreds of dollars to fake weight loss drugs, deepfake ads, and shady online pharmacies exploiting high demand and high prices. Maria’s story warns that scammers are impersonating electric, gas, and water companies this winter, using urgent threats, fake refunds, and unusual payment demands to steal money and personal information, while officials remind customers to hang up and verify any contacts through official channels. Our catch of the day comes from Reddit where the chief of police is reaching out via text.
This week, hosts Dave Bittner, Joe Carrigan, and Maria Varmazis (also host of the T-Minus Space Daily show) are sharing the latest in social engineering scams, phishing schemes, and criminal exploits that are making headlines. Joe share's another chicken update for us, this time from Werner Herzog. Dave’s got a story from a listener named Tim, an IRS Criminal Investigation agent, who explains that real CI agents may contact people unannounced and can verify themselves in person, but if anyone asks for gift cards or crypto, it’s definitely a scam. Maria has the story on how attackers are abusing real SendGrid accounts to send politically charged phishing emails that look legitimate and trick users into handing over their credentials. Joe has two stories this week, the first on Cambodia’s renewed crackdown on massive Southeast Asian scam networks following the arrest and extradition of alleged kingpin Chen Zhi, signaling deeper international cooperation against fraud operations that have stolen billions worldwide, and the second on a Nashville Uber driver who lost $300 after falling for a convincing phone scam that impersonated Uber Support and falsely accused him of drunk driving. Our catch of the day comes from Reddit scams where one scammer gets put through the ringer, twice.
When a scammer meets the Force.
This week, while Maria Varmazis (also host of the T-Minus Space Daily show) is out, our hosts Dave Bittner and Joe Carrigan are sharing the latest in social engineering scams, phishing schemes, and criminal exploits that are making headlines. Joe starts us off with a chicken update. Joe’s story is on CrowdStrike’s 2025 Global Threat Report, which reveals faster-than-ever breakout times, a surge in vishing and initial access attacks, widespread abuse of valid accounts, and a growing shift toward malware-free intrusions as adversaries become more numerous and sophisticated. Dave’s got the story on how “pig-butchering” romance scams are industrialized, detailing Reuters’ reporting on cyberfraud gangs using step-by-step psychological playbooks to groom victims, manufacture emotional attachment, and rapidly funnel them into fake investments that leave lasting financial and emotional damage. Rishika Desai, Threat Researcher and Writer from Bfore.ai, joins Dave and Joe to discuss renting social media ad accounts for scamming purposes. Our catch of the day comes from Reddit, where one user channels their inner Jedi and uses the Force to send a pesky scammer retreating to the dark side.
It's just too good to be true.
This week, our hosts Dave Bittner, Joe Carrigan, and Maria Varmazis (also host of the T-Minus Space Daily show) are sharing the latest in social engineering scams, phishing schemes, and criminal exploits that are making headlines. We start with some follow up on a big honor for Dave, recognized by SANS as a Difference Maker in Media—plus a quick chicken update, a newly named rooster, and construction officially getting underway on the new run. Maria has the story on a congressional warning about a surge in winter holiday travel scams, as fake booking sites and airline impersonators drive millions in losses during peak travel season. Dave has two stories this week, one on a friend who received a suspicious email appearing to come from the chair of a nonprofit, and the other on a BBC investigation uncovering how fraudulent crowdfunding campaigns exploited children with cancer and their families, siphoning off millions meant for life-saving treatment. Joe’s story covers a warning from the IRS on how to spot and avoid tax scams, highlighting red flags like too-good-to-be-true refunds, urgent threats, fake websites, and impersonators pressuring victims for money or personal information. For our Catch of the Day, it turns out Aquaman isn’t just ruling the seas — he’s apparently sliding into fans’ texts, proving once again that when a celebrity starts sounding a little too approachable, it’s probably not Hollywood calling.
