The CyberGuy Report

An airline miles scam can hit anyone, even travel expert Katy Nastro. She landed in New York, opened her app, and found 50,000 miles gone, redeemed by a stranger for a trip she never booked. She shares how she found out, what the airline demanded before it would help, and a habit she thinks may have left her exposed. Plus, why the miles you're saving for "someday" may be riskier to hold than you think.What You Will Learn This Episode:• How Katy discovered 50,000 airline miles missing while riding home in an Uber• What the airline made her do before it would give her miles back• Why there's almost no consumer protection for stolen miles and points• Why airline loyalty programs quietly shrink the value of your miles every year• How to make your airline and hotel accounts harder to break into• Why a dedicated email address for your miles account can help• How to tell a real redemption alert from a fake airline miles scam email• Why social media is a risky place to ask your airline for help
Enjoying the show? Take a moment to rate, review, and subscribe. Head over to https://cyberguy.com/podcast/ to find the show on other platforms.

Sick of political text messages? I get them too. I block one number, and wham, the next day it's back from the same group.

So I asked PACspam creator George Weiner why blocking never works. He explains snowshoeing, the loophole that keeps the flood coming, who profits off every campaign text, and how to trace who's texting you so you can fight back at the source.

What You Will Learn in This Episode:
- Why blocking one number never works and what snowshoeing is
- How to use PACspam.org to trace who sent you a political text, free and anonymous
- Who to contact at the texting platform to get removed, and what to say
- Why donating through an unsolicited text means even more spam
- How to tell a real campaign from a PAC and give directly instead

Enjoying the show? Take a moment to rate, review, and subscribe. Head over to https://cyberguy.com/podcast/ to find the show on other platforms.

The Daejon Love scam started on dating apps like Hinge, where a fake 49ers player allegedly ran a $1.3 million romance scam on at least 26 women. Domonique Dubose matched with him and caught on fast.
He had a blue check, 85,000 Instagram followers, and videos from Super Bowl week to prove he was the real deal. But within minutes of his first messages, Domonique knew something was off. She tells Kurt exactly how she started digging, the lies that didn't add up, and why she believes the real number of victims is far bigger than anyone knows.
What You Will Learn This Episode:
- How a fake 49ers player allegedly used a blue check, luxury cars, and team gear to look completely real
- Why a flood of voice notes and videos in the first few minutes is a major red flag
- How one scammer allegedly ran different personas (football player, real estate investor, day trader) to target different groups of victims
- What simple searches you can do to check whether a dating app match is who he says he is
- Why handing over cash or taking out a loan "for someone you love" is a warning sign you should never ignore
- Why dating app ID checks can't stop someone from lying to you once they're verified
- What one social media platform did to help protect people from fake athlete profiles
- How Domonique protects herself from dating app scams today, starting with the moment you text her

Enjoying the show? Take a moment to rate, review, and subscribe. Head over to https://cyberguy.com/podcast/ to find the show on other platforms.

An AI voice cloning scam convinced Deborah Del Mastro that a Mexican drug cartel had kidnapped her daughter. The sobbing voice on the phone was an AI voice clone, and the kidnapping was fake.
It started over breakfast, when a local number called and a stranger asked if her daughter was prone to panic attacks. Seconds later, she heard her daughter crying on the line, and a man said she'd be sold unless Deborah paid up.
What followed was five and a half hours of threats, wire transfers, and driving from store to store with the phone held up so he could hear every word. The whole time, her daughter was safe at work. Deborah, a Navy veteran and mother of two, walks me through every minute of it and what she wishes every family knew before that phone rings.
What You Will Learn This Episode:
- How scammers can copy a loved one's voice from social media and use it against you
- Why these callers keep you on the phone for hours and what that's really for
- What a family safe word is and why you should set one up today
- Why nobody at the store stopped Deborah from wiring money to Mexico
- How your personal details end up in scammers' hands for just a few dollars
- Why smart, careful people fall for this and why it's never your fault
- The simple app Deborah's family now uses so they always know everyone is safe
- The classic red flags to watch for: urgency, secrecy, and a demand for money

Enjoying the show? Take a moment to rate, review, and subscribe. Head over to https://cyberguy.com/podcast/ to find the show on other platforms.

