About this episode
This week, hosts of N2K CyberWire Maria Varmazis and Dave Bittner alongside Joe Carrigan are discussing the latest in social engineering scams, phishing schemes, and criminal exploits that are making headlines. Maria’s story covers a BBC experiment by Thomas Germain showing how easily major AI tools like ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini repeated a completely fabricated claim he posted online, highlighting what experts call a “renaissance for spam” as SEO-style manipulation resurfaces in the age of AI. Dave’s story examines Elizabeth Chamblee Burch’s book The Pain Brokers, which details how women with pelvic mesh implants were allegedly cold-called and steered into surgeries as part of a $40 million mass-tort recruitment scheme fueled by litigation finance and regulatory gaps. Joe’s story reports on an alleged decade-long ticket fraud ring at the Louvre in Paris, where tour guides and museum employees are accused of reusing tickets and bribery, costing more than €10 million before French authorities made multiple arrests. Our catch of the day comes from Reddit, where a user tested the limits of a land developer.
Resources and links to stories:
I hacked ChatGPT and Google's AI - and it only took 20 minutes
A Terrifying Scam and the System That Made It Possible
The Pain Brokers: How Con Men, Call Centers, and Rogue Doctors Fuel America's Lawsuit Factory
Louvre tour guides accused of orchestrating $16m ticket fraud ring over a decade
T&T&T Land&Sea
Have a Catch of the Day you'd like to share? Email it to us at [email protected].
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