Hacking Humans

Dave shares a story of digital voice assistants being channeled toward scammers. Joe tracks scammers taking advantage of social tools on the Steam gaming platform. The catch of the day involves South African kickbacks. Our guest is researcher/technologist Ray [REDACTED], who shares his expertise on scammers targeting SMS.Links to stories: https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2019/08/20/scammers-use-bogus-search-results-to-fool-voice-assistants/ https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/steam-accounts-being-stolen-through-elaborate-free-game-scam/Have a Catch of the Day you'd like to share? Email it to us at hackinghumans@thecyberwire.com or hit us up on Twitter.

Joe describes a primitive (but effective) phishing scheme being tracked by Bleeping Computer. Dave shares news from a Black Hat presentation on phishing stats from Google. The catch of the day is a friendly invitation from Hawaii. Our guest is Michael Gillespie from Emsisoft describing the ID Ransomware project.Links from today's stories:https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/beware-of-emails-asking-you-to-confirm-your-unsubscribe-request/https://www.fastcompany.com/90387855/we-keep-falling-for-phishing-emails-and-google-just-revealed-whyhttps://id-ransomware.malwarehunterteam.com/Have a Catch of the Day you'd like to share? Email it to us at hackinghumans@thecyberwire.com or hit us up on Twitter.

Dave shares the story of a small community hospital dealing with a ransomware attack. Joe reviews the different types of extortion emails. The catch of the day is an inheritance scam from Canada. Carole Theriault interviews Craig Silverman from Buzzfeed about online reputation management companies.Links to stories:https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona/2019/07/30/how-4-technicians-saved-arizona-hospital-hacker-ransomware-wickenburg-community-hospital/1842572001/https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/extortion-emails-on-the-rise-a-look-at-the-different-types/Have a Catch of the Day you'd like to share? Email it to us at hackinghumans@thecyberwire.com or hit us up on Twitter.

Joe shares a cautionary Facebook tale from his own life. Dave has the story of an Australian IT company put out of business by scammers. The catch of the day tracks the response writer and comedian Dave Holmes had to scammers pretending to be from the IRS. Rachel Tobac from Social Proof Security returns with voting security information and the latest scams she's been tracking.Links to today's stories:https://www.crn.com.au/news/it-suppliers-forced-to-close-after-procurement-scam-528609https://cheezburger.com/719877/troll-comedian-gets-a-scam-call-and-decides-to-play-alonghttps://www.vampirecaveman.com/Have a Catch of the Day you'd like to share? Email it to us at hackinghumans@thecyberwire.com or hit us up on Twitter.

Dave outlines a church donation scam. Joe shares reporting from Ars Technica on romance scams coming out of Africa. The catch of the day is courtesy of London comedian James Veitch Our guest is Garry Berman from Cyberman Security who's developed a cyber security comic book series to help raise awareness.Links to this week's stories: https://www.churchlawandtax.com/blog/2018/june/what-to-know-about-new-donation-scam.html https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/07/im-not-100-with-anybody-ars-dissects-a-nigerian-twitter-catfish-scam/ https://www.boredpanda.com/funny-phishing-scam-emails-dot-con-james-veitch/https://www.cyberheroescomics.com/Have a Catch of the Day you'd like to share? Email it to us at hackinghumans@thecyberwire.com or hit us up on Twitter.

Joe shares a story on the market economy of phishing. Dave explains how gamers are being taken advantage of on popular chat app Discord. The catch of the day included a little bit of showbiz razzle-dazzle. Our anonymous guest this week shares his efforts to keep his father from falling for online scams.Links to stories: https://blogs.akamai.com/sitr/2019/06/phishing-factories-and-economies.htmlhttps://twitter.com/Splatter_Shah/status/1143556723266994176Have a Catch of the Day you'd like to share? Email it to us at hackinghumans@thecyberwire.com or hit us up on Twitter.

Dave shares a listener story of scammers calling drug stores to try to gather customer rewards points. Joe describes federal contractors being scammed out of over $10 million of hardware, some of it classified communications equipment. The catch of the day starts with a bank email scam and ends with a Rick roll. Carole Theriault speaks with Michael Madon, head of security at Mimecast about the cyber security skills gap.Links to stories - https://qz.com/1661537/us-defense-contractor-falls-for-3-million-email-scam/https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/entertainment/2018/01/man-sets-up-rick-astley-hotline-to-rescue-people-from-annoying-salespeople.htmlHave a Catch of the Day you'd like to share? Email it to us at hackinghumans@thecyberwire.com or hit us up on Twitter. 

Joe shares the heartbreaking tale of a catphishing case that leads to murder. Dave describes a shoe company using an unusual method to trick engagement with an online ad. The catch of the day engages a Nigerian scammer promising a fortune in precious minerals. Dave interview Michael Coates, head of Altitude Networks and former CISO at Twitter. Links to this week's stories -  https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/after-alaska-teen-s-murder-cybersecurity-experts-warn-catfishing-predators-n1019536 https://medium.com/shanghaiist/chinese-shoe-company-tricks-people-into-swiping-instagram-ad-with-fake-strand-of-hair-54d8a2d8ec1dhttps://www.419eater.com/html/user_subs/godfather/godfather.htmhttps://altitudenetworks.com/Have a Catch of the Day you'd like to share? Email it to us at hackinghumans@thecyberwire.com or hit us up on Twitter.

We're taking a break for the Independence Day holiday in the US, so enjoy this episode from the early days of our show. Dave shares a story of airport penetration testing with high degree of yuck-factor. Joe explores research on protecting passwords from social engineering. The catch-of-the-day comes courtesy of Graham Cluley's email spam box. Dave interviews Wired's Security Staff Writer Lily Hay Newman on her article tracking Nigerian email scammers.  Thanks to our show sponsor KnowBe4.

Dave shares the story of one Katie Jones, the fake online persona used to gain the confidence of high-status individuals. Joe describes the tragic case of Christine Lu, a Harvard Medical professor who was scammed out of her life savings. The Catch of the Day warns recipients not to trust the FBI. Carole Theriault interviews Akamai's Larry Cashdollar about scammers using Google Translate to obfuscate web sites.Links to this week's stories:https://www.apnews.com/bc2f19097a4c4fffaa00de6770b8a60dhttps://thispersondoesnotexist.com/ https://www.nbcboston.com/on-air/as-seen-on/Woman-Scammed-Into-Giving-Away-Life-Savings_NECN-511108952.htmlHave a Catch of the Day you'd like to share? Email it to us at hackinghumans@thecyberwire.com or hit us up on Twitter.