In 2019, seven squatters moved into Flash Shelton's mom's empty house, and the sheriff told him there was nothing they could do. So he came up with a plan of his own. Now known as the Squatter Hunter from A&E's Squatters, Flash sits down with me to reveal how squatters really operate, why most of them aren't homeless, and the tenant law loophole that lets them live rent-free for months. If you own a home, care for an aging parent, or ever leave your house empty, this conversation could save you from a nightmare.What You Will Learn This Episode:- How one son took back his mom's house from seven squatters without waiting on the courts- Why most squatters aren't homeless, and why they keep moving from house to house- What squatters are really after, and why a fake lease can stall police for months- How to register your no trespassing signs so deputies can actually make an arrest- Why a locked mailbox is one of your best defenses against squatters- What to set up before vacation, from battery backup cameras to timers and a car in the driveway- How to protect an empty house with no power or Wi-Fi- What happened when an 88-year-old's caregiver refused to leave her home

Enjoying the show? Take a moment to rate, review, and subscribe. Head over to https://cyberguy.com/podcast/ to find the show on other platforms.

Romance scams are the most expensive form of online dating fraud, and this one plays out like a true crime documentary with two victims instead of one.
Gabby met a man on LinkedIn who was already connected to a former colleague of hers, so she assumed he was real.
Over two years he asked for money, sent it back, and asked again, until the amounts got very large and the money stopped coming back. The photos used to catfish her belong to Brian Haugen, a real man in Los Angeles, and he joins me in studio to explain what a stolen face has cost him.
What You Will Learn This Episode:
- Why a romance scammer sends your money back early on, and what it is actually buying him
- How a scam account uses one shared LinkedIn connection to look completely legitimate
- What to watch for when an online dating match always has a reason they cannot meet you
- Why the amounts start small and climb slowly instead of arriving as one big ask
- The single request that will expose a catfish faster than anything else you can try
- Who the Yahoo Boys are and how an international romance scam operation actually runs
- What happens to the real person whose face gets stolen and used to catfish strangers
- Kurt's red flags for checking on someone you love who is dating a stranger online

Enjoying the show? Take a moment to rate, review, and subscribe. Head over to https://cyberguy.com/podcast/ to find the show on other platforms. Have a question for Kurt? Call 877-655-KURT and leave a voicemail.

Flock cameras sit at the end of ordinary neighborhood streets in thousands of American towns, and one of them read Lindsey Isaacs' license plate wrong. Seven months later, the 23-year-old was surrendering herself on eight felony counts tied to a crash that killed three people. She was nowhere near the accident. She had a receipt, a car with no damage on it, and a vehicle that was not even the same color as the one witnesses described. This true crime story pinned an innocent person to the crime with just a flock camera, a plate number, and the officers who decided that was enough. I sit down with Lindsey to walk through the 13 days she spent in jail, the moment she realized what investigators had actually built their case on, and what mass surveillance on your own street now costs you in privacy.What You Will Learn This Episode:- How flock cameras work, and how one plate read can turn your car into evidence- What a plate reader captures about where you drive, and how long police keep it- Why a receipt and an undamaged car were not enough to stop an arrest- What a time and distance analysis is, and how it finally broke the case open- Why the color of a vehicle matters more than most drivers realize- What happens inside solitary confinement when charges get labeled severe- The safeguard Lindsey says should be required before any plate based arrest- Why "I have nothing to hide" is the wrong way to think about mass surveillance

Enjoying the show? Take a moment to rate, review, and subscribe. Head over to https://cyberguy.com/podcast/ to find the show on other platforms. Have a question for Kurt? Call 877-655-KURT and leave a voicemail.

