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"What the Hack with Adam Levin" is true cybercrime with dad jokes. It’s a no-shame zone for anyone who’s ever been scammed, hacked, phished or cyber-bushwhacked. Every week, we feature fascinating people talking about the terrifying, annoying, embarrassing, or infuriating things they’ve experienced online. Join consumer affairs veteran Adam Levin with co-hosts Beau “Hack Me” Friedlander and Travis “Here's What Actually Happened” Taylor for a good story and tips on how to make yourself a litt ...
Bookable features established authors and emerging talent in conversation with host and author Amanda Stern, author of Little Panic and creator of the Happy Ending Music & Reading Series at Joe's Pub and Symphony Space. With an immersive sound experience designed around each episode, Bookable takes you on an audio exploration of a book—usually new, sometimes classic and occasionally obscure but always worth knowing about.
Morgan Davie (@mr_orgue on twitter) reads his tweets out loud, so you can hear them read out loud.
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What the Hack with Adam Levin
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Episode 90: Jason Has a Dire Warning for All New Graduates
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When he graduated from college, Jason was heading into a big career in television. He had the apartment in the big city, and a wide-open vista of opportunity–and then he got hacked. Check out this week’s episode to hear how a few pieces of purloined mail was a major detour on the way to success and fortune. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit m…
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Episode 89: Bryan Denny is Your All-Purpose Dating Chum
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You may be surprised to hear that celebrity culture extends to catfishing profiles. We talked to the man behind the most-used face in dating scams. You’re going to want to hear what he had to say. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesBy Loud Tree Media
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Episode 88: Rob Shavell (Good Sport) is No Match for Adam’s Paranoia
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If you only learn one thing about cybersecurity, it should be that all new technology, in the wrong hands, is a crime waiting to happen. Rob Shavell of Delete.Me started a company based on this truth. So we decided to have a nice long conversation about it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices…
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Episode 87: April’s Mom Was Addicted to Her Scammer
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April’s mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer, and decided she needed to have some fun. On a dating site, she met a much younger man who owned a diamond mine. What followed was either Stockholm Syndrome or a pastiche of the sunk cost fallacy. Was she addicted to her scammer? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices…
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Episode 86: Austin Federa Confirms Our Suspicions About Crypto Scams
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Solana Foundation hype man Austin Federa was kind enough to join us this week to discuss one of the bedrock truths when it comes to money: People like to steal it. Seriously, listen to this one if you think cryptocurrency has its own special category of crime, because you might be missing the forest for the trees. Learn more about your ad choices. …
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Episode 85: Michelle Dennedy Is the Most Interesting Person in the World
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Michelle Dennedy is to privacy what Einstein is to relativity but with the addition of rules that involve proper panty protocols. If there’s a new trend in identity-related crime, she knows about it, has an opinion and can help guide you to a better place without getting got by it. A must-listen episode especially if you’ve ever researched mental h…
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What the Hack with Adam Levin
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Episode 84: Adam & Co Explore the Long Tail of Chinese Spy Balloons
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China’s spying via dirigible is incorrigible but in sync with its many digital deviancies. We tried to get Xi Jinping as a guest this week, but didn’t hear back so we decided to explore the news about Chinese spy balloons in context with other attacks, why it matters (or doesn’t) and why (at least one of us thinks) Mark Zuckerberg is just as bad. L…
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Episode 83: Jordan Got Scammed Selling AirPod Knockoffs Online
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Jordan is a classic go-getter. At age 17, he was running a successful e-commerce site reselling knock-off consumer electronics through a website connected to a drop shipping company. Unfortunately, the tidy profit he made on a product that was perfectly legal but a wee bit questionable, put him on the radar of scammers who knew a LOT about him. Lea…
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Episode 82: Jill Schlesinger Hits the Reset Button
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In the wake of the Great Reset and Covid, millions of people have pursued their dreams of a better, financially stable and less stressful life. Business analyst and author Jill Schlesinger gives us a rundown on how to distinguish these dreams from reality and how to avoid getting scammed in the process. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megap…
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Episode 81: Adam Bares it All in the No-Shame Zone
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If you’ve listened to the show more than once, you know Adam talks A LOT about credit freezes.This week he makes a jaw-dropping (and somewhat shameless) confession: The Great Cred-u-cator only got around to freezing his own credit last week! Hear what his no-shame zone admission can teach us all about the things we don’t do to stay safe online. Lea…
