In this episode of How Hacks Happen, we delve into the complexities surrounding trash possession and legalities. Besides the legal distinctions between lost, mislaid, and abandoned property, there are the risks posed by scammers who rifle throu...

Can you tell if someone is guilty just by looking at them? Let's delve into the infamous case of Amanda Knox, the American exchange student who was wrongfully accused of murdering her roommate in 2007. We'll talk bad cell phone forensics, media...

Send me a text! No matter who you are or where you are in the world, I'd love to hear from you. This is a call for feedback on what you like about How Hacks Happen, what you don't like, or if you just want to say Hi.Click the "Send us a ...

In May 2025, Coinbase, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, got hacked. Or did they? It was more like a near-miss. But while we might wipe our brows in relief over this latest mishap, it doesn't bode well for the future of ...

In this episode we continue the story of Daniel Rigmaiden, a man arrested for tax fraud in 2008 who reveals the Stingray surveillance device used by the Feds to track his location. Despite being in jail, Rigmaiden tirelessly researches and file...

In 2014, the US government chose not to take a massive, rock-solid tax fraud case to trial. But why? This episode kicks off the tale of Daniel Rigmaiden, a hacker who exploited a legal loophole to regain his freedom. Find out how Rigmaiden's me...

Is your identity at risk? And what would you do if someone was using it to take out credit cards, steal your tax refund, or even raid your bank account? Enjoy this replay of interviews with Tiffany, Pete, and Astrid, three victims of identity t...

When over 100,000 Bitcoin went missing in 2016, no one suspected the culprits: a quiet, mild-mannered developer and his ostentatious entrepreneur/rapper wife with a wacky social media presence. Meet Razzlekhan and Dutch, the most unlikely thiev...

Why is Andrew Tate so popular with young men? With his sports cars and his obvious wealth, Tate has built a significant following out of his admittedly silly 'alpha male' rants. But behind the flashy lifestyle lies a web of controversy, includi...

Instagram star Hushpuppi had over 2 million followers. With his amazing lifestyle filled with Ferraris and Rolls Royces and private jets, dressed head-to-toe in Gucci and Versace and Fendi, Hushpuppi seemed to have it all. But Hushpuppi's lifes...

A Blackberry phone as a hacking tool?! For our April Fool's Day episode, we bring you an exclusive interview with hacking genius Dave the Barber, who leveraged a freak accident with a Blackberry into a hack that can compromise any device until ...

Want to hang out with supermodels on the beach? That's the dream that Billy McFarland sold in 2017 when he advertised Fyre Festival, an outdoor music concert in the Bahamas. Attendees were promised beautiful beaches, live music, comfy villas, g...

When a scam caller knows everything about you--your address, social security number, bank account--how do they know? There isn't some super powerful hacker ring with its own call center. Your data is actually stolen at one end of the internet, ...

Let's explore the technology behind audio and music AI, and how it makes use of some cool math concepts to bring us convincing and realistic voices and music. Hear some actual AI-generated tunes, and find out how "latent space" changed the way ...

Trump pardoned Ross Ulbricht after he served 12 years of his life sentence. In light of this news, we decided to replay our 2023 episode on the Silk Road website, which sold recreational drugs and other illegal items from 2011 to 2013. Was Trum...

AI makes our lives more convenient in so many ways, but it also gives scammers the same conveniences. Host Michele Bousquet explains how scammers use AI audio, video, and text to better fool their victims.

The AI model Deepseek was all over the news in January 2025. Deepseek's developers claimed its costs to develop and run were a fraction of the costs for large popular AI models, which caused a big disruption in the stock market. But how true ar...

With so many social security breaches, we return to the original scene of the crime: the Equifax Breach of 2017. Enjoy this replay of one of our most popular episodes, where you'll learn about common hacking techniques, how routers work and why...

They're the kinds of cousins you wish you didn't have, but you don't really have a choice. What's the difference between hacks and scams, and how do they work together to part you from your valuables like personal information and money? In this...

In the wake of the devastating California wildfires, conspiracy theories abound, some of them with no basis in fact. Just after her Pasadena home was threatened by the fires, author Su Falcon ran into a wall of disinformation in social media. F...

2025 promises to be an exciting year for scammers. From ridiculous job offers to the colorful family of Apple ID scams, join us on a whirlwind tour of schemes designed to part you and your money.

The Honey tool has been exposed as a scam, after dozens of YouTube influencers heavily promoted it. Honey was supposed to save online shoppers money by finding discount codes, but how could it make money doing that? By stealing from its own adv...

Romance scams aren't the only goals of a catfish. The catfish needs some way to get all that money delivered into their hands without leaving a trail. To accomplish this, they recruit unwitting victims into laundering their money. Meet Alice, w...

How do catfish convince victims to send money? In this second of a three-part series on catfishing, we take a tour of the many tricks romance scammers use to separate victims from their hearts, and their cash. Resources<...

Catfishing scams have reached new heights, particularly romance scams. But how do they get away with it? This first of a three-part series on catfishing explores the technology these scammers use to fool their victims.  Resource...