In August 2005, I flew to New Orleans on a trip with my parents and ended up trapped downtown as Hurricane Katrina came ashore. I got my mom and dad onto the last flight out, then checked back into a hotel that promised it was the "model of hurricane preparedness." Within days, the food was gone, the generators were dying, gunfire echoed through the streets, and nine feet of water surrounded the building. Carlos Amezcua, the KTLA anchor who interviewed me while I was trapped in New Orleans, joins me in studio to walk back through it. What I learned in those days became the Hurricane prep checklist I have used ever since, and I share all of it here.What You Will Learn This Episode:- How to find and save your home's exact GPS coordinates in under a minute, and why rescuers cannot reach you without them- Why your cell tower stops working roughly 48 hours after the power goes out, and what still works after that- What belongs in the Ziploc bag Kurt keeps ready at all times- How to choose an emergency radio that wakes you up before a storm arrives instead of after- Why a hotel or building that says it is prepared can still run out of food and water in days- How to set up Emergency SOS by satellite on your phone before you need it, and the one mistake that keeps it from working- What to keep charged, and where to store the backup power everyone forgets- Why the scams coming after a disaster can do as much damage as the storm

Enjoying the show? Take a moment to rate, review, and subscribe. Head over to https://cyberguy.com/podcast/ to find the show on other platforms.

Voicemail with no missed call? That silent voicemail scam is how criminals confirm your phone number is real, and blocking the number will never stop it. A viewer named Mike started getting empty voicemails from numbers that never rang his phone. He blocked one. Twenty minutes later, another arrived from a different number. Then another. I explain how ringless voicemail works, why every number you block comes back as a new one, and why the call that comes next is the one that can cost you everything.What You Will Learn This Episode:- Why your phone never rings before these voicemails land- How ringless voicemail gets into your inbox without going through your phone- Why blocking the number does absolutely nothing to stop it- What scammers actually learn the second you open that message- How your phone number gets stamped confirmed and sold to worse criminals- The exact iPhone setting that makes unknown callers explain themselves first- What to ask your carrier for by name, because they will not offer it- How to report these calls to the FTC and get your number off broker lists

Enjoying the show? Take a moment to rate, review, and subscribe. Head over to https://cyberguy.com/podcast/ to find the show on other platforms. Have a question for Kurt? Call 877-655-KURT and leave a voicemail.

Jennifer had never even had a speeding ticket. Then she posted on Facebook about the dirty water coming out of taps in Trinidad, Texas, and two police officers showed up at her front door with a felony warrant.

She was handcuffed in her own front yard and held in the Navarro County Jail for 23 hours. Before the arrest, her post was mass-reported and wiped off Facebook by a group locals call the Cartel of Trinidad.

The one person inside city hall who stood up and said this had gone too far was the town's judge of 16 years, Judge Bivens. What happened to her next tells you everything about how far a small town will go to keep people quiet.

What You Will Learn This Episode:

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How a small group can get your Facebook post erased in hours, even when everything in it is true

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Why a mom of four with no criminal record was handcuffed in her front yard and jailed for 23 hours

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What happened to the Trinidad judge who refused to go along with the arrest

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How a man holding a protest sign outside city hall ended up in the back of a police car

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Why the city's water clerk lost her job for refusing to sign a statement

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What Judge Bivens says the police chief told her before Jennifer was arrested

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Why families in this Texas town say the tap water is burning their kids

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What Kurt and Judge Bivens would say to Mark Zuckerberg about the takedown that started all of this

Enjoying the show? Take a moment to rate, review, and subscribe. Head over to https://cyberguy.com/podcast/ to find the show on other platforms. Have a question for Kurt? Call 877-655-KURT and leave a voicemail.