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What the Hack with Adam Levin
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Episode 80: Media Matters CEO Angelo Carusone Gives Us a Master Class in Misinformation
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Misinformation is almost always born in the primordial slime of the internet, that swamp of blogs, newsletters, and other private discussion groups that most of us never read. Unless most of you happen to be Media Matters. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesBy Loud Tree Media
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Episode 79: Britt Ignored Her Bank Account and It Went Away
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Britt was starting a new career and between jobs, so there was no money coming in and she stopped checking her bank balances for a while. When she finally did take a look, a substantial piece of her nest egg had vanished. We find out where it went and how the theft may have gone down. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices…
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What the Hack with Adam Levin
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Episode 78: Adam, Beau and Travis Ring in the New Year
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Online scams, hacks and the cybersecurity fails that feed them don’t stop for the holidays, and neither do we! That said, a lot of people do take a break this time a year, which is why we’re guest-less this week. But hey, you’ve still got us and there’s plenty of news. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices…
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Episode 77: Our Annual Look Back at the Year that Was: 2022 Edition
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As 2022 draws to a close, it’s time for our annual look back at all the guests who made 2022 a special year. Adam, Beau, Travis and Andrew Steven, the man with two first names who’s usually busy producing the show, talked about our favorite moments with Al Franken, Malcolm Nance, Roy Wood, Jr., Deviant Ollam, Dan Ahdoot and others. Thanks to all of…
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What the Hack with Adam Levin
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Episode 76: Kate Meets a Stress Scammer on Reddit
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Kate is a reservation school teacher in South Dakota. She’s financially responsible, and understands a thing or two about cybersecurity. Unfortunately, everything she knew flew out the window when her car got repossessed. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesBy Loud Tree Media
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What the Hack with Adam Levin
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Episode 75: Roy Wood, Jr. Exposes the Loch Ness Monster Gun Lobby Conspiracy
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As a Daily Show correspondent, comedian Roy Wood, Jr. knows a thing or two about fake news and truthiness as well as the truth-and-a-half that is comedy. By skewering the media and the people in the news, he has special insight into how misinformation affects the way we think about the world and what we know. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit…
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Episode 74: Bob Sullivan’s Dog Needs Tech Support
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Bob Sullivan does a lot for his trusty golden retriever Rusty, including the maintenance of a busy social media presence. So, you can imagine his horror after losing his phone and with that his access to Rusty’s account. How’d it happen? Cyber! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices…
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Episode 73: Jessica Roy Was *That* Close to Stopping Her Identity Thief
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Jessica Roy’s wallet was stolen in a bar and soon her identity was stolen, too. Listen to this cyber-savvy reporter’s saga about doing everything right to protect herself while crime after crime was being committed in her name. And that was before things took a turn for the worse. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices…
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What the Hack with Adam Levin
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Episode 72: Malcolm Nance Saw the Signals of his Typosquatters
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Question: What happens when you try to make money off an international crisis by posing as a former Navy signals intelligence guy? Answer: Not much. Just back from Ukraine, Malcolm Nance is a high profile legionnaire, which made him a target for scammers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices…
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Episode 71: Al Franken Holds a Mock Senate Hearing on Privacy with Siri and Alexa
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No deep fake here. This week, Al Franken does his own impersonations of Bernie Sanders, Mitch McConnell, Chuck Grassley, Sherrod Brown and Susan Collins in this mock Senate Hearing featuring Siri (played by the actual voice-over talent Susan Bennett) and Al’s fellow SNL alum Laraine Newman playing the part of Alexa. Learn more about your ad choices…
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Episode 70: Jennifer Kraus Gets a Call from her Mom
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Jennifer Kraus knows her way around the world, and is not an easy target for scammers, which is why they targeted her mother. Scams these days slip and slide from analog to digital. The one that we’re talking about today cost about $1000. It arrived via snail mail and email to the same home. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adch…
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Episode 69: Adam Burley Discovers a Serious Hack Disguised as Something Avoidable
