Stolen Podcast with Erin West

Epizode

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  Smoke and Mirrors: Scam Crackdowns in Cambodia and Myanmar (Jason Tower) 30.09.2026 58min

  Episode 71: Transnational organized crime expert Jason Tower explains why crackdowns on scam compounds aren’t stopping scams, just moving them from one region in Asia to another. The Myanmar military targeted 3 hubs in a border area that has 43. So there’s a lot of choices. And so Myanmar military went about demolishing KK Park. — Jason Tower, Global Initiative against Organized Crime When Congress wants to understand the criminal empires behind scams, they call Jason Tower. Jason is a source for many news outlets worldwide. He is a leading expert, specifically what’s happening in Myanmar and new activity in South Asia.  Erin West and Jason Tower meet to talk about his new report, “Criminal Convergence? Chinese-origin scam syndicates and their reach into South Asia.”  (India, Sri Lanka, Nepal). Jason traces how the industry follows a predictable pattern: When a country cracks down on organized criminal operations — as the Philippines did with offshore gaming operators or POGOs — the syndicates simply relocate to wherever regulation is weakest. >> Watch the video version and get the episode notes. Episode Sponsors   Thank you to our Stolen podcast sponsors, ‪BioCatch and Scamnetic.‬  
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  Small-town Police Officer Takes on the Big World of Crypto Fraud (Mike Bliss) 23.09.2026 34min

  Episode 70: Mike Bliss didn’t know much about crypto fraud when he met his first victim in August 2025. With coaching from experienced peers, he now investigates fraud cases and helps other officers.
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  How Iowa is Beating Scammers at Their Own Game (Matt Mortvedt and Jessica McGraw) 16.09.2026 44min

  Episode 69: Iowa has found a way to stop elder financial fraud on the very first transaction — before the money is gone. Matt Mortvedt and Jessica McGraw of the Iowa Insurance Division join Erin West to break down their "detect, deploy, disrupt" playbook. They explain how they reach victims early, seize scam websites and the crypto wallets behind them, curb crypto ATMs, and treat every scam victim as the victim of a serious crime. It is a blueprint that any state could copy.   Get the episode notes and video.   Episode Sponsors: 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.
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  Rewriting the Fraud Conversation to Focus on Empathy (Susan Ralston) 09.09.2026 57min

  Episode 68: Susan Ralston outlines the evolution of fraud and why she considers it a human, emotional crime whose victims deserve empathy over judgement. Erin West meets with Tower Federal Credit Union VP and COO to talk about changing the fraud conversation to focus on empathy. Susan’s career started at a grocery store cash register and evolved into decades of frontline fraud-fighting experience. We need to put our banker hats down and be human. — Susan Ralston, Tower Federal Credit Union Susan traces the transformation of fraud from small-town check washing to organized, transnational scam operations that exploded after COVID-19. She explains why considers she fraud to be a fundamentally human, emotional issue. And she shares how her team trains credit-union staff to spot red flags, avoid judgment, and slow suspicious transactions before it’s too late to help the member. The victimization isn’t just money. It’s trust, it’s loved ones, it’s people’s dreams that are being taken away. — Susan Ralston, TFCU   Get the episode notes and video.     Episode Sponsors: 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.  
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  A Detective’s Journey from Street Patrol to Chasing Stolen Crypto (Scott Simons) 26.08.2026 58min

  Episode 67: How an assignment with the DEA led to Detective Scott Simons becoming one of the nation’s go-to crypto tracers and the investigative lead for Operation Shamrock’s Crypto Coalition. The Greenfield, Wisconsin officer's career took an unusual turn in 2015 when he opened one of the earliest cyber drug-trafficking cases in the history of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency. Simons taught himself to trace cryptocurrency and navigate the dark web to investigate cases that spanned Miami, Argentina, and Albania. Scott’s self-taught expertise now anchors his role leading Operation Shamrock’s law enforcement triage team, where he has personally worked on or overseen hundreds of crypto fraud cases. Erin West and Scott trace his path from beat cop to one of the country’s most trusted resources for tracing stolen crypto. Watch the video of the episode on the Operation Shamrock website.   Episode Sponsors: 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.
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  Romance Scam Revisited: Life After “The Tinder Swindler” (Cecilie Fjellhøy) 19.08.2026 56min