A phishing email disguised as a party invitation is installing malware on PCs and it arrives from a name you already trust in your inbox. Baby shower. Wedding. Retirement party. These are the emails you've opened a hundred times without a second thought. But this phishing attack hides a remote access tool behind a fake "download invitation" button and one click hands a hacker full control of your computer. I break down exactly what this email scam is hiding, why this malware skips your phone and targets computers only, and how it weaponizes your own contact list to spread to everyone you know. If you already clicked, I'll walk you through how to remove the virus from your PC and whether your computer has been compromised.🔔 Free scam alerts at https://cyberguy.com/subscribeWhat You Will Learn This Episode:- How to spot a phishing email before you click anything- Why the scam email always comes from a name you recognize- What the fake "download invitation" button actually installs- How to check a web address for the fake brand name trick- What to do if you already downloaded the file, and how to remove the virus from your PC- How to know if your PC is hacked after you clicked something you shouldn't have- Why this malware only runs on computers and skips your phone- How scammers use your contact list to send the same email to everyone you know

Enjoying the show? Take a moment to rate, review, and subscribe. Head over to https://cyberguy.com/podcast/ to find the show on other platforms. Have a question for Kurt? Call 877-655-KURT and leave a voicemail.

Humanoid robot fails caught on camera, and these AI robots are not glitching safely in a lab.

One kicks two men out of an office. One punches a stranger in a crowd with a senior citizen standing feet away. One goes into full freak-out mode while the engineers who built it run for the door, held back by nothing but a crane cable. And one hits a small child in the gut at an outdoor event packed with families.

I watch all these videos with longtime friend and Emmy-Award-winning TV journalist Lu Parker, who walked out shocked by what she had just seen.

What You Will Learn This Episode:

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Why humanoid robots still in test mode keep ending up in crowds of ordinary people

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What happens when a robot turns on the engineers standing right beside it

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Why the missing off button is the most alarming detail in every one of these clips

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What Lu spotted in the robot's reaction that most viewers scroll right past

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Why Kurt says a friendly food delivery robot could turn on you over something as small as a barking dog

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How close that child at the festival came to something far worse than a bruise

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Why "it's just a demo" stops being a defense the second these machines are near kids

Thank you to Lu Parker for coming on to the show. Please check out her:

Substack: https://luparkermedia.substack.com/

Instagram: @luparkerla

Enjoying the show? Take a moment to rate, review, and subscribe. Head over to https://cyberguy.com/podcast/ to find the show on other platforms. Have a question for Kurt? Call 877-655-KURT and leave a voicemail.

Windows 11 ads, Samsung fridge ads, and pop-ups in your Jeep: you paid for all three devices, so why are they still selling to you?

You own your computer. You own your fridge. You own your car. Yet all three keep interrupting you with ads on screens you already paid for. In this episode, I walk you through an ordinary morning where your own smart devices start selling to you: from the Windows 11 start menu ads and lock screen promotions, to a widget on your Samsung smart fridge, to a pop-up on your dashboard before you've even left the driveway. One of them is even disguised as a warning.

None of it is an accident. And all of it was hidden in the fine print you agreed to. The good news? Today I'll show you exactly how to remove ads from all three devices and take back control of the screens you paid for.

What You Will Learn This Episode:

• How to turn off ads in your Windows 11 start menu and lock screen
• The fake "action advised" alert on your PC that's really a Microsoft sales pitch
• How to stop the ads on your Samsung Family Hub refrigerator (the switch is buried three menus deep)
• Why your car's dashboard started showing pop-ups, and whether they're coming back
• The line in the fine print that makes all of this legal
• How you quietly became the product these companies sell to
• The exact settings to kill ads on your computer, fridge, and car

Enjoying the show? Take a moment to rate, review, and subscribe. Head over to https://cyberguy.com/podcast/ to find the show on other platforms. Have a question for Kurt? Call 877-655-KURT and leave a voicemail.

An audience member named Todd got a text saying he owed the California DMV $160 and his license was about to be suspended.

One problem: he hadn't lived in California for over ten years. So he sent it to Kurt with a simple question, is this real?

What Kurt found hidden inside that one text reveals exactly how the scam works, and the five red flags that give it away before you ever tap the link.

