[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome to behind the Scams. I'm Nick Henley, founder of SOS Media Network, retired federal agent, and according to today's guests, the man who can make a fraud warning sound like a weather advisory.
Today we're launching Pop Up Podcasts, a new segment where real people from the communities we're writing about get the microphone. If the scam targets seniors, seniors lead the conversation.
Not as victims, as experts in love, suspicion, casserole, logistics, and knowing when a phone call smells like week old tuna.
I met Ben and Dolores after a senior center presentation on AI voice cloning scams.
They came up afterward and said, nick, your facts are good, but your jokes need supervision.
Fair.
Ben is a former news reporter, which means he can make oatmeal sound like breaking news.
Dolores sings around the house, sometimes beautifully, sometimes directly at appliances.
They are married, sharp, funny, and here to make a scary topic easier to hear.
Welcome to the first Pop Up Podcast. Also, they asked if this segment could include less doom, more jokes, and maybe a theme song if Dolores gets loose near a microphone. We negotiated poor. Poorly. Anyways, I am going to hand our podcast studio over to our special guests. Before I go, I just want to remind them, please don't play with any buttons or drink anything while in our beautiful studios.
[00:01:34] Speaker B: Don't worry, Nick. Just get the hell out of here. You're really starting to bug us with all your directions and pointing. You remind me of a homeroom teacher. Don't worry about your precious studio. We'll take care of it. And by take care of it, I mean we'll redecorate it so it doesn't look like Elvis Presley's jungle room anymore.
Anyways, back to the show. Good evening, America. This is Ben reporting live from Elvis Presley's jungle room. I mean, the behind the Scams podcast studios. Trust me, you can tell this dump isn't where Joe Rogan does his shtick.
Let's move on, because my wife is making hand signals at me that apparently mean sit up like Medicare is watching.
[00:02:14] Speaker C: I am not making hand signals. I am providing stage direction. Nobody wants to hear a man slump into a microphone like a lawn chair surrendering to gravity.
[00:02:23] Speaker B: See, this is why Nick brought us on. He needed authentic senior perspective.
And by authentic, I mean I came here to explain scams, and Delores came here to explain me.
[00:02:34] Speaker C: Somebody has to. Hello, everybody. I'm Delores. I sing around the house, I keep emergency cookies in the freezer, and I do not send money to strangers just because they sound upset. I raise children. I have heard dramatic voices, fake Injuries and the phrase I cleaned my room delivered with Oscar level commitment.
[00:02:54] Speaker B: Today's AI Voice cloning scams the new Grandparents scam.
Somebody calls and sounds like your grandson, granddaughter, niece, nephew, or even your spouse if your spouse has been posting videos online singing Moon river at a dishwasher.
[00:03:08] Speaker C: I do not sing at the dishwasher. I I harmonize with it. It has a low hum and commitment issues.
[00:03:15] Speaker B: The dishwasher has seen the dark side. But here's the serious scammers can take a short voice clip from social media, a voicemail, a church livestream, a birthday video, even a school performance and use AI to create a fake voice that sounds close enough to fool you when you're scared. The fake voice does not have to win a Grammy. It only has to win three panicked minutes with your checkbook.
[00:03:39] Speaker C: And they never call when you are rested, fed and wearing both glasses. They call late. They call early. They call when you're wondering why lettuce costs more than your first sofa.
[00:03:50] Speaker B: The call sounds urgent. Grandma, it's me. I'm in trouble. I had an accident. I'm at the hospital. I'm in jail. Please don't tell mom and dad.
Then some fake lawyer or fake police officer gets on the line and says, you need to send money right away.
[00:04:05] Speaker C: And notice how the fake grandchild never says, grandma, please call my mother, my father, my dentist, and that nosy neighbor with binoculars.
No, they say, don't tell anyone.
That is because one callback knocks the whole scam over like Ben and bifocals on a wet driveway. And that don't tell mom and dad line. That is not family privacy. That is scammer isolation.
