About this podcast
Chris Parker, the founder of WhatIsMyIPAddress.com, interviews guests and tells real-life stories about topics to open your eyes to the danger and traps lurking in the real world, ranging from online scams and frauds to everyday situations where people are trying to take advantage of you—for their gain and your loss.
Our goal is to educate and equip you, so you learn how to spot the warning signs of trouble, take quick action, and lower the risk of becoming a victim.
Episodes
The newest 50 of 345 episodes
- The New Weakest Link · 52 min · Episode 345For years, cybersecurity professionals have warned that people are the weakest link. We click things we shouldn't, reuse passwords, and sometimes make decisions before stopping…
- New Rules of Privacy · 44 min · Episode 344Most of us give out the same phone number and email address without thinking twice. But when that information gets combined with everything else available online, it can reveal a…
- Protecting Kids Online · 48 min · Episode 343Kids are growing up with technology in a way none of us did. Phones, games, social media, school devices, and now AI are all part of everyday life, and parents are left trying to…
- Hidden Phone Tracking · 46 min · Episode 342Your phone gives off a surprising amount of information just by being connected to a cellular network. Things like your location, who you communicate with, and your daily…
- Ransomware Evolution · 41 min · Episode 341Ransomware has changed dramatically over the years. What started as criminals locking up individual computers and demanding relatively small payments has grown into a much larger…
- The Counterfeit Economy · 43 min · Episode 340A counterfeit handbag may leave someone disappointed. A counterfeit medication, airbag, or child's car seat can do far more damage. Fake products now reach into nearly every part…
- The Internet is Playing You · 44 min · Episode 339A convincing lie no longer needs to look suspicious. It can appear in a familiar social media feed, come from someone who seems real, or arrive as a video that looks almost…
- The Psychology of Yes · 50 min · Episode 338It is easy to say you would never fall for a scam when you are looking at the situation from the outside. In the moment, though, things can feel much less obvious. A request may…
- Drink Spiking · 36 min · Episode 337A drink can be out of your sight for only a moment, but that may be all it takes for someone to tamper with it. Spiking can happen in bars, restaurants, festivals, and even among…
- Love, Lies and Locked Up · 53 min · Episode 336What sounds like the plot of a crime thriller was Sharon Armstrong's real life. An online romance drew her into an elaborate web of lies involving overseas contracts, invented…
- The Recruitment Trap · 51 min · Episode 335Everybody is searching for ways to increase income. Unfortunately, MLMs often look like an easy way to start a business without taking on the cost of a traditional company. The…
- Convincing Deepfakes · 58 min · Episode 334A familiar voice on the phone or a recognizable face on a video call used to offer some reassurance that you knew who you were dealing with. AI has changed that. Voice cloning…
- When Trust Becomes a Trap · 53 min · Episode 333Most people use technology all day without giving much thought to what is happening behind the screen. We trust routers that may not have been updated in years, depend on…
- Scam Compounds · 52 min · Episode 332When most people think about online scams, they picture criminals sitting behind a screen and stealing from victims around the world. But in Southeast Asia, many of the people…
- Sports Betting · 45 min · Episode 331Sports betting is everywhere now. It is in the commercials, on the apps, wrapped into game broadcasts, and sold as a fun way to make sports more exciting. But behind the easy…
- Google Maps Scams · 35 min · Episode 330Most people are not thinking clearly when they need a locksmith or a plumber. They are locked out, water is leaking, something broke, and they just want somebody nearby who can…
- Job Recruiter Scams · 36 min · Episode 329Job hunting is hard enough without having to stop and ask whether the recruiter in your inbox is even real. My guest today, Jay Jones, ran into that problem firsthand after being…
- Bail Bonds Scams · 37 min · Episode 328Getting a call that someone you love has been arrested is scary enough. Getting that call from someone who sounds official, knows just enough to seem credible, and says you have…
- Confessions of a Fraudster · 55 min · Episode 327Technology keeps changing, but many of the most effective scams still come down to something very human: trust. My guest today is Tony Sales, co-founder of We Fight Fincrime and…
- Personal Safety · 44 min · Episode 326Scams and safety threats don't always announce themselves. Sometimes they start quietly, with a moment of distraction, a strange feeling you ignore, or a situation that shifts…
- Data For Sale · 44 min · Episode 325Everyday conveniences ask for tiny pieces of information all the time like a phone number at checkout, a zip code at the register, an email address for a receipt, or a loyalty…
- Exploiting Psychology · 45 min · Episode 324Scams are often explained as a failure of judgment, but the truth is far more human. People are not fooled because they are foolish. They are manipulated at the exact moment…
- Investment Traps · 47 min · Episode 323Investment losses can be confusing because they do not always tell the whole story. Sometimes money is lost because the market has changed. Other times, an investor was sold…
- Elder Exploitation · 40 min · Episode 322Aging parents often rely on the people closest to them for help, but what happens when that help becomes a way to take control? For Charles Wallace, the warning signs started…