What You Will Learn This Episode:

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How to spot the one detail in the phone number that proves the text is fake

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Why the real DMV will never contact you about a violation by text

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What actually happens in the 48 hours after you fill out that fake form

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The reason replying with a single letter makes everything worse

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How to verify a real DMV notice in under a minute, the safe way

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What to do the moment you realize you tapped a scam link

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How to block, report, and scrub your info so the texts finally stop

Enjoying the show? Take a moment to rate, review, and subscribe. Head over to https://cyberguy.com/podcast/ to find the show on other platforms. Have a question for Kurt? Call 877-655-KURT and leave a voicemail.

Scam calls are emptying retirement accounts faster than ever, and the scammers behind them aren't who you think. This true crime look at financial fraud could protect your retirement and your family's future.Kurt sits down with Darius Kingsley, JPMorgan Chase's head of scam prevention, to pull back the curtain on the global operation behind those calls, and exactly what you can do to stop it.This is not just another scam alert. It's an inside look at organized criminal networks using forced labor compounds in Southeast Asia, psychological manipulation, and bank fraud to target everyday families. And it's happening at record levels right now.Darius reveals how scammers operate, what JPMorgan's fraud alert systems are detecting in real time, and the steps every family should take before a scam call ever comes through. Whether you've already lost money or want to protect someone in retirement you love, this conversation could save a family's future.What You Will Learn in This Episode:- How scammers coach your family member on exactly what to say before they ever walk into the bank- Why that "law enforcement" call might actually be coming from a forced labor compound in Southeast Asia- What bank tellers are secretly trained to watch for that can stop a scam before the money leaves- How to add a trusted contact to your bank account so the bank can alert someone you trust- What red flags signal that a family member is being targeted by scammers right now- Why acting in the first minutes after a scam is critical, and what your very first call should be- How to file a report with the FBI's IC3 and why it matters more than you might think

Enjoying the show? Take a moment to rate, review, and subscribe. Head over to https://cyberguy.com/podcast/ to find the show on other platforms. Have a question for Kurt? Call 877-655-KURT and leave a voicemail.

When Jennifer Combs saw sewage-colored water pouring from her neighbors' faucets in Trinidad, Texas, she did what any good neighbor would do: she spoke up online.

She made a Facebook post to gather information from residents who were silenced from speaking up about their water concerns.

Days later, two officers arrested her in her own front yard on a felony charge for "causing public panic." Jennifer Combs is a mom of four who'd never even had a speeding ticket.

What unfolds next, a fired water clerk, a fired judge, and the real person who made the call to have her arrested, is so unbelievable that Jennifer Combs, a published crime thriller author, says she couldn't have written it herself.

What You Will Learn This Episode:

- Why speaking up on Facebook about a local problem can suddenly turn you into a target

- What to do when your Facebook posts are mass-reported and deleted to silence you

- How a small group can quietly control a town and punish anyone who pushes back

- Why reporting a problem to the state matters when local officials won't act

- The truth about who actually ordered Jennifer's arrest, and why

- How retaliation against critics can backfire in shocking ways

- What real courage looks like when standing up for your community gets you punished

- Why staying silent isn't the safe choice you think it is

Enjoying the show? Take a moment to rate, review, and subscribe. Head over to https://cyberguy.com/podcast/ to find the show on other platforms. Have a question for Kurt? Call 877-655-KURT and leave a voicemail.

Candace almost clicked a button that would have handed scammers her Social Security number, bank credentials, and her entire identity. The email looked completely official, but one tiny detail didn't add up, and Candace paused just long enough to forward it to Kurt.

In this episode, Kurt walks through the actual email Candace received, breaks down exactly why it almost worked, and gives you five specific things to check before you ever click another link from a government address.

