"What the Hack?" is the award-winning true cybercrime podcast--the place to hear memorable stories and get good advice.
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Episode 257: Seth Godin's Anti-Spam Playbook: Be Awesome
Jun 23, 2026
Marketing visionary Seth Godin explains how the Internet got hijacked by an attention-stealing spam economy that keeps us in an endless loop of badly targeted marketing. Godin's anti-spam playbook…
Episode 256: The Colonel & the Catfish
Jun 16, 2026
A retired Army Colonel becomes the unwitting face of thousands of romance scams. Bryan Denny has been breaking the hearts of people he's never met for years. What do you do when hundreds of crime…
Episode 255: How Kindness Works in The Scammer's Playbook
Jun 09, 2026
She said her name was Clara Harper from Chase Bank. She argued with a police officer. She needed gift cards. Brian Ward shares the three times his 85-year-old father got scammed — and why the most…
Episode 254: Even If You're Not Online, You're Online
Jun 02, 2026
Craig doesn't have Facebook. He's not a gamer. He builds things, fixes things, grows things, has an assortment of antique chainsaws. So why is his name, age, address, and phone number sitting on a…
Episode 253: When the Bait Bites Back
May 26, 2026
A former military guy goes viral, but not in the way he'd hoped. With fake profiles popping up by the dozen using his photos to scam lonelyhearts out of money, Ethan Merritt did what we all fantasize…
Episode 252: Surveillance In America, Pt 4: No Warrant Required
May 19, 2026
The ACLU's Nate Freed Wessler won Carpenter v. United States and changed how the Fourth Amendment applies to your phone. But data brokers found a workaround — and the IRS, the Pentagon, and ICE all…
Episode 251: Surveillance In America, Pt 3: Just Say No
May 12, 2026
Suveillance-for-profit bros say they can eliminate crime in America, but what about the Fourth Amendment? This week: a 1950s numbers racket and some real talk with Jason Koebler, Benn Jordan…
Episode 250: Becky Holmes and the Future of Fraud
May 05, 2026
Online fraud isn't just getting smarter, it's getting personal. Becky Holmes, author of "The Future of Fraud," traces con artists from ancient Rome to AI-powered scam compounds, and asks a question…
Episode 249: The End of the Constitution Had to Start Somewhere
Apr 27, 2026
Sen. Ron Wyden, the longest-serving member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, the ACLU’s Kia Hamadanchy and Marcy Wheeler explain why the deadline to reauthorize Section 702 of FISA may be the…
Episode 248: Open Source Intelligence and the Death of Obscurity
Apr 21, 2026
Data as duh-duh. It's all is out there—indexed, sold, and weaponized. Open source intelligence turns public records into a hacker's playground, your LinkedIn profile is dangerous, but you can still…
Episode 247: Ghost Murmur and the Real Assault on Privacy
Apr 14, 2026
The whisper: A downed U.S. pilot was located by tracking his heartbeat from 40 miles away. Real, or fake news to rattle Iran? Benn Jordan and physicist Chad Orzel help us separate the science fiction…
Episode 246: Trafficked: Part Three, Asian Scam Compounds
Apr 07, 2026
You’ve heard how the compounds work. This week we go inside one—through the eyes of Small Q, an Ugandan musician who was trafficked in and got out—also: Erin West of Operation Shamrock on the bigger…
Episode 245: A Professional Noticer of Things
Mar 31, 2026
Christopher Anderson has spent thirty years in high-stakes situations—war zones, sinking boats, the current White House. What he’s learned about the information people don’t know they’re giving away…
Episode 244: Inside Tracy Chou's Block Party for Social Media
Mar 24, 2026
One of Time Magazine’s Women of the Year and a vocal advocate for diversity in tech, Tracy Chou built Block Party after discovering firsthand that the platforms have no real incentive to protect you…
Episode 243: Criminal Mind vs. Criminal Mind
Mar 17, 2026
Jim Clemente built a career reading criminals. FBI special agent, behavioral profiler, Unabomber case, the hit series Criminal Minds. Then someone bought his debit card number on the dark web, linked…
Episode 242: Surveillance in America, Pt 2: Flock You Very Much
Mar 10, 2026
Flock Safety says their cameras have never been hacked. Benn Jordan and Jason Koebler watched themselves on one from their homes. This week: a deep dive into the vulnerabilities, the no-opt-out…
Al Franken Holds a Mock Senate Hearing on Privacy with Siri and Alexa (Bonus)
Mar 05, 2026
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…
Episode 241: Surveillance in America, Pt 1: Somebody's Watching You
Mar 03, 2026
Benn Jordan—musician, acoustic scientist, and one of the sharpest minds on surveillance technology—joins 404 Media’s Jason Koebler and the ACLU’s Jay Stanley to trace how surveillance went ambient—…
Episode 240: Who’s Watching the Watchers?
