Episode 51: Erin West sits down with Dr. David Maimon, a Georgia State University professor and cybercrime researcher for SentiLink, to dig into what the data tells us about online fraud, where it’s headed, how scammers select victims, and why our approaches to stopping them may need to change.

Current trends are alarming:

• A dramatic rise in home equity line of credit (HELOC) account fraud targeting homeowners with high credit scores
• Increasingly sophisticated AI-powered deepfakes and voice cloning used to build fake relationships at scale
• The looming threat of agentic AI supercharging scam compound operations within the next 18 months

Thank you to our Stolen podcast sponsors, ‪BioCatch and Scamnetic.‬

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Subscribe to Stolen for straight truth, survivor-centered storytelling, and bold conversations about the scamdemic and the people fighting back.

Erin West and AARP's Kathy Stokes flip the script on the 50th episode of Stolen.

It's not bad judgment; it's organized crime. And we need to change the way we talk about it.

Episode 49: BioCatch's Sharell Barshishat joins Erin West to dive deep into the fascinating (and alarming) intersection of banking, fraud, and technology.

Sharell breaks down how tech is changing the fraud-fighting playbook for banking. From spotting bots at account opening to detecting a pig butchering victim’s hesitation mid-transfer, Sharell explains how technology can read what people do — not just who they are — to identify fraud in real time.

He and Erin also discuss why stopping scams requires a unified approach across sectors, from banks to social media to government. From Telegram discussions to behavioral biometrics, the stakes have never been higher. ‍

• AI is accelerating the fraud threat landscape — fast.

• Behavior never lies, even when people do.

• Fraud travels on a highway of mule accounts.

• Australian banks show what’s possible with political will.

• Scams are a banking problem, not just a victim problem.

Episode notes and video: https://operationshamrock.org/podcast/stolen

Thank you to our Stolen podcast sponsors, ‪BioCatch and Scamnetic.‬

Subscribe to Stolen for straight truth, survivor-centered storytelling, and bold conversations about the scamdemic and the people fighting back.