What You Will Learn This Episode:

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Why fake SSA emails are so convincing and what makes them different from the real thing

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The single red flag in Candace's email that exposed the whole scam

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What actually happens to your device the moment you click that download button

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How scammers use your answers on a fake form to call your bank and pretend to be you

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Why you might not find out you've been scammed until weeks or months later

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How to check any email address in five seconds to know if it's really from the government

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The five steps Kurt uses to verify any official-looking email before taking action

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What antivirus software can actually stop, even if you accidentally click

Enjoying the show? Take a moment to rate, review, and subscribe. Head over to ⁠⁠https://cyberguy.com/podcast/⁠⁠ to find the show on other platforms. Have a question for Kurt? Call 877-655-KURT and leave a voicemail.

Jan emailed Kurt with a question most of us have never thought to ask: why does her insurance app need her location, her health data, and her movement… all day, every day.

Turns out, modern insurance apps have quietly turned your phone into a surveillance device, using something called telematics to measure every mile you drive, every step you take, and how well you sleep at night. And in some cases, they're not just collecting that data, they're selling it.

Kurt walks you through exactly what these apps are harvesting, why insurers want it, and three specific steps to keep your discount without handing over your entire digital life.

What You Will Learn This Episode:

• How insurance companies use your phone to silently track your driving, health, and daily routines without most people realizing it
• Why tapping "allow" during a simple app setup may be the most expensive mistake you make this year
• The difference between car insurer tracking apps and health insurer wellness apps and what each one can actually see
• How a lawsuit revealed that one major insurance app sold 45 million Americans' driving data without their knowledge
• How to change your iPhone or Android location settings right now to stop all-day background tracking
• How to find and revoke the health data your insurance app is quietly pulling from Apple Health or Google Health Connect

Enjoying the show? Take a moment to rate, review, and subscribe. Head over to https://cyberguy.com/podcast/ to find the show on other platforms. Have a question for Kurt? Call 877-655-KURT and leave a voicemail.

What happens when you miss jury duty?

Like most normal people, Gale had no idea. She had just finished up work on her 70th birthday when she discovered a voicemail from an unknown number.

The caller claimed to be an enforcement officer, informing her that if she didn’t pay the hefty $10,000 fine immediately, she was going to be in even bigger trouble.

Within hours, thousands of dollars were gone.

But this story does not end there. Thanks to a new law in Arizona, Gale was able to recover her money and turn a devastating situation into a powerful lesson for others.

In this episode we explore:

• How scammers can easily impersonate law enforcement

• The psychological tactics used to pressure victims into acting quickly

• Why cryptocurrency ATMs are a common tool in modern scams

• The warning signs that indicate you’re being scammed

• What to do immediately if you suspect a scam • How new legislation can help recover stolen funds

• Steps you can take to protect yourself and your family

Enjoying the show? Take a moment to rate, review, and subscribe. Head over to ⁠https://cyberguy.com/podcast/⁠ to find the show on other platforms. Have a question for Kurt? Call 877-655-KURT and leave a voicemail.

A 50-year-old grandmother in Tennessee was babysitting when US Marshals showed up at her door with guns drawn.

The charge: bank fraud in Fargo, North Dakota, more than a thousand miles away, in a state she had never set foot in.

The only evidence? A facial recognition match from Clearview AI, run against photos pulled from social media.

Angela Lipps spent more than five months in jail before her defense attorney, Jay Greenwood, finally got somebody to listen. This is what happens when AI gets treated like proof instead of a clue.

What You Will Learn in This Episode:

- How a single facial recognition match landed an innocent grandmother in jail for over five months

- Why the photos you've posted on social media may already be in a Clearview AI database

- What detectives should have done before issuing an arrest warrant

- How attorney Jay Greenwood proved Angela was a thousand miles away from the crime

- What to say (and not say) if police ever come to your door for something you didn't do

- How to remove your photos from facial recognition databases before this happens to you

- Why this case is a warning for anyone who has ever shared a picture online

- The simple piece of evidence that finally got Angela's case dismissed

Enjoying the show? Take a moment to rate, review, and subscribe. Head over to https://cyberguy.com/podcast/ to find the show on other platforms. Have a question for Kurt? Call 877-655-KURT and leave a voicemail.