Episodes

  • Intimate Partner Fraud

    Intimate Partner Fraud
    Apr 1 2026
    Most scams leave a digital trail. A fake email, a spoofed number, a fraudulent website. You can trace them, report them, sometimes even reverse them. But what happens when the scam has no digital trail at all, because it isn't happening on a screen? What happens when the con is standing right in front of you, making you laugh, meeting your friends, and planning a future with you? My guest today is Tracy Hall. She's an author, keynote speaker, and senior marketing executive with over 25 years at some of the world's most recognizable tech companies including eBay, Virgin, GoDaddy, and Afterpay. She is sharp, successful, and by every measure, exactly the kind of person you'd assume would see it coming. She didn't. And neither would you. In 2017, Tracy woke up to a Crime Stoppers video of an unidentified man being arrested outside a Sydney apartment. That man was her boyfriend of 18 months. Except he wasn't who she thought he was. The man she knew as Max Tevita a Bondi surfer, a finance executive, the person she was building a life with was actually Hamish McLaren, Australia's most infamous conman, a man who had been running long game cons for thirty years across multiple countries, stealing somewhere between eighty and a hundred million dollars from victims around the world. Tracy was his last victim before his arrest. He had stolen her entire life savings of $317,000 and far more than that. This is a story about what happens when the scam isn't a phishing email. It's a relationship. And it will change the way you think about trust, manipulation, and what any of us are actually capable of missing. Show Notes: [1:03] With 25 years as a senior marketing executive behind her, Tracy shares how a year after separating from her husband she began online dating, where she met a man calling himself Max Tevita.[3:25] Presenting himself as a Bondi surfer and chief investment officer, Max spent 18 months slowly and methodically guiding Tracy to invest her entire life savings with him.[5:55] A crime stoppers video changed everything. The man Tracy knew as her boyfriend was actually Hamish McLaren, a professional conman who had been defrauding victims globally for 30 years and stealing an estimated $80 to $100 million.[7:36] A masterful shapeshifter, McLaren adjusted his persona in real time based on Tracy's reactions, including quietly getting rid of his five cars after she called him out on it.[9:54] Tracy breaks down the psychological mechanics of the con, including similarity bias, mirroring, and how McLaren constructed a character she was essentially telling him she wanted.[11:05] Through elaborate "movie sets and scenes," McLaren built layers of authority and confirmation bias over 18 months, making investing her life savings with him feel completely logical.[14:21] Some moments only made sense in hindsight, including a childhood friend accidentally calling McLaren by his nickname "Ham Bone" and his instant, convincing cover story on the spot.[18:22] Humans default to truth, and Tracy explains how that biological wiring makes us uniquely vulnerable to manipulation, especially around emotionally charged stories.[19:29] Every victim got their own version of McLaren barrister, triathlete, business strategist as Tracy describes meeting others who had each been conned by an entirely different character.[22:53] Learning to trust other people wasn't the hard part. Tracy reflects on why rebuilding faith in her own judgment was far more difficult, and how shame dominated the aftermath.[25:21] Through professional help and a conscious daily decision not to let McLaren turn her into a cynical person, Tracy describes how she slowly rebuilt both her finances and her sense of self.[27:05] Understanding the psychology behind scams, cognitive biases, invisible contracts of trust, emotional exploitation is the best defense we have, and Tracy breaks down exactly how it works.[31:33] The medium may be different, but the tactics aren't — Tracy draws striking parallels between her in-person experience and digital romance baiting scams, showing how the emotional manipulation is nearly identical.[34:00] There is no demographic, age group, or intelligence level that is immune. Tracy makes the case that scammers hunt for vulnerability, and at the right moment, we are all soft targets.[36:12] By subtly discouraging Tracy from socializing with friends, McLaren was limiting outside scrutiny and Tracy explains why getting a new partner in front of your personal network as quickly as possible is one of the most important protective steps you can take.[40:24] No digital footprint is a major red flag. Tracy outlines key warning signs to watch for and recommends reverse image searches as a basic but powerful verification step when meeting someone new.[42:08] Every single time Tracy speaks publicly, someone approaches her afterwards with a story they have never told anyone a reminder that silence is exactly what these criminals depend on ...
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    46 mins
  • Identity without Passwords