  Romance scam survivor Cecilie Fjellhøy helps expose fraud — and find justice for fraud victims. Well-known for Netflix’s The Tinder Swindler documentary, Cecilie Fjellhøy joins Erin West to expose the real cost of online fraud — and why justice is still out of reach for victims. This isn't just a story about one scam. It’s a roadmap of what happens when a financial crime destroys your life — and no one shows up to help. In this powerful episode of The Stolen Podcast, Erin and Cecilie dive deep into: What really happened in the “Tinder Swindler” romance scam The psychological tactics scammers use to trap targets Why fraud victims are sometimes ignored — or even criminalized — by law enforcement How romance fraud survivors can fight back The nonprofit Cecilie built to help other victims navigate the system   🎥 Watch The Tinder Swindler on Netflix📅 Watch Cecilie’s Netflix series Love, Con, Revenge🛡️ Visit Cecilie’s nonprofit at LoveSaid.org   This episode was originally released on August 5, 2025.  
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  The Last Mile: Why Banks Alone Can't Stop Pig Butchering Investment Scams (Lenny Gusel) 12.08.2026 55min

  Erin West talks with 20-year fraud-fighting veteran Lenny Gusel of Feedzai about why banks are the last line of defense against pig butchering scams, not the first.
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  Scam Victim Traces $700,000 to Two Scammers in China 05.08.2026 31min

  Episode 65: Don was a retired engineer building his dream home when a Facebook "friend of a friend" request turned into a years-long journey into the world of investment scams. Host Erin West and Don trace how a slow-building pig butchering scam that began in late 2021 cost him $700,000 — and how he did the investigative work law enforcement couldn't, or wouldn't. Don walks through the grooming process, the moment a single click handed scammers full access to his crypto wallet, and how he chased his stolen money through Coinbase, Kraken, Binance, and Gemini. He and Erin dig into what happened next: Don obtained records identifying two Chinese nationals — then spent years trying to get the US Secret Service and police in China, Singapore, and Laos to act on the evidence he'd gathered. Erin also reflects on what Don's case — and others like it — reveal about a fraud crisis and the challenges of law enforcement as it continues to grow.   Get the episode notes and watch the video.     Subscribe to Stolen for straight truth, survivor-centered storytelling, and bold conversations about the scamdemic and the people fighting back.   Episode Sponsors: Thank you to our Stolen podcast sponsors, ‪BioCatch and Scamnetic.‬  
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  They Told His Mom They'd Kidnapped Her Daughter (Patrick Coughlin) 29.07.2026 49min

  Episode 64: When Patrick Coughlin's mother got a call telling her that her daughter had been kidnapped and would be killed unless she paid up, it wasn't real — but it was terrifyingly convincing. In this episode of Stolen, host Erin West sits down with Patrick, a former national security and cybersecurity expert, to unpack how that "grandparent scam" changed the course of his career. Patrick walks through the moment-by-moment terror of the scam call, why AI-powered voice cloning is making these attacks more personal and harder to detect, and what he learned mapping out the criminal ecosystems behind them. He and Erin dig into the structural failures enabling fraud at scale — under-resourced law enforcement, telecom systems built to connect calls (not verify them), payment rails that make stolen money nearly impossible to trace, and social media platforms with little incentive to intervene. Patrick's response wasn't just to write about it — his book, Dark Side of the Boom: How Scammers Hijack the AI Revolution, breaks down the "five families of fraud." He also co-founded Savi Security, building consumer tools like Scamwise (a free scam-checking tool) and an in-call AI assistant that gives people a second opinion during a live phone call. Chapters:00:00 – Intro02:33 – Patrick's background in counterterrorism and cybersecurity03:35 – The call: A fake kidnapping scam08:01 – Where these scams are coming from09:03 – The "five families of fraud" by region11:08 – Why Patrick decided to write the book14:13 – How the money moves — payment rails and crypto15:26 – Why telecoms can't verify calls, only connect them17:09 – Chasing ghosts: why law enforcement struggles to investigate19:33 – Regulation vs. relationship-building across borders20:34 – Why law enforcement is exponentially under-resourced22:29 – Rethinking cybersecurity products for everyday families25:26 – The mission behind Savi Security28:03 – Why we don't talk about this the right way28:34 – A national security issue, not just a consumer one33:14 – Social media's business incentives35:15 – Inside Patrick's product: Scamwise and Savi Security41:15 – Looking ahead: the "deepfake decade"44:53 – Final thoughts: what real progress would look like Prefer to watch? Find the Stolen podcast on YouTube. Episode notes: https://operationshamrock.org/podcast/stolen Episode Sponsors Thank you to our Stolen podcast sponsors, Biocatch and Scamnetic.https://www.biocatch.com/https://scamnetic.com/ Subscribe to Stolen for straight truth, survivor-centered storytelling, and bold conversations about the scamdemic and the people fighting back.
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  We Went to Nigeria to Hunt Sextortion Scammers (Paul Raffile) 22.07.2026 56min

