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The Cybersecurity Evangelist: Ep 16 – Everybody Loves Love! PSA on Romance Scams – Why Scammers Love Love Too!

By Jennifer Lyn Walker, The Cybersecurity Evangelist

Please enjoy this month’s episode of The Gate 15 podcast on Anchor, Spotify, Apple, Google, as well as other locations accessible via the Anchor link or almost anywhere you listen to your favorite podcasts.

On Episode 16, The Cybersecurity Evangelist talks about love! Well, more specifically romance scams. This is a PSA on romance scams in honor of February – a little late, but romance scams happen all year long.

I managed to keep this episode short and sweet! And before jumping too far into romance scams, I talked about how, at the heart, (no pun intended) romance scams are a type of social engineering attack. With social engineering really being the premise of TCE – addressing the human side of cyber/cybersecurity – it seemed like a good time to delve a little more into what social engineering is (and what it isn’t).

I invite you to tune in to hear more about fraud reports and financial losses due to romance scams, red flags that could indicate someone you know is caught in a romance scam, and some common and practical steps to defeating romance and other types of social engineering based scams.

Finally, I encouraged listeners to report romance scams, the importance of doing so, and a few organizations to report to, including to at least one of the following:

  • The online app and/or social media platform where the initial contact was made
  • The FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov
  • The FBI (1-800-CALL-FBI (225-5324) or visit ic3.gov)
  • The financial institution (or credit card company) if the victim has sent money (or a cash advance) – preferably as soon as possible.
Image via the National Cyber Security Alliance Romance Scam Campaign,
shared via the Alaska State Troopers, @akstatetrooper, on Twitter.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Read more about Gate 15’s full podcast menu at our Podcast page.

You can subscribe and enjoy all the Gate 15 Podcasts on Anchor, Apple, Spotify, Google, as well as other locations accessible from the Anchor link. Week-to-week, listen and learn more about our all-hazards threats, risks, mitigations, and other issues impacting homeland security risk management from our team as well as our regular and special guests. The full podcast menu includes:

  • The Risk Roundtable, is a recurring monthly discussion among our team and occasional guests as we explore the all-hazards threats and risks impacting the United States and internationally.
  • The Cybersecurity Evangelist, with Jennifer Lyn Walker, is a cybersecurity-focused podcast designed with a little cyber-something to help everyone be more cyber secure.
  • Nerd Out! Security Panel Discussion, moderated by Dave Pounder, focuses on physical security topics including terrorism, extremism, hostile events, and other pertinent topics.
  • The Gate 15 Interview, is a monthly interview between Gate 15’s founder and Managing Director, Andy Jabbour and guests from throughout the homeland security risk management community addressing a wide range of all-hazards topics and issues.

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