Anytime someone says, keep this secret and send money fast, my answer is, sweetheart, you have dialed the wrong casserole.
[00:04:40] Speaker B: Dolores has a refrigerator magnet that says, I check with three people and the Lord.
It is right next to a coupon that expired during the Carter administration and a photo of me where I still had optimistic hair.
[00:04:52] Speaker C: And the Lord has never once told me to buy gift cards behind a pharmacy. Not once. Not even during flu season. If a lawyer wants payment in Apple cards, that is not a lawyer. That is a raccoon with WI Fi.
[00:05:05] Speaker B: Big warning sign. The Money method. Gift cards, wire transfers, crypto payment apps, cash pickup. Anything fast, hard to reverse and designed to make your bank, your family and your common sense. Arrive three exits too late.
[00:05:19] Speaker C: And let me say this, for every grandchild, if you are really in jail, I love you, but I am still calling your mother.
[00:05:26] Speaker B: Breaking Dolores will not be your secret Bail department.
[00:05:30] Speaker C: Exactly. I am your grandmother, not a drive through courthouse.
[00:05:35] Speaker B: Nick said something at that senior center that stuck with me.
He said, the voice is no longer proof. That's a hard thing for people our age to accept because we grew up trusting voices.
You heard your mother call from the porch. You knew dinner was ready. You heard Walter Cronkite. You believed the news had a necktie and a backbone.
[00:05:54] Speaker C: A familiar voice feels like a person. That's why this scam is so cruel. It does not attack your ignorance. It attacks your love.
[00:06:02] Speaker B: And then nick, founder of SOS Media Network and patron saint of PowerPoint caution triangles, ruined the emotional moment by saying, establish a standard operating procedure for warm, fuzzy feelings. Nick treats standard operating procedure like normal people treat gravy. He just wants to pour it over
[00:06:21] Speaker C: absolutely everything, which sounds like something you'd find in a federal binder next to Appendix B sandwiches permitted during fraud awareness.
[00:06:30] Speaker B: But he was right.
Give love a standard operating procedure. You need a family password, a code word. Nick calls it a kill word because it kills. The scam.
Dolores wanted ours to be banana pudding, which is not a password.
It's her love language.
[00:06:47] Speaker C: Nobody forgets banana pudding. That is the point of banana pudding.
[00:06:51] Speaker B: Half the church knows you bring banana pudding to funerals, birthdays, and weather events above a light drizzle.
[00:06:57] Speaker C: Fine. But the family password should be something private, memorable, and not guessable. Not a pet's name, not a birthday, not the high school mascot. Not something you posted online in 2014 with a caption that says our secret family joke.
[00:07:13] Speaker B: The whole defense is four beats. Make the word ask the word hang up. If they miss the word call back on a number you already trust. That is it. No monologue, no detective speech. No. I knew it was you, scammer.
Save the drama for Dolores in the dishwasher.
[00:07:28] Speaker C: Not the number the caller gives you, not the number they text you, not the number the fake lawyer says is the secure line. Use the number already in your phone, your address book, or on the little pad by the phone that Ben calls analog cybersecurity.
[00:07:43] Speaker B: Analog cybersecurity is real. It has a magnet, a grocery coupon, and the emotional support of a ballpoint pen from the dentist.
[00:07:51] Speaker C: It also has three phone numbers, one mysterious stain, and the word Carol, written like we were solving a submarine code.
[00:07:58] Speaker B: If your trusted contact sheet looks like a treasure map drawn during a power outage, rewrite it. Big letters, clear names, no mystery arrows. Here's another point. Do not stay on the line while they transfer you. Do not let them coach you.
Do not argue with them. You are not trying to win a debate. You are trying to get out of the scammer's little theater production.
[00:08:20] Speaker C: And it is theater. There is the crying grandchild, the stern lawyer, the urgent police officer, the medical administrator, the bail clerk, the background noise, the whole cast of Scammerama. One fake lawyer, one crying robot grandchild, one retired woman with a landline and no patients.
