The e-commerce scam you didn’t see coming!

Hacking Humans

Maria Varmazis, host of N2K's daily space show T-Minus, joins Dave and Joe to share the story of a South Carolina couple, and how they were devastated to discover their vacant land in Concord, Massachusetts was fraudulently sold by thieves who posed as them, with the new owners already building a home on the property, prompting a lawsuit and an FBI investigation.

Our hosts share some follow-up on two intriguing listener contributions. John blocks Google ads using NextDNS, which catches ad wrappers unless manually disabled. Georgi from Japan describes a new Visa card with no visible number or CVV.

Dave's story is on triangulation fraud, a scam on e-commerce platforms like Amazon, where a fraudster lures buyers with fake listings for popular products at enticingly low prices, then uses stolen payment information to purchase the legitimate product from a seller, ultimately leaving the buyer unaware until debt collection notices arrive. Meanwhile, Joe has two stories this week. Police arrested five individuals in connection with a fake Brad Pitt scam that defrauded two women of $362,000. He also explores insights from the 2024 Global State of Authentication survey in a Q&A with Yubico VP Derek Hanson, who discusses the future of passkeys. Our catch of the day shares some royal secrets you won't want to miss.

Links to the stories:

• Valuable land in Concord, Massachusetts stolen from couple. Now a home is being built there
• The Amazon triangle scam: What it is, how it works, and what to do
• Police arrest five people over fake Brad Pitt scam after two women lost $362,000
• 2024 Global State of Authentication survey: Q&A with Yubico VP Derek Hanson on a passkey future

You can hear more from the T-Minus space daily show here.

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