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You have heard us talk about two-factor authentication, and if you’re not using it wherever possible you should be. Having said that, hackers know how to get around it these days. In this episode, cybersecurity professional Adam Burley is back to tell us the story of a hacked C-suite client whose situation was more sophisticated than it seemed at f…
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What the Hack with Adam Levin
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Episode 68: Philippa Ward’s Support Call Ransacks Her Computer
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Philippa’s business software wasn’t working right, so she Googled for tech support and called the first number listed. Almost immediately, hackers were in her computer looking for sensitive data. This week we explore a new attack vector: online ads and business listings used as lures for unsuspecting victims, and how to avoid getting “got” by them.…
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Episode 67: Fumiko Talks Poison Cheesecake and Toxic Boyfriends
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WTH superfan Fumiko dated a sniper she met on the triathlon circuit who was not awesome and left her with questions that Oprah could have answered with great aplomb, but she asked us because, well… We don’t know. But we’re super grateful to have a superfan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices…
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Episode 66: Deviant Ollam Picks the Lock to Adam’s Heart
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Penetration testing may sound a little skeevy, but it is a term of art in the security business. Physical penetration testing….well. Deviant Ollam is a big name in that world with well-documented adventures in getting into places that are supposed to be, well, impenetrable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices…
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Episode 65: Beau Gets Hacked on the Way to the Big House
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This week Beau goes on a road trip to the Big House in Michigan where he ran afoul of a parking scam outside the third-largest sports arena in the world. We’re going to have to call this one a limited bandwidth / zero available parking scam. Check it out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices…
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Episode 64: Chris Hutchins’s Travel Hacking Gets Hacked
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If you have never listened to Chris Hutchins explain how to get free travel, you’ve probably been paying too much for your vacations. Turns out, a threat actor was listening to him and stole his miles. Download this week’s episode to hear how he hacked the situation to score even more points. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adc…
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What the Hack with Adam Levin
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Episode 63: Freewheeling with Cyber Red Queen Tarah Wheeler
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Red Queen Dynamics founder Tarah Wheeler knows a thing or two about smashing norms in the cybersecurity industry. But as a human being, she also has some experience being compromised. You’ll definitely want to tune in as she tells us about her own goal as a cybersecurity executive, and how she practices cybersecurity in her own life. Learn more abo…
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Episode 62: Joelle’s Identity Thief Almost Stumps the Chumps
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Joelle was on the launch team for the What the Hack podcast, so she knows a thing or two about scams. But when her credit card was hit for thousands of dollars, even we didn’t know what happened–that is, until Travis figured it out (sort of). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices…
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Episode 61: Andrew Gold Investigates A Dark Corner of the Internet
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Investigative journalist and podcaster Andrew Gold talked to us before about the way magicians work. His second appearance on the show explores a more serious topic. This is not an easy listen, but Germany’s controversial approach to potential sex offenders raises some privacy and ethics issues that are central to the topics we discuss on WTH. Lear…
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What the Hack with Adam Levin
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Episode 60: Caitlin Brodnick Sees Pro Wrestlers on Her Reality TV
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Caitlin Brodnick hosts the ScamWow podcast where she talks about what we talk about, and she has a must-listen podcast. When she’s not in front of a microphone, she spends a lot of time trying to figure out if Reality TV is actually real. Here’s what we found out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices…
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Episode 59: Dara Starr Tucker Sees Right Through a Scam
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All Dara Starr Tucker wanted was an affordable place to live not quite in the center of things–a place to breathe easy. When she found what looked to be a dream rental for a third of her budget, she was excited, but when she got there her Spidey-sense told her to run. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices…
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Episode 58: Ann Cavoukian Fights For Your Right to Privacy
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When it comes to privacy, Ann Cavoukian is a legend. She created Privacy by Design during her tenure as Privacy Commissioner of Ontario, which landed her in the upper echelon of cybersecurity peeps. And she’s Raffi’s sister! Check it out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices…
Episode Notes My lovely dog Mae has died and I wanted talk about her.