[00:08:41] Speaker B: Scammerama coming this fall to absolutely no reputable theater near you this summer. Verification gets personal.
[00:08:48] Speaker C: If they tell you not to call anyone, call someone. If they say there is no time, take time. If they say you must pay in gift cards, hang up and make tea. Tea is cheaper than fraud, and it comes in lemon.
[00:09:00] Speaker B: And families, please do not wait until grandma or grandpa gets a call.
Talk about it now. Make a plan. Put the trusted numbers somewhere obvious.
Practice the sentence, I do not send money based on surprise calls.
[00:09:14] Speaker C: I do not send money based on surprise calls.
See? Easy, Ben.
[00:09:19] Speaker B: You try Madame or sir, pursuant to household policy section Dolores.
Absolutely not.
[00:09:26] Speaker C: No, just say it like a normal person.
[00:09:28] Speaker B: I do not send money based on surprise calls. I will hang up and verify.
[00:09:32] Speaker C: That sentence goes on the refrigerator, right under the magnet above the expired coupon and far away from Ben's optimistic hair. Beautiful. See? He can be trained.
It only took 48 years and one podcast.
[00:09:47] Speaker B: I was a news reporter, Dolores. I covered city hall, elections, storms, ribbon cuttings, and one unfortunate goat incident at the county fair. I know how to verify.
[00:09:57] Speaker C: You once believed the toaster was broken for six weeks until I plugged it in.
[00:10:01] Speaker B: That toaster had a credibility problem.
[00:10:04] Speaker C: Here's something else. Don't be embarrassed if a scammer calls you. Getting targeted is not the same as getting fooled. And even if you did send money, you still deserve help. Shame helps scammers. Reporting helps everybody else.
[00:10:19] Speaker B: If you sent money, call your bank, wire service, payment app, or cryptocurrency exchange immediately. Ask if the payment can be stopped, recalled, frozen or flagged. Then report it to local law enforcement, the Federal Trade commission@report fraud.ftc.gov and the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint
[email protected] and when
[00:10:42] Speaker C: you call the bank, use your calm voice, not your somebody move my good scissors voice. Calm gets notes into the system. Scissors voice gets transferred. Write everything down. Phone number, time, what they said, what name they used, how they wanted payment, any account numbers, wallet addresses, receipts, texts, voicemails.
Do not delete things just because they make you upset. Evidence is not clutter. Evidence is useful. Clutter.
[00:11:12] Speaker B: Useful clutter. That is also how Dolores describes my garage.
[00:11:16] Speaker C: Your garage is not evidence. It is a museum of screws that no longer belong to anything fair.
[00:11:23] Speaker B: Now let's talk about prevention. Before the phone rings, families should think about what voice clips are public social media videos, public school clips, church livestreams, podcasts, voicemail greetings. We are not saying disappear from the Internet. We are saying understand that your voice is now something criminals can use.
[00:11:45] Speaker C: Ask your kids and grandkids to check privacy settings. Maybe don't post long clear videos of children speaking publicly. Maybe don't use a voicemail greeting that gives the scammer a perfect little voice sample and your full name and your sunny disposition.
[00:11:59] Speaker B: Hi, this is Ben, former reporter, husband of Dolores, lover of oatmeal cookies. Available most mornings after 9, except Wednesdays when I argue with the sprinkler timer.
[00:12:10] Speaker C: Absolutely not. Your voicemail should say leave a message. That's it. No biography, no hobbies, no mention of the oatmeal cookies.
[00:12:19] Speaker B: You know Nick is going to hear this and make a whole SOS Media Network checklist called no biography, no cookies.
[00:12:26] Speaker C: Good. Put me on the COVID Holding a spatula like a federal badge.
[00:12:30] Speaker B: Red flags, rapid fire, immediate action, jail, hospital, accident, travel trouble, embarrassment, secrecy, gift cards, wires, crypto, payment apps or cash pickup. Refusing a callback, a fake authority figure joining the call.
