Skip to content
TrackPodcasts
newsOct 24, 202435:35pending

Spiritual healers or master con artists?

Hacking Humans

About this episode

Maria Varmazis, host of N2K's daily space show T-Minus, joins Dave and Joe to share the story of how ESET Research revealed that Telekopye, a scam toolkit used by cybercriminals, has expanded its operations from online marketplaces to accommodation booking platforms like Booking.com and Airbnb. Joe’s story is on the elaborate "blessing scam" targeting older Chinese women, where scammers pose as spiritual healers to swindle victims out of their valuables by convincing them their loved ones are in danger—a criminal act spanning across the UK, US, Australia, and Canada, leaving families desperate to catch the perpetrators. Dave follows the story of a new rule passed by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to make subscription cancellations easier with a simple "click to cancel" process. Our catch of the day comes from Reddit where a user was contacted via text message claiming that they were mixed up in a romance scam. Links to the stories: Telekopye scammer network targets Booking.com and Airbnb 'Your son will die': How blessing scammers prowl streets FTC “click to cancel” rule seeks to end free trial traps, sneaky auto-enrollments You can hear more from the T-Minus space daily show here. Have a Catch of the Day you'd like to share? Email it to us at [email protected].

Get every episode summarized

Each time Hacking Humans publishes, we email you a written briefing from the transcript — the topics, who appeared, and any specific claims, with the ad reads skipped.

Email me new episodes

Free for 3 shows. No card needed.

Hosts & guests

No transcript yet

This episode has not been transcribed. Request it and it moves to the front of the queue.

Spiritual healers or master con artists?

Hacking Humans

0:00
35:35

More episodes

More from Hacking Humans

View all episodes →