  Episode 63: Erin West and researcher Paul Raffile spent six days on the ground investigating the criminal network behind sextortion. TRIGGER WARNING: This episode discusses psychological manipulation, sextortion, teen suicide, and animal cruelty. If you’re struggling, the 988 Lifeline Suicide & Crisis Lifeline is available 24x7 by call, chat, or text. What they found: • A scam that has been linked to over 60 teen suicides worldwide. • A ritual performed to "charm" a real US target • A room full of masked scammers who freely discussed their tactics • A real scammer they tracked down and confronted This episode is the debrief: the investigation, the fear, the breakthroughs, and what it actually takes to hold these criminals accountable from 6,000 miles away. IF YOU OR SOMEONE YOU KNOW IS BEING TARGETED WITH SEXTORTION 1. Don't pay 2. Screenshot everything 3. Block the account 4. Report it to NCMEC's CyberTipline and IC3.gov. Use "Take It Down" (takeitdown.ncmec.org) to help prevent images from circulating.   Episode Sponsors   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.
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  From Blueprint to Action: Turning a Scam Prevention Strategy Into Policy (Kate Griffin) 15.07.2026 46min

  Episode 62: Host Erin West sits down with Kate Griffin of the Aspen Institute's Financial Security Program to unpack how she brought together 80 organizations — from banks to tech companies to nonprofits — to build the first-ever national blueprint for fighting scams. Kate walks through how the project came together, the four key focus areas the task force identified (data sharing, law enforcement collaboration, consumer awareness, and measuring the problem), and why getting competitors and cross-sector players to agree on anything is harder than it sounds. She also shares what's next: Aspen's new Scam Prevention Initiative, aimed at turning that 70-page strategy into real, actionable change — including work already underway with Congress, where dozens of bipartisan bills have been introduced this session alone. This conversation offers a rare look behind the scenes at the slow, often invisible work of building consensus on one of the biggest financial crimes of our time. Episode notes: 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.
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  From Casino Scam Compounds to Digital Arrests: A 30-Year Fraud Fighter's Warning (Frank McKenna) 08.07.2026 49min

  Episode 61: Erin West connects with Frank McKenna, a 30-year fraud-consulting veteran and founder of Point Predictive, who has built four separate industry data consortiums — including efforts that now touch credit card, mortgage, ATM, and auto-lending fraud. McKenna shares how simple, incremental data-sharing agreements can disrupt fraud rings that are already collaborating freely on platforms like Telegram. The conversation moves from the origins of Southeast Asian scam compounds to how generative AI is transforming everything from romance scams to "digital arrest" extortion schemes, and closes with McKenna's prediction that fraud-fighting careers are about to boom, not disappear.   Episode notes and video: https://operationshamrock.org/podcast/stolen   Episode Sponsors   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.
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  "I Thought LinkedIn Was Safe": How a Utah Woman Lost $850,000 in a Scam 01.07.2026 52min

  Episode 60: Anola Johnson thought LinkedIn was the one platform safe from scammers — professional, vetted, serious. A connection request two days after a work trip to Paris changed that. Over the following months, a charming "oil rig engineer" supposedly stationed in Abu Dhabi convinced her to wire money again and again: $1.4 million to a supplier in Singapore, $180,000 more days later, and a $350,000 home equity loan she drained over multiple trips to her bank. By the time it was over, Anola had lost $850,000 — and her job. She joins former prosecutor Erin West to explain how it happened, why she refuses to fit the "little old lady" scam-victim stereotype, and how she's turned her story into testimony before the Utah legislature and her own podcast, Romance Scam Rebellion.   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 bac
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  The Boat Into Myanmar: Mariana van Zeller Inside the Scam Compounds Nobody Sees 23.06.2026 56min

