Stolen Podcast with Erin West

Episode 76: Dave Bowling and Gavin Lucky join Erin West to talk about international security and the growing footprint of the scam industry. Dave Bowling and Gavin Lucky, co-hosts of the On the Fringe podcast, met as Peace Corps volunteers in Indonesia and bring backgrounds in education, languages, and international security to their analysis. Cambodia becomes the starting point of their conversation with Erin West: a state-driven development model, heavy Chinese investment, and a booming Sihanoukville that has enriched elites far more than ordinary Cambodians. Whoever controls the channel is able to control patronage within the country. And then you have essentially a captive state political economy. — Gavin Lucky, On the Fringe The discussion widens to Myanmar’s autonomous armed territories, Thailand's military pressure on Cambodian scam compounds, and where criminal networks could take root next. Episode notes and video: www.operationshamrock.org/podcast/stolen/ep76-dave-bowling-gavin-lucky Subscribe to Stolen for straight truth, survivor-centered storytelling, and bold conversations about the scamdemic and the people fighting back.

Scams and fraud targeting your employees are evolving rapidly, especially with the rise of AI. Erin West highlights alarming trends in corporate cybersecurity that every professional should know. Erin shares the example of a finance professional who transferred $25 million to scammers after a sophisticated deepfake impersonating his company's executives. Impersonation scams involving company executives are on the rise, with reports indicating a doubling of such cases. Concerning trends are emerging in HR as well. Companies are grappling with fake employees making it through the recruitment process. At the same time, scammers are impersonating HR recruiters to deceive potential candidates. Keep an eye out for these tactics and ensure you’re not caught off guard. For more insights, tune into the full episodes of Stolen and visit us online: https://www.operationshamrock.org/podcast/stolen

Episode 75: Marc Grens talks about leaving the industry he helped to build after seeing companies consistently sacrificing customer safety for profit. A couple of years went by, and we sat in the room and said, ‘Anybody who does over X dollars in a small amount of time is probably a scam victim.’ — Marc Grens, Chaintrax Cyber For nearly a decade, Grens ran one of the earliest and largest crypto ATM companies in the country — an industry built, in his words, on an “underbanked” story that never matched reality. In this candid conversation with Erin West, Marc exposes the backstory of an industry he helped build and eventually left. Not one customer has ever raised their hand — when Indiana banned it, when Tennessee banned it, when Minnesota banned it, — and said, ‘You ruined my life.’ — Marc Grens   Subscribe to Stolen for straight truth, survivor-centered storytelling, and bold conversations about the scamdemic and the people fighting back. Find Stolen on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and other major podcast platforms.

We tell people to stop and verify, but what can they actually check? Scammers can fake a financial advisor’s credentials, buy top sponsored search results, and build a Facebook group with 3,000 members and a 4.7-star rating. Aleks Ring, a longtime Operation Shamrock volunteer who works with scam victims every day, explains why the slogans fall short. In this quick take, she talks about: Why fear and hope shut down good judgment Why romance scams are the hardest to break What real collaboration between banks, tech, and law enforcement would look like

Episode 74: What happens when you stop talking about victims and start listening to them? April DeValkenaere, a former banker, cop, and white-collar investigator; therapist Cathy Wilson; and Kathy Waters of Advocating Against Romance Scammers built a symposium to find out, with a survivor seated in working group to tell the experts whether their fixes would actually have helped. We talk about victim-blaming language in the therapy room and at the police counter, a survivor’s idea to run scam warnings in the middle of Jeopardy, and how human connection — the very thing scammers weaponize — may be the only way to break the spell.