    Identity without Passwords
    Mar 25 2026
    Every day, employees at hotels, restaurants, and resorts across the country are doing exactly what they were hired to do: being warm, responsive, and eager to help. It's what makes hospitality work. It's also what makes hospitality one of the most targeted industries in cybersecurity. When your entire workforce is trained to say yes, teaching them to be suspicious is an uphill battle. The smarter solution might be to take the target off their backs entirely. Jasson Casey is the co-founder and CEO of Beyond Identity, a company built around one idea: making identity-based attacks impossible. With over 20 years of experience designing large-scale security infrastructure for global enterprises and carriers, Jasson has spent his career thinking about what happens when stolen credentials open doors they never should have. Beyond Identity's answer isn't better passwords or more authentication hoops, it's eliminating the credential that can be stolen in the first place. Josh Johansen is the Director of IT Systems and Technology at Brandt Hospitality Group, an owner, operator, and developer of hotels under brands including Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt, and IHG. Josh came up through hotel operations, not a computer science program, and that background shapes how he thinks about security practically, from the floor up. He knows his workforce isn't looking to become cybersecurity experts. His job is to build systems that protect them anyway. We talk about why the hospitality industry is such a rich target for phishing attacks, and what happened when one of Josh's general managers nearly paid a fraudulent invoice because she couldn't log in without a password she no longer had. Jasson breaks down how device-bound passkeys work, why most consumer passkeys aren't nearly as secure as people think, and what separates a real security system from one that just looks like one. Josh shares the lessons learned from rolling out this technology across a multi-brand hotel portfolio including what he'd do differently and what it means for an industry still wrestling with shared logins, high turnover, and workers using four different brand systems before lunch. Show Notes: [3:05] A cyber insurance mandate pushes Brandt Hospitality Group to find an MFA solution, and complaints about authentication fatigue make the obvious options the Brandt partners are already using feel like the wrong fit.[4:03] After months of evaluating vendors and completing a full proof of concept, the leading candidate drops smaller accounts without warning, sending Josh back to square one and into a same-day demo with Beyond Identity.[5:09] Beyond Identity moves fast, puts together a rapid proof of concept, and earns the business. Josh describes meeting Jasson in person for the first time at BeyondCon shortly after signing on.[5:45] Hospitality is uniquely vulnerable to phishing attacks, and the industry's culture of helpfulness connects directly to the behaviors bad actors are counting on.[6:49] A general manager calls convinced she needs her password to pay an overdue vendor invoice. When she can't get a login prompt, the situation is recognized immediately as a phishing attempt she nearly fell for.[7:33] Reflecting on that moment, someone sharp and experienced nearly became a victim, and removing the password from the equation entirely turns out to be the real breakthrough.[9:05] The conversation turns to the limitations of cyber awareness training, and why even well-intentioned employees with heavy workloads cannot be expected to function as a reliable last line of defense.[11:13] Jasson describes how Beyond Identity works, using the analogy of a monkey in a jail cell to explain how a signing key stored in a secure hardware enclave can authenticate a user without ever leaving the device.[12:06] The concept of stealable credentials expands beyond passwords to include API tokens, session cookies, SSH keys, and anything else that can be copied and lifted from a system.[17:33] The discussion shifts to agentic identity and AI-driven workflows, with customers on opposite ends of the spectrum — some where agents make up the majority of their workforce, others who paused rollouts after discovering how easily prompt injections could expose sensitive data.[19:17] The biggest mistake organizations make going into a passkey rollout is diving in without a clear understanding of how their identity environment is actually configured and what that means when things don't behave as expected.[20:35] A lesson from their own deployment — initially limiting passkeys to senior staff and leaving line-level employees on passwords — makes clear that partial coverage leaves meaningful gaps.[22:58] Most organizations under active phishing load will experience an incident during a mid-deployment window, and that moment often becomes the event that accelerates full adoption.[24:33] The shared workstation challenge in hospitality comes into focus, along with how the device-bound ...
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    39 mins
  • When Cybercrime Gets Personal