And the biggest one. Your stomach says something is wrong. But the caller says, hurry. Listen to your stomach. It has been right about potato salad
[00:12:54] Speaker C: for years and seven. You feel rushed, scared, ashamed or alone. That feeling is a warning light. When my washing machine flashes a warning light, I do not pour cash into it and hope for the best.
[00:13:08] Speaker B: Fear is useful. Panic is expensive. Though you have threatened that washing machine more than once, it knows what it did. The big idea is simple. Real emergencies can survive a two minute pause. Scams usually cannot. Hang up, call back, ask the family password. Bring in another trusted person.
Do not let a stranger control the clock.
[00:13:29] Speaker C: And families, please tell your parents and grandparents that they will not be in trouble for checking. Nobody should be offended by a callback. If one of our grandkids calls and says, grandma, why didn't you believe my voice? I'll say, because I love you enough to verify. Sweetheart.
[00:13:45] Speaker B: That might be the best sentence of the day.
[00:13:46] Speaker C: I know. Put it on Nick's suspiciously serious eyebrows.
[00:13:50] Speaker B: SOS Media Network Protecting seniors one eyebrow at a time.
[00:13:55] Speaker C: Before we go, let's give everybody the Ben and Dolores anti scam phone drill.
[00:13:59] Speaker B: Number one, stop. Do not send money during the first call.
[00:14:03] Speaker C: Number two, hang up A real emergency can wait while you verify.
[00:14:08] Speaker B: Number three, call back using a number you already know.
[00:14:11] Speaker C: Number four, ask for the family password.
[00:14:14] Speaker B: Number five, tell somebody. Do not keep scam calls secret.
[00:14:18] Speaker C: Number six, if money was sent, report fast and save the evidence.
[00:14:23] Speaker B: There it is. Six steps. No panic. No secrecy. No gift cards for fake lawyers, fake officers, fake bail clerks, fake doctors, or anyone named Agent Kevin who sounds like he is calling from inside a broom closet.
[00:14:37] Speaker C: No gift cards for fake lawyers.
[00:14:40] Speaker B: Dolores, are you turning this into a jingle?
[00:14:42] Speaker C: Hang up. Call back. Ask the word.
[00:14:45] Speaker B: Ladies and gentlemen, she has found a melody. We are powerless now.
[00:14:48] Speaker C: Don't let scammers steal your bird.
[00:14:51] Speaker B: Your bird somewhere. Nick just opened a spreadsheet labeled Bird Risk.
[00:14:55] Speaker C: I needed a rhyme.
[00:14:56] Speaker B: This has been Pop up podcasts on behind the Scams. I'm Ben, former news reporter, current husband, reluctant jingle witness, and survivor of one dishwasher duet.
[00:15:06] Speaker C: And I'm Dolores. Make the family password. Call your loved ones. Verify before you worry. And if Nick from SOS Media Network tells you to give love a procedure, don't tease him too much. He's right.
[00:15:19] Speaker B: But still tease him a little.
[00:15:21] Speaker C: A little? Oh, yeah. And before we go, Nick said to make sure we said to please share this podcast episode with as many seniors you may know and some you may not even know.
[00:15:32] Speaker B: So get up off that recliner, run over to the nearest fax machine and hit that share button.
[00:15:38] Speaker C: Ben, really? Fax machine? Those went out with eight track tapes. Oh, and speaking of eight track tapes, you still have a stack of them in the glove box of our Rambler. No one needs to hear a collection of Don Ho Live eight tracks.
[00:15:54] Speaker A: My thanks to Ben and Dolores for helping launch Pop Up Podcasts. Podcasts. Their advice is funny because it is human and it works because it is simple. Slow down, verify, and never let a scammer isolate you. Make the family password, save the trusted numbers, and if Dolores releases that jingle, SOS Media Network denies all responsibility.
We'll see you next time on behind the Scams.
