The CyberGuy Report

CyberGuy

Welcome to The CyberGuy Report. I'm Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson, and my new podcast explores the surprising ways technology shapes our everyday lives - from the gadgets we trust to the risks we don't see coming. Each episode pulls back the curtain on the breakthroughs, stories, and people redefining how we live, work, and stay safe in a digital world.

  1. Oct 14

    [Ep. 48] How a fake NFL player allegedly pulled off a $1.3 million scam

    The Daejon Love scam started on dating apps like Hinge, where a fake 49ers player allegedly ran a $1.3 million romance scam on at least 26 women. Domonique Dubose matched with him and caught on fast. He had a blue check, 85,000 Instagram followers, and videos from Super Bowl week to prove he was the real deal. But within minutes of his first messages, Domonique knew something was off. She tells Kurt exactly how she started digging, the lies that didn't add up, and why she believes the real number of victims is far bigger than anyone knows. What You Will Learn This Episode: - How a fake 49ers player allegedly used a blue check, luxury cars, and team gear to look completely real - Why a flood of voice notes and videos in the first few minutes is a major red flag - How one scammer allegedly ran different personas (football player, real estate investor, day trader) to target different groups of victims - What simple searches you can do to check whether a dating app match is who he says he is - Why handing over cash or taking out a loan "for someone you love" is a warning sign you should never ignore - Why dating app ID checks can't stop someone from lying to you once they're verified - What one social media platform did to help protect people from fake athlete profiles - How Domonique protects herself from dating app scams today, starting with the moment you text her Enjoying the show? Take a moment to rate, review, and subscribe. Head over to https://cyberguy.com/podcast/ to find the show on other platforms.

    [Ep. 48] How a fake NFL player allegedly pulled off a $1.3 million scam
  2. Oct 7

    [Ep. 47] She thought her daughter was kidnapped... it was actually AI

    An AI voice cloning scam convinced Deborah Del Mastro that a Mexican drug cartel had kidnapped her daughter. The sobbing voice on the phone was an AI voice clone, and the kidnapping was fake.It started over breakfast, when a local number called and a stranger asked if her daughter was prone to panic attacks. Seconds later, she heard her daughter crying on the line, and a man said she'd be sold unless Deborah paid up.What followed was five and a half hours of threats, wire transfers, and driving from store to store with the phone held up so he could hear every word. The whole time, her daughter was safe at work. Deborah, a Navy veteran and mother of two, walks me through every minute of it and what she wishes every family knew before that phone rings.What You Will Learn This Episode:- How scammers can copy a loved one's voice from social media and use it against you- Why these callers keep you on the phone for hours and what that's really for- What a family safe word is and why you should set one up today- Why nobody at the store stopped Deborah from wiring money to Mexico- How your personal details end up in scammers' hands for just a few dollars- Why smart, careful people fall for this and why it's never your fault- The simple app Deborah's family now uses so they always know everyone is safe- The classic red flags to watch for: urgency, secrecy, and a demand for money Enjoying the show? Take a moment to rate, review, and subscribe. Head over to https://cyberguy.com/podcast/ to find the show on other platforms.

    [Ep. 47] She thought her daughter was kidnapped... it was actually AI
  3. Sep 16

    [Ep. 45] She loved him for two years. It was a romance scam.

    Romance scams are the most expensive form of online dating fraud, and this one plays out like a true crime documentary with two victims instead of one. Gabby met a man on LinkedIn who was already connected to a former colleague of hers, so she assumed he was real. Over two years he asked for money, sent it back, and asked again, until the amounts got very large and the money stopped coming back. The photos used to catfish her belong to Brian Haugen, a real man in Los Angeles, and he joins me in studio to explain what a stolen face has cost him.What You Will Learn This Episode:- Why a romance scammer sends your money back early on, and what it is actually buying him- How a scam account uses one shared LinkedIn connection to look completely legitimate- What to watch for when an online dating match always has a reason they cannot meet you- Why the amounts start small and climb slowly instead of arriving as one big ask- The single request that will expose a catfish faster than anything else you can try- Who the Yahoo Boys are and how an international romance scam operation actually runs- What happens to the real person whose face gets stolen and used to catfish strangers- Kurt's red flags for checking on someone you love who is dating a stranger online Enjoying the show? Take a moment to rate, review, and subscribe. Head over to https://cyberguy.com/podcast/ to find the show on other platforms. Have a question for Kurt? Call 877-655-KURT and leave a voicemail.