    When Cybercrime Gets Personal
    Mar 18 2026
    Most security breaches don't begin with sophisticated code or elaborate technical exploits. They begin with a phone call, a convincing email, or someone at a help desk who just wanted to be helpful. The human layer is often the weakest link, and the criminals who understand that are the ones causing the most damage. My guest today is May Chen-Contino. She's the CEO of Unit 221B, a threat disruption company that delivers actionable intelligence to enterprises, law enforcement, and government agencies. Her background spans cybersecurity, fintech, and SaaS leadership at companies like PayPal and eBay, and she brings a distinctly mission-driven lens to the work, shaped equally by a career in business and a background as a Krav Maga instructor. Unit 221B operates less like a typical security vendor and more like a specialized investigative unit, with a team that includes tenured ransomware experts, incident responders, and former law enforcement, all focused on one outcome: criminal arrest. May has seen firsthand how ransomware gangs operate with their own codes of conduct, how a younger generation of cybercriminals is throwing those rules out entirely, and why paying a ransom is increasingly a bet that doesn't pay off. We talk about why social engineering has overtaken technical hacking as the dominant attack vector, what organizations and individuals should never do in the aftermath of a breach, and how crimes against children online often go unreported for the worst possible reasons. May also shares a story from her own experience being scammed on eBay, and what she did about it, which tells you everything you need to know about how she approaches this work. Show Notes: [1:28] May shares her background and how she came to lead Unit 221B, a threat disruption company serving enterprises, law enforcement, and government.[1:41] May traces her path into cybersecurity, explaining how a lifelong sense of justice and a friendship built through Krav Maga training led her to a team of investigators doing real criminal work.[5:55] May recounts being scammed while selling luxury shoes on eBay, describing how a fraudulent PayPal email convinced her the sale had failed after she had already shipped the item.[8:22] Rather than accepting the loss, May engaged the scammer directly, intercepted her own shipment through FedEx, and used a photoshopped payment screenshot to flip the situation on him.[11:36] The story ends with May recovering her shoes, followed by a candid note that this approach carries real risk and is not something she would recommend to others.[12:57] May outlines Unit 221B's core work, including criminal investigations, threat intelligence, pen testing, and incident response, all oriented toward federal prosecution and criminal arrest.[16:52] The evolving threat landscape, contrasting professional ransomware organizations that tend to honor agreements with a younger generation of cybercriminals who operate without limits.[18:44] May describes this younger criminal group in detail, noting members are predominantly 14 to 26 years old, English-speaking, and motivated as much by social status as financial gain.[21:49] May explains why wiping systems and restoring backups after a breach is one of the most damaging mistakes an organization can make, eliminating evidence and removing any path to prosecution.[23:04] She walks through Unit 221B's incident response process, covering digital forensics, insider threat identification, and determining who is behind an attack before advising on next steps.[26:32] May addresses the ransom payment question directly, recommending against paying as a default while acknowledging that knowing your adversary is essential to making the right call.[28:04] The discussion covers the legal and PR dimensions of a breach, including notification obligations and why some organizations choose to go public about what happened.[31:08] May pushes back on the perception that law enforcement doesn't help, explaining that federal agencies are understaffed and must prioritize cases, but are genuinely committed to the work.[34:08] The issue of victims deleting evidence before reporting, and how frequently this forecloses any possibility of investigation or prosecution.[34:55] The conversation turns to crimes targeting children, including sextortion, and why open dialogue between parents and kids is critical to getting victims to come forward before lasting harm is done.[37:18] May reflects on a keynote she gave at Harvard's Bold Conference for young women, describing the tension between advice to build an online presence and the real safety risks that come with it.[38:51] May shares practical security guidance for young people online, including being mindful of what appears in video backgrounds, using strong passwords, and enabling two-factor authentication.[40:35] May identifies AI-assisted attacks and social engineering as the two most significant forces reshaping the threat landscape, with...
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    46 mins
  • Stopping Phone Scams