  Episode 59: Her heart stopped when Mariana van Zeller climbed into a boat to cross into Myanmar. In this episode of Stolen, Erin West sits down with the National Geographic journalist behind Trafficked to talk about the two minutes that separate Thailand from Shwe Kokko — the gleaming, casino-lit city that a Chinese crime syndicate built on forced labor and pig butchering scams. Mariana describes the dog-and-pony tour, the anti-trafficking posters hung for show, the karaoke night with a criminal gang, and the moment she realized the scammers behind the keyboards were as trapped as the victims they targeted. Mariana van Zeller and Erin West are two women who've walked the same ground investigating transnational organized crime, money laundering, and the journalism crisis that's keeping the world's largest modern enslavement operation in the dark.   Episode notes and video: https://operationshamrock.org/podcast/stolen --  Episode Sponsors   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.
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  Investment Scam Exposed: A Victim’s Journey of Fraud and Frustration 17.06.2026 34min

  Episode 58: Despite his careful research and skepticism, scammers defrauded Syd of $50,000. Next came the challenge of dealing with law enforcement. Erin West sits down with a former securities industry professional who lost more than $50,000 to a technically sophisticated crypto investment fraud. Syd’s story isn’t one of carelessness; he had identified several earlier scam pitches before one — built over months on Facebook Messenger and dressed up in legitimate terms like “automated market making” — finally succeeded. In his conversation with Stolen, he traces his methodical research, the moment the scheme unraveled, and the maze of law-enforcement dead ends that followed. Episode notes and video: https://operationshamrock.org/podcast/stolen --  Episode Sponsors   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.
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  SOLUTIONS: One Thing AI Can't Fake — How Location Became the New Identity (Andre Ferraz -- Incognia) 10.06.2026 43min

  Episode 57: A scammer can counterfeit your face, your voice, and your documents. What they can't fake is where your phone actually goes. That's the solution André Ferraz built. The founder of Incognia joins Erin to explain how physical-world behavior — precise to eight feet, accurate enough to tell one apartment from another in a high-rise — became a living identity that AI can't counterfeit. They get into the tradecraft it defeats: wiping an iPhone in 30 seconds to spin up a new identity, one fraudster opening 60,000 accounts in a single week, hundreds of devices running out of one room. André also walks through Incognia's 2026 report on mule account handovers and why the people laundering scam money will share their location, then spoof it — only to get caught operating from sanctioned countries.   Episode notes and video: https://operationshamrock.org/podcast/stolen --  Episode Sponsors  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
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  How Smart People Get Scammed: Dr. Martina Dove Explains Kirsty's Case 03.06.2026 49min

  Episode 56: What happens when a romance scam survivor sits down with the scientist who can explain exactly what was done to her? Last week you heard Kirsty's story. This week, Erin brings her together with Dr. Martina Dove, a fraud psychology expert, to review the scam, step by step. The verdict is unsettling: Today's scammers don't simply mirror you. They study you, find the wounds you've spent years hiding, and use them as the way in. Kirsty had survived 16 years of coercive control; the scammer turned that history into a weapon. Dr. Dove provides a clear-eyed look at how manipulation actually works, why intelligence is no protection, and why the people around a victim matter more than anyone wants to admit.   Episode notes and video: https://operationshamrock.org/podcast/stolen --  Episode Sponsors   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.
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  Romance Fraud: One Woman’s Journey from Target to Survivor (Kirsty) 27.05.2026 1h 3min

  Erin West speaks with Kirsty Guest — a single mother of four from the UK — about the six-month romance fraud that dismantled her finances, her sense of self, and nearly her life.
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  How Crypto, the Dark Web, and Fentanyl Deaths Are Connected (Keven Hendricks) 20.05.2026 57min

  Episode 54: Keven Hendricks, a 20-year law enforcement veteran, pulls back the curtain on the dark web and the connections with cybercrime and drug sales.
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  You Can’t Believe Your Eyes: The Deepfake Crisis (Carl Bogan) 13.05.2026 48min

  Episode 53: Who knew that creating a deepfake video that merged Will Smith and Cardi B into one person would become a viral success? Who knew that the creator of that video would now be focused on stopping the criminal use of the same technology? Now you can be anybody you want to be. You can be Beyoncé at a concert. You can be skydiving as an alligator. — Carl Bogan on the simplicity of deepfake technology Carl Bogan joins Erin to talk about the evolution of deepfakes — from his pioneering viral video to today’s need to protect businesses and consumers from video impersonation in scams and fraud. Carl is the visual effects pioneer who created the original viral deepfake in 2019 and has since seen his invention weaponized at scale. What began as a technical experiment to solve a startup's content problem became a two-decade reckoning with tech that’s now available to anyone with a phone and an internet connection. You don’t give a baby a knife. We’re a bunch of babies running around with knives. — Carl Bogan Episode notes and video: https://operationshamrock.org/podcast/stolen --  Episode Sponsors   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.