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Episode 57: Brett Johnson is the Bad-Guy-Turned-Good-Guy We’ve Been Wanting to Meet
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If you followed the news in the early 2000s, you probably remember the ShadowCrew cybercrime group. Brett Johnson rolled with them. These days he’s on the right side of the law, helping people avoid getting hacked, scammed and otherwise crimed… You don’t want to miss this one. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices…
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Episode 56: Michelle Tea’s Tarot Business Draws a Fool
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Looking for the blue checkmark on Instagram is the easiest way for consumers to tell if they are dealing with a cloned account, but it’s not so easy to get. The site provides crucial exposure to creatives of all stripe. The problem is scammers are everywhere. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices…
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Episode 55: Rudy Shepherd’s Money Goes to Zelle and Back
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Rudy Shepherd was not used to selling his own work online. He had a gallery for that. But when the relationship with that gallery ended, he had to fend for himself, giving new meaning to the phrase, “learning on the job.” Listen in as he takes us on a tour of the Zelle hell with a scammer who knew just what to say. Learn more about your ad choices.…
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Episode 54: Andy Pham Claws Back a Multi-Million Dollar Heist
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There are tens of millions of small and medium-size businesses in the United States alone, and depending on their state incorporation, many are in danger of business identity theft. Andy Pham is an American hero by many standards, for sure with regard to the right to become wildly successful. He’s truly living the American Dream. Having grown up in…
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Episode 53: A Stroll Down Scammery Lane with Adam, Beau and Travis
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Time flies when you’re having fun talking to people from all walks of life about getting scammed, hacked or otherwise cyberbamboozled. It seems like yesterday that we launched What the Hack with Adam Levin, but, this week marks our first anniversary! With highlights and noteworthy moments, our anniversary show is like a chocolate sampler, minus the…
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What the Hack with Adam Levin
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Episode 52: Michelle Waters’s Facebook Compromise as Teachable Moment
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Michelle Waters was a middle school teacher before getting into the teaching tools business, so she has nerves of steel. But when her Facebook account was misappropriated and badly misused, she learned that even veteran teachers have a melting point. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices…
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Episode 51: Abby’s Compromise Costs Her Big Time
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The Covid-19 pandemic put millions of people out of work and put billions of dollars in unemployment benefits up for grabs. What was a lifeline for the unemployed became a goldmine for scammers. In this episode, the scammer sometimes rings twice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices…
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Episode 50: Andrew Gold Shares Some Tricks of His Trade
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Social engineering is still a new term for some people. We break it down in this episode by focusing on how reporters and magicians use it. (Get it? There’s a trick involved!) Check out this wide-ranging conversation with journalist Andrew Gold that covers shamans, a classic girlfriend’s mother tale and nose picking. Learn more about your ad choice…
You may have a little deja vu since Beau is constantly trying to get scammed, but in this episode, Adam, Beau and Travis talk about the scams they’ve stared down in the past–and of course Beau talks about the scam he fell for. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesBy Loud Tree Media
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Episode 48: Hope’s Hacker Husband Turns Out the Lights (Part 2)
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An ugly divorce becomes fertile ground for an ex’s hacking skills as Hope is persistently compromised by forgotten backdoors to old devices and even a secret dressing-room camera. Hear how he kept getting in and what you can do if you’re worried about cyberstalkers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices…
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Episode 47: Hope’s Hacker Husband Turns Out the Lights (Part 1)
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Ever wonder if your phone was listening to you? Have you stared at one of your smart home cameras and got the vibe that you were in the first act of a horror movie? Well, this episode proves that the worst you can imagine is just one bad relationship away! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices…
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Episode 46: Yue and Julie Play Relationship Chicken with Online Faux-meos
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Adam was a guest on the Date/Able podcast recently, and he had a lot of fun. With a head full of “The Tinder Swindler,” he invited them to be guests on What the Hack to discuss something near and dear to our hearts: Gutting faux-meo catphishers for fun and whatever the opposite of not-losing money and precious time looks like for you. Learn more ab…
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Episode 45: Jeff Williams Helps Rout the Rustock Botnet
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Jeff Williams has been on the cybersecurity beat before it had a name. Currently the Global Head of Security at Avast, Jeff was working the ramparts at Microsoft in the mid-oughts when he was tasked with bombing the botnets and making spam email a thing of the past. Your inbox reveals the outcome, but the journey will make you safer. Learn more abo…
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Episode 44: They Accidentally Hacked the Presidential Inauguration
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Retired Secret Service Chief of Staff Brian Ebert is back to talk about the time two Romanian hackers accidentally hit security cameras with ransomware that were monitoring the inauguration of Donald Trump. Hear how a sketchy Amazon vendor selling smoking guns (the culinary kind) led the Secret Service to the hackers days before the inauguration. L…
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What the Hack with Adam Levin
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Episode 43: Herb Weisbaum Talks Crypto Scams
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ConsumerMan Herb Weisbaum is a veteran protector of all things scammable. On this week’s episode, he joined us to talk about crypto scams. If you invest in crypto you might want to check your accounts to make sure your dough's still there, because there are a lot of ways for it to go walkabout. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/a…
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Episode 42: Daniel Arnold Is Remarkably Chill About Identity Theft
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Daniel Arnold is a world-famous lenser known in equal parts for fashion and street photography, which may have made him a target. Tune in to hear his remarkably laid back reaction to becoming a victim of identity theft. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesBy Loud Tree Media