    Stopping Phone Scams
    Mar 11 2026
    Phone scams get dismissed as background noise or just annoying interruptions and unknown numbers with robotic voices we learn to ignore. But behind that noise is an industry built on psychology, automation, and staggering profitability. My guest today is Alex Quilici. He's an engineer, entrepreneur, and the CEO of YouMail, a company focused on protecting consumers and businesses from unwanted and fraudulent calls. Alex has spent years analyzing how robocalls and scam campaigns are designed, how they evolve, and why they continue to work despite better technology and increased awareness. What began as a voicemail platform shifted into fraud prevention after users unintentionally revealed a powerful truth that even small friction can disrupt scam operations. He shares how his own father got pulled into a tech support scam which cemented his mission to move beyond blocking calls and toward tracing and stopping scams closer to their source. We talk about how scam calls are engineered, the tactics that trigger panic and urgency, and how criminals use data breaches, AI tools, and impersonation to sound convincing. We also explore what's changing, including fewer random calls, more targeted attacks, rising text and messaging scams, and the difficult balance between stopping fraud and allowing legitimate calls through. Alex shares practical ways consumers and businesses can reduce risk, along with a candid look at why this problem is so persistent and where it's likely heading next. Show Notes: [2:23] Alex explains how YouMail shifted from a voicemail company into fraud prevention after noticing users using an out-of-service message to deter robocallers.[3:25] Discussion turns to robocall volume, with Alex estimating billions of calls per day and roughly five billion robocalls per month.[4:10] About half of all robocalls are unwanted, while the rest include legitimate reminders from doctors, hospitals, and financial institutions.[5:05] Alex notes that legitimate telemarketing still exists but is now heavily overshadowed by sketchy and scam-driven campaigns.[6:40] Scam calls have declined in raw volume, yet attackers are becoming more targeted and efficient.[7:15] Scammers increasingly pivot to texts, email, and messaging platforms where third-party blocking is harder.[9:27] Alex describes limited progress shutting down shady telemarketers but better success against large-scale illegal robocall operations.[11:05] Sense of urgency emerges as the dominant tactic, often involving fake charges, legal threats, or financial panic triggers.[13:10] Modern scams combine spoofed caller ID with breached personal data to create highly convincing impersonations.[16:27] Scammers are compared to extremely motivated marketers who rapidly adopt AI and optimization techniques.[17:30] The economics are startling, with scam campaigns generating enormous profits at extremely low cost per call.[18:44] Alex advises letting unexpected calls go to voicemail and returning calls through verified, official channels.[20:50] Panic-based bank account scams are highlighted as particularly dangerous because fear overrides logic.[23:19] Businesses are identified as vulnerable targets, especially through employees' personal mobile phones.[31:52] Enforcement efforts are increasing, and Alex predicts stronger regulatory pressure over the coming year.[35:54] Impersonation scams tied to toll roads, DMVs, crypto, and romance schemes are flagged as growing threats.[38:19] A simple defensive principle is reinforced: pause, disengage, and verify independently before taking action.[41:44] Alex outlines YouMail's call-screening approach, adding friction that blocks automated scam systems while allowing real callers through. Thanks for joining us on Easy Prey. Be sure to subscribe to our podcast on iTunes and leave a nice review. Links and Resources: Podcast Web PageFacebook Pagewhatismyipaddress.comEasy Prey on InstagramEasy Prey on TwitterEasy Prey on LinkedInEasy Prey on YouTubeEasy Prey on PinterestYouMailAlex Quilici - LinkedIn
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    45 mins
  • Stolen Identity - Stolen Peace