- Art Heists · 38 min · Episode 321The world of art theft looks glamorous in the movies, but the reality is far more complicated. From multi-million dollar forgery schemes to undercover FBI operations recovering…
- The Power of Prediction · 39 min · Episode 319We make predictions all the time including about the weather, about traffic, about what someone is going to say next. It feels natural, even rational. But when algorithms start…
- Privacy vs Reality · 58 min · Episode 319Online security advice often sounds simple until you actually try to follow it. Between password managers, privacy settings, and data brokers, protecting yourself can start to…
- Wired to Trust · 41 min · Episode 318It's easy to think scams only work when someone misses something obvious. In reality, most of them don't look obvious at the start. They show up as normal situations with just…
- Intimate Partner Fraud · 46 min · Episode 316Most scams leave a digital trail. A fake email, a spoofed number, a fraudulent website. You can trace them, report them, sometimes even reverse them. But what happens when the…
- Identity without Passwords · 39 min · Episode 316Every day, employees at hotels, restaurants, and resorts across the country are doing exactly what they were hired to do: being warm, responsive, and eager to help. It's what…
- When Cybercrime Gets Personal · 46 min · Episode 315Most security breaches don't begin with sophisticated code or elaborate technical exploits. They begin with a phone call, a convincing email, or someone at a help desk who just…
- Stopping Phone Scams · 45 min · Episode 314Phone scams get dismissed as background noise or just annoying interruptions and unknown numbers with robotic voices we learn to ignore. But behind that noise is an industry…
- Stolen Identity - Stolen Peace · 52 min · Episode 313Identity theft gets talked about a lot, but usually in the abstract: freeze your credit, watch your statements, don't click suspicious links. What doesn't get talked about nearly…
- Inside Modern Fraud · 42 min · Episode 312Fraud doesn't always announce itself with obvious warning signs. Quite often, it shows up wrapped inside something that feels routine — a purchase you've made before, a link that…
- Money Laundering · 47 min · Episode 311Organized crime is often imagined as something violent, chaotic, and obvious. But today, it looks far more polished than that. It operates like a multinational business, spread…
- Critical Infrastructure Risks · 39 min · Episode 310Most cybersecurity conversations focus on stolen data, breached accounts, and attacks that live entirely on screens. This episode looks at a far more consequential threat: what…
- Familial Identity Theft · 38 min · Episode 309Identity theft is usually framed as an external threat. Hackers, data breaches, anonymous criminals operating somewhere far away. This episode looks at a much harder reality to…
- Exploiting Trust (Part 2) · 51 min · Episode 308Security failures rarely come from cutting-edge attacks or sophisticated tools. They happen in ordinary moments when someone holds a door, follows an instruction without…
- Exploiting Trust (Part 1) · 48 min · Episode 307Most security failures don't start with a dramatic breach or a mysterious hacker sitting in a dark room. They usually start quietly. Someone assumes a system is locked down…
- Surviving a Ransomware Attack · 48 min · Episode 306A ransomware attack doesn't always announce itself with flashing warnings and locked screens. Sometimes it starts with a quiet system outage, a few unavailable servers, and a…
- Why You Fall For Scams · 52 min · Episode 305Why do smart, capable people fall for scams even when the warning signs seem obvious in hindsight? In this episode, Dan Ariely joins us to examine how intuition often leads us in…
- Mobile Device Threats · 50 min · Episode 304In a world where we're told to carry our entire lives in our pockets, we've reached a strange tipping point where the very devices meant to connect us have become windows into…
- Past, Present, and Future of AI agents · 43 min · Episode 303The intersection of AI and cybersecurity is changing faster than anyone expected, and that pace is creating both incredible innovation and brand-new risks we're only beginning to…
- You Are Traceable with OSINT · 56 min · Episode 302Publicly available data can paint a much clearer picture of our lives than most of us realize, and this episode takes a deeper look at how those tiny digital breadcrumbs like…
- Anyone Could Walk In · 43 min · Episode 301Sometimes we forget how much trust we place in the little things around us like a lock on a door or a badge on someone's shirt. We see those symbols and assume everything behind…
- The Scam You Never See Coming · 49 min · Episode 300Fraud today doesn't feel anything like it used to. It's not just about somebody skimming a credit card at a gas pump or stealing a check out of the mail. It has gotten personal…
- Hacking AI · 48 min · Episode 299AI has brought incredible new capabilities into everyday technology, but it's also creating security challenges that most people haven't fully wrapped their heads around yet. As…
- The Ransomware War · 47 min · Episode 298Ransomware isn't a lone hacker in a hoodie. It's an entire criminal industry complete with developers, brokers, and money launderers working together like a dark tech startup…
- Opportunistic Crimes · 43 min · Episode 297Criminals are always adapting. Whether it's copper wiring stripped from job sites or porch pirates grabbing deliveries in broad daylight, they keep finding new ways to take what…
- Post Scam Guidebook · 46 min · Episode 296Fraud usually gets talked about in numbers like how much money was stolen, how many people were affected, how many cases got filed. But behind every one of those numbers is a…