    [Ep. 45] She loved him for two years. It was a romance scam.
  4. Sep 9

    [Ep. 44] She went to jail for nothing (Flock camera got it wrong)

    Flock cameras sit at the end of ordinary neighborhood streets in thousands of American towns, and one of them read Lindsey Isaacs' license plate wrong. Seven months later, the 23-year-old was surrendering herself on eight felony counts tied to a crash that killed three people. She was nowhere near the accident. She had a receipt, a car with no damage on it, and a vehicle that was not even the same color as the one witnesses described. This true crime story pinned an innocent person to the crime with just a flock camera, a plate number, and the officers who decided that was enough. I sit down with Lindsey to walk through the 13 days she spent in jail, the moment she realized what investigators had actually built their case on, and what mass surveillance on your own street now costs you in privacy.What You Will Learn This Episode:- How flock cameras work, and how one plate read can turn your car into evidence- What a plate reader captures about where you drive, and how long police keep it- Why a receipt and an undamaged car were not enough to stop an arrest- What a time and distance analysis is, and how it finally broke the case open- Why the color of a vehicle matters more than most drivers realize- What happens inside solitary confinement when charges get labeled severe- The safeguard Lindsey says should be required before any plate based arrest- Why "I have nothing to hide" is the wrong way to think about mass surveillance Enjoying the show? Take a moment to rate, review, and subscribe. Head over to https://cyberguy.com/podcast/ to find the show on other platforms. Have a question for Kurt? Call 877-655-KURT and leave a voicemail.

    [Ep. 44] She went to jail for nothing (Flock camera got it wrong)
  5. Aug 26

    [Ep. 43] I survived Hurricane Katrina (here's what I learned)

    In August 2005, I flew to New Orleans on a trip with my parents and ended up trapped downtown as Hurricane Katrina came ashore. I got my mom and dad onto the last flight out, then checked back into a hotel that promised it was the "model of hurricane preparedness." Within days, the food was gone, the generators were dying, gunfire echoed through the streets, and nine feet of water surrounded the building. Carlos Amezcua, the KTLA anchor who interviewed me while I was trapped in New Orleans, joins me in studio to walk back through it. What I learned in those days became the Hurricane prep checklist I have used ever since, and I share all of it here.What You Will Learn This Episode:- How to find and save your home's exact GPS coordinates in under a minute, and why rescuers cannot reach you without them- Why your cell tower stops working roughly 48 hours after the power goes out, and what still works after that- What belongs in the Ziploc bag Kurt keeps ready at all times- How to choose an emergency radio that wakes you up before a storm arrives instead of after- Why a hotel or building that says it is prepared can still run out of food and water in days- How to set up Emergency SOS by satellite on your phone before you need it, and the one mistake that keeps it from working- What to keep charged, and where to store the backup power everyone forgets- Why the scams coming after a disaster can do as much damage as the storm Enjoying the show? Take a moment to rate, review, and subscribe. Head over to https://cyberguy.com/podcast/ to find the show on other platforms.

    [Ep. 43] I survived Hurricane Katrina (here's what I learned)

Ratings & Reviews

4.5
out of 5
12 Ratings

About

Welcome to The CyberGuy Report. I'm Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson, and my new podcast explores the surprising ways technology shapes our everyday lives - from the gadgets we trust to the risks we don't see coming. Each episode pulls back the curtain on the breakthroughs, stories, and people redefining how we live, work, and stay safe in a digital world.

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