    Stolen Identity - Stolen Peace
    Mar 4 2026
    Identity theft gets talked about a lot, but usually in the abstract: freeze your credit, watch your statements, don't click suspicious links. What doesn't get talked about nearly enough is what it actually feels like when someone isn't just using your card number, but is actively living as you. My guest today is Brooklyn Lyons. She's 25, recently married, and by her own admission, had no particular expertise in fraud or cybersecurity before October of 2024. That changed when her car window was smashed in a parking lot, and her work bag, laptop, wallet, driver's license, and everything was gone by morning. What followed wasn't a quick nightmare with a clean ending. It stretched across months, multiple counties, a jail communication system, the dark web, and a wanted fugitive who dyed her hair to look more like the face on a stolen ID. Brooklyn didn't just sit with it. She pulled criminal records, reverse-searched phone numbers, tracked an inmate's transfers across four facilities, identified a suspect on her own, and eventually filed a civil lawsuit without an attorney. We talk about what it feels like when someone is pretending to be you, not just spending your money, but messaging people as you, signing up for accounts as you, building a life in your name. We also get into the specific steps she took to fight back, the tools she wishes she'd known about sooner, and what recovery actually looks like when the case isn't closed, and the person still hasn't been caught. Show Notes: [1:47] Brooklyn introduces herself as a 25-year-old from Texas with no prior experience in fraud or identity theft.[2:13] She describes moving to the DFW area after getting married in June 2024 and being aware of the high rate of car break-ins in the region.[3:32] Her car window is smashed overnight, and her work bag is stolen, containing her laptop, wallet, driver's license, and all her cards.[4:03] Brooklyn's immediate response is to freeze her credit with all three bureaus and cancel her cards within 10 to 15 minutes.[4:57] Despite locking everything down, her cards are maxed out, and a police report is filed with little follow-up from law enforcement.[5:12] A period of quiet follows before a letter arrives around Valentine's Day 2025 claiming she rented a U-Haul and never returned it.[5:48] Experian alerts her that her driver's license has been found on the dark web, arriving almost simultaneously with the U-Haul letter.[7:14] While checking USPS Informed Delivery for a wedding invitation, Brooklyn spots a certified letter from a county jail addressed to her with an inmate's name listed beneath hers.[8:28] She contacts the jail and discovers an inmate had listed her as his girlfriend when booked, requesting she pick up his belongings before a prison transfer.[9:53] Brooklyn looks up the inmate in the state conviction database and finds a record including identity theft, car burglary, organized crime, and credit card abuse of the elderly.[11:58] A jail investigator reveals that the inmate's girlfriend had created an account in Brooklyn's name using her driver's license photo, editing her own appearance to match Brooklyn's features.[14:02] Brooklyn traces the same pattern across multiple county jail facilities the inmate passed through, confirming the woman repeated the identity fraud at each one.[15:13] A detective confirms the woman has stolen or attempted to use 17 other identities, and that Brooklyn is the only one who has caught on so far.[16:52] Four police departments become involved, and Brooklyn begins coordinating with investigators across all of them through a shared email thread.[19:22] Pulling her credit report reveals phone numbers tied to the suspect, leading Brooklyn to discover PayPal accounts, Cash App profiles, and a Facebook page created in her name.[20:58] Brooklyn uses a PayPal password recovery prompt to identify the first three letters of the suspect's real name.[22:03] She requests all jail booking documents containing her name from every county involved and receives text message logs from one department.[22:33] Using a birthday and partial name found in the messages, Brooklyn searches mugshots.com and identifies the suspect herself, later getting vague confirmation from investigators.[24:38] Chris asks whether the suspect and inmate were in a relationship, and Brooklyn explains they appear to share a child and were trying to manage a custody situation.[27:57] Brooklyn investigates whether a Verizon phone number was tied to an account in her name and later finds the suspect's real email embedded in her electricity account profile.[29:27] Brooklyn details changing her driver's license four times throughout the ordeal and suspects the woman is using her information for utility accounts to avoid being found.[31:02] Two police departments issue arrest warrants for the suspect, but she remains at large and difficult to locate.[31:33] Brooklyn files a civil lawsuit on her own without an attorney, ...
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    52 mins
  • Inside Modern Fraud

    Inside Modern Fraud
    Feb 25 2026
    Fraud doesn't always announce itself with obvious warning signs. Quite often, it shows up wrapped inside something that feels routine — a purchase you've made before, a link that looks legitimate, a message that arrives at just the wrong moment. Nothing feels suspicious, so your guard stays down. By the time questions start forming, the transaction is already done. My guest today is Iremar Brayner. He's spent more than 15 years working in fraud prevention and risk management across payments, retail, ride-hailing, fintech, and digital marketplaces. In his role at G2A, he leads fraud strategy for one of the world's largest digital entertainment platforms, where speed, approval rates, and loss prevention are constantly pulling against each other. We discuss why scams continue to work despite smarter tools, how "friendly fraud" complicates the picture, and why digital goods create very different risk patterns than traditional retail. We also get into automation, AI-driven decisions, and what it really looks like to manage fraud in real time. Show Notes: [1:36] Iremar shares how his career in fraud prevention began, moving from bank customer service into reviewing suspicious transactions.[2:45] He explains why he completed law school but chose not to become a lawyer, and how legal training shaped his understanding of fraud psychology.[4:10] Fraud is framed as an emotional event, with urgency, financial stress, and excitement often lowering a person's defenses.[6:16] Digital marketplaces attract fraudsters due to low-cost items and products like gift cards that are easy to cash out.[7:10] The concept of card testing emerges, where stolen payment details are validated through small purchases.[8:05] Iremar discusses the rise of friendly fraud, where legitimate customers dispute transactions after receiving goods.[9:30] Major product launches, such as highly anticipated game releases, create predictable spikes in fraud risk.[11:05] Marketplace fraud requires managing risk on both sides, verifying sellers while monitoring buyers in real time.[12:40] He describes G2A's shift away from manual review toward fully automated transaction decisioning.[14:15] The tension between frictionless customer experience and effective fraud prevention is unpacked.[16:05] Automation and AI are positioned as essential tools for scaling fraud defenses without overwhelming operations.[18:10] AI's real impact is discussed: not changing fraud itself, but making attacks faster and more scalable.[20:05] Iremar explains why human judgment still plays a critical role alongside AI systems.[21:41] Fraud patterns differ across industries, illustrated through examples from ride-hailing platforms.[23:10] Abuse of referral and incentive programs reveals how self-referrals became a common fraud tactic.[24:40] Identity misuse by drivers highlights risks tied to document verification.[25:50] Face recognition and customer reporting become tools for detecting account misuse.[27:15] High-value luxury marketplaces introduce entirely different fraud and logistics challenges.[29:10] Practical consumer advice: buy from reliable sources, review refund policies, and question unrealistic pricing.[30:05] Seller protection strategies focus on accurate product descriptions and shipment tracking.[32:05] The most common complaints in marketplaces are items not received and items not as described.[33:20] Iremar recounts becoming a fraud victim after a fraudulent airline ticket charge.[35:00] A WhatsApp impersonation attempt using his photo targeted his mother.[36:10] Verification habits are emphasized as one of the strongest defenses against scams.[37:40] The risks of social media and account takeover scenarios are discussed.[39:30] Challenges around encouraging broader adoption of two-factor authentication.[40:05] Career advice for those interested in fraud prevention as a profession. Thanks for joining us on Easy Prey. Be sure to subscribe to our podcast on iTunes and leave a nice review. Links and Resources: Podcast Web PageFacebook Pagewhatismyipaddress.comEasy Prey on InstagramEasy Prey on TwitterEasy Prey on LinkedInEasy Prey on YouTubeEasy Prey on PinterestIremar Brayner - LinkedInG2A
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    42 mins
  • Money Laundering