Feb 24, 2026
Feeling watched? Join us as Vermont Attorney General Charity Clark breaks down the new reality of digital surveillance. From school apps to AI scams, we dive into how companies collect your data and…
Episode 239: Is AARP Doing More than the FBI to Stop Scams?
Feb 17, 2026
Online fraud isn’t just annoying. It’s a national crisis, one that may have drained $158 billion from the U.S. economy last year alone. In this episode, AARP’s Kathy Stokes joins us to explain how…
Episode 238: The Phone Call that Broke the Bank
Feb 10, 2026
MGM lost $100 million in 2023. Then Caesars paid $15 million ransom. A few phone calls shut down Vegas, highlighting the destruction that one fast talker can unleash in a zero trust environment. This…
Episode 237: The Internet is Groundhog Day
Feb 02, 2026
This week, we're going to the movies. Virginia Heffernan joins us to talk about Groundhog Day (the movie), surveillance, and why online systems reward repetition over reflection and connection with a…
Episode 236: The Con: Part Two, Asian Scam Compounds
Jan 27, 2026
After exposing the scam compounds and human trafficking behind today’s fraud economy, we follow the money, the power, and the few pressure points—from crypto seizures to sanctions—that might actually…
Episode 235: The Machine: Part One, Asian Scam Compounds
Jan 20, 2026
You’ve seen the scam texts. This week we go inside a global scam economy to expose human trafficking networks, lawless economic zones, and fortified compounds where victims are forced to target…
Episode 234: The Ralph Naders of Cybercrime?
Jan 13, 2026
Bob Lord (Yahoo, DNC, CISA) and Lauren Zabierek (Harvard’s Belfer Center, CISA) don't think cybersecuirty (or lack of it) should be the customer’s problem. Drawing parallels to Ralph Nader’s fight…
Episode 233: How Brett Johnson Made $160,000 a Week
Jan 06, 2026
Former cybercrime kingpin Brett Johnson didn’t just break the law; he built the tools still used by criminals today. He's back for another episode to check in and unpack why cybercrime works, how…
Episode 232: The Very Private Digital New Year Episode
Dec 30, 2025
In this year-end check-in, DeleteMe’s OSINT expert, Nicholas Olsen, explains just how much of your life is publicly exposed—and why “low-value targets” no longer exist. A practical, clear-eyed guide…
Episode 231: WTH 2025: Laptop Farms, Campus Cults, and the End of Anonymity
Dec 23, 2025
From AI regulation fights and North Korean laptop farms to Nigerian campus cults, the human toll of online crime, and the death of online anonymity it's time to review the year in cyber stories—the…
Episode 230: The Cursor Moved at 2 A.M.
Dec 16, 2025
A deadbolt clicks. This email, that voice--they sound all right. Then things go sideways. This week, 911 Cyber CEO Marc Raphael joins the pod to explore how AI makes scams faster, smoother, and…
Episode 229: Why Most Cybersecurity Advice Is Wrong
Dec 09, 2025
How do you stay safe online? (Wrong answers only.) Avoid public Wi-Fi, QR codes, charging stations. Cyber OG Bob Lord (Yahoo, DNC, CISA) wrote an open letter tackling the real harm caused by bad…