    Money Laundering
    Feb 18 2026
    Organized crime is often imagined as something violent, chaotic, and obvious. But today, it looks far more polished than that. It operates like a multinational business, spread across borders, built on trust networks, specialization, and efficiency rather than brute force. This episode looks at how modern scams, fraud, and money laundering actually work and why they're so hard to spot before serious damage is done. My guest is Geoff White, an investigative journalist who has spent decades covering organized crime, cybercrime, and financial fraud. His reporting has appeared on BBC News, Sky News, The Sunday Times, and other major outlets, and he is also the creator of The Lazarus Heist, the hit podcast and book series exploring North Korea's global hacking operations. His latest book, Rinsed, examines how technology has transformed the world of money laundering. We talk about how modern criminal networks are structured, why scams now rely on patience and psychology rather than speed, and how money laundering functions as a service industry that quietly supports fraud at scale. The conversation also explores why victims are sometimes unknowingly used to move stolen funds, how urgency is weaponized to override judgment, and why slowing down remains one of the most effective defenses people have. Show Notes: [01:08] Geoff shares his background and why the organized crime + technology overlap is where he's spent his career.[02:52] Why longer-form work (books, podcasts) is often the only way to explain complex crimes that don't fit into a quick news segment.[03:56] Old-school enforcement was violence; modern crime groups often can't use that when partners are anonymous and overseas.[04:23] The trust networks holding global crime together can be more fragile than people assume.[05:06] The strange "trust inside crime" dynamic especially in ransomware, where criminals must appear "reliable."[06:18] Competition today looks more like corporate rivalry than street violence, especially in ransomware affiliate ecosystems.[07:41] Do these groups evolve from traditional cartels or arise from new tech-native criminals? Geoff says it depends on the region.[09:58] The skill split of elite coders builds ransomware, while newer recruits use social engineering to get initial access.[11:34] Money laundering adapts fast with crypto, game currencies, NFTs while the core "service business" model stays the same.[12:46] The "cost" of laundering: fees can be extreme for newcomers, and lower for experienced players with connections.[13:53] A disturbing case where victims are daisy-chained to launder money and reinforce the romance-scam illusion.[15:12] Why money mules are treated as disposable and how many don't realize the seriousness until law enforcement shows up.[16:48] The tactic of letting victims withdraw a little money to make a platform feel legitimate and why it works so well.[18:09] Geoff connects today's tactics to classic con mechanics ("putting the mark on the send") and the psychology behind it.[19:22] Geoff describes seeing an "escalator scam" firsthand: small payouts early, then pressure to pay to "unlock" higher earnings.[21:51] The scary shift is that scams now look polished and patient, stretching across multiple channels and weeks (or longer).[23:12] The more we "self-custody" money and identity online, the more security responsibility shifts onto individuals.[24:32] A major crypto seizure case raises a messy question when seized assets grow in value, who gets the upside?[28:46] Geoff's practical defense: slow down on anything money-related, create space, and don't let urgency steer decisions.[31:17] Why today's scammers play the long game of months of relationship-building can lead to life-changing losses.[34:29] Repeat victimization: recovery scams and fake "investigators" often target people right after they've been hit.[36:08] "Traceable" doesn't mean "recoverable," why freezing and returning stolen crypto is legally and logistically hard.[38:44] UK reimbursement changes shift liability between sending and receiving banks but there are tradeoffs and open questions.[41:28] Geoff reacts to US payment quirks (card taken away, tip written in pen) and why it still surprises outsiders.[45:11] Closing advice is to learn from other people's stories and run "what would I do?" scenarios before a crisis hits. Thanks for joining us on Easy Prey. Be sure to subscribe to our podcast on iTunes and leave a nice review. Links and Resources: Podcast Web PageFacebook Pagewhatismyipaddress.comEasy Prey on InstagramEasy Prey on TwitterEasy Prey on LinkedInEasy Prey on YouTubeEasy Prey on PinterestGeoff WhiteGeoff White - LinkedInGeoff White - Instagram Rinsed: From Cartels to Crypto: How the Tech Industry Washes Money for the World's Deadliest Crooks The Lazarus Heist Crime Dot Com: From Viruses to Vote Rigging, How Hacking Went Global
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    47 mins
  • Critical Infrastructure Risks

    Critical Infrastructure Risks
    Feb 11 2026

    Most cybersecurity conversations focus on stolen data, breached accounts, and attacks that live entirely on screens. This episode looks at a far more consequential threat: what happens when cyberattacks target the physical systems that keep society running. Power, water, transportation, and manufacturing. When those systems fail, the consequences aren't just digital. They're immediate, visible, and sometimes dangerous.

    My guest is Lesley Carhart, Technical Director of Incident Response at Dragos, a cybersecurity firm focused exclusively on protecting critical infrastructure. Lesley specializes in industrial control systems and operational technology, investigating real-world attacks against power plants, water systems, transportation networks, and industrial facilities built on aging, irreplaceable technology.

    We talk about why these environments are uniquely vulnerable, how ransomware groups and nation-state actors quietly gain long-term access, and why many compromises go undetected for years. The conversation also explores the limits of traditional cybersecurity thinking, the real-world constraints operators face, and what organizations can realistically do to improve security when failure isn't an option.

    Show Notes:
    • [01:30] Lesley Carhart is here and explains what operational technology is and why industrial systems are uniquely vulnerable
    • [03:40] How decades-old computers still run power plants, water systems, and transportation infrastructure
    • [06:10] Why industrial environments can't simply patch, upgrade, or shut systems down
    • [08:25] The mindset shift required when safety and continuity matter more than stopping an intrusion
    • [10:40] Why air-gapped systems are mostly a myth in modern critical infrastructure
    • [13:15] How remote access became unavoidable—and one of the biggest risk factors
    • [16:05] The three main threat categories facing industrial systems: ransomware, insiders, and nation-state actors
    • [18:45] Why ransomware is especially damaging in power, water, and manufacturing environments
    • [21:30] How nation-state attackers quietly establish footholds years before taking action
    • [24:20] Why many industrial compromises go undetected for months—or even years
    • [27:10] What incident response looks like when you can't just "pull the plug"
    • [30:05] The most common causes of industrial failures: human error, maintenance issues, and environment
    • [32:40] A surprising incident that looked like a nation-state attack—but wasn't
    • [34:55] Why critical infrastructure organizations often feel pressure to pay ransoms
    • [37:00] Practical starting steps for organizations with aging, mission-critical systems
    • [39:20] Advice for people interested in industrial cybersecurity and working with legacy technology
    • [42:10] Why mentorship matters and why Lesley chooses to give back to the field

    Thanks for joining us on Easy Prey. Be sure to subscribe to our podcast on iTunes and leave a nice review.

    Links and Resources:
    • Podcast Web Page
    • Facebook Page
    • whatismyipaddress.com
    • Easy Prey on Instagram
    • Easy Prey on Twitter
    • Easy Prey on LinkedIn
    • Easy Prey on YouTube
    • Easy Prey on Pinterest
    • Lesley Carhart
    • Lesley Carhart - LinkedIn
    • Lesley Carhart - Dragos
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    39 mins