Latest / Brian Thomas / Tech Friday w/ Dave Hatter - Sponsored by Intrust IT - 6/19/2026

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Tech Friday w/ Dave Hatter - Sponsored by Intrust IT - 6/19/2026 · Brian Thomas

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Speaker 1: Today it's time interest it dot com where you find
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Speaker 1: Dave had and his crew for all your business needs
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Speaker 1: in terms of computers. Of course, business carriers say is
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Speaker 1: they're the best in the business, and they sponsor this segment.
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Speaker 1: And I appreciate Dave you being on the program every
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Speaker 1: day to talk about things like, well, BBB letting us
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Speaker 1: know about employment scams and they're going through the roof.
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Speaker 1: Welcome back, my friend.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, Brian, always good to be here. And I think
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Speaker 2: this is an important topic. You know, unemployment has been
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Speaker 2: all over the map lately, but I think it's down
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Speaker 2: a little bit at the moment, but I know a
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Speaker 2: lot of people are, you know, looking to change jobs.
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Speaker 2: Tiring is more interesting than ever before thanks to AI,
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Speaker 2: thanks to zoom calls and that sort of thing. So
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Speaker 2: and I also think it's good to have a reputable
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Speaker 2: organization like the BBB out there who's putting this information
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Speaker 2: out because people listen to me talk about this stuff
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Speaker 2: all the time, and I think they often are, you know,
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Speaker 2: get overwhelmed with there's just so much stuff going on.
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Speaker 2: You can't really comprehend it all. You don't really know
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Speaker 2: what to do about it, so you put your head
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Speaker 2: in this or they just don't believe it's ever going
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Speaker 2: to happen to them. So you know, the FBI is
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Speaker 2: always warning about this stuff, which is good. You've got
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Speaker 2: the big tech companies warning about this stuff, and I
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Speaker 2: think it's helpful to have a company or an organization
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Speaker 2: like the BBB also putting out these kind of warnings
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Speaker 2: so that hopefully you can reach more people in between
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Speaker 2: the intersection of all these different types of organizations warning
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Speaker 2: about this stuff. Hopefully, if people will realize this stuff
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Speaker 2: is real, it'll sink in and they'll take this stuff
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Speaker 2: to heart. So one of the things I thought was interesting,
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Speaker 2: so BBB has this site called Scam Tracker. I recommend it.
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Speaker 2: It's helpful because, much like the FBI's Crime Report they
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Speaker 2: put out every year, it sort of shows you what
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Speaker 2: are the common scams that are taking place out there,
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Speaker 2: probably no surprise to anyone. The numbers keep going up
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Speaker 2: and it's a lot of the same stuff. But this
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Speaker 2: employment scam has been out there for a while. It
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Speaker 2: takes many forms. But if you just look at their
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Speaker 2: numbers from the BBB Scam Tracker, and again this is
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Speaker 2: just one source of data, right there are lots of
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Speaker 2: other organizations like the FBI warning about this stuff. In
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Speaker 2: twenty twenty three, per their scam tracker, they had ten thousand,
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Speaker 2: three hundred and forty eight reports of some sort of
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Speaker 2: job related scam. It went up to twenty three thousand,
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Speaker 2: two hundred and thirty four last year. And then if
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Speaker 2: you kind of look at the media and loss there,
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Speaker 2: it's it's between one thousand and two thousand dollars over
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Speaker 2: the course of those years. So here's how it often works.
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Speaker 2: You're looking for a job and whether you know you
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Speaker 2: find the job, or you'll go on LinkedIn and say
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Speaker 2: open to work or whatever. You're looking for a job
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Speaker 2: and you get connected with an opportunity and I'm going
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Speaker 2: to talk a little bit about how those might work,
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Speaker 2: and it ends up, you know, at the end of it, well, okay, yeah,
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Speaker 2: we'd love to hire you, but you need some training first,
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Speaker 2: and you need to pay for this training upfrontrim Bersham, right,
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Speaker 2: or or you need to buy some equipment or something.
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Speaker 2: You know, there's there's some angle where before you get
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Speaker 2: this dream job it's going to be just completely awesome.
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Speaker 2: You have to put money in first, right, and then
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Speaker 2: you're going to get reimbursed once everything is done and
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Speaker 2: you're on the job, and of course all along they've
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Speaker 2: been stringing you along. It's a scam and it's one
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Speaker 2: of the things I find so as you know, Brian,
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Speaker 2: I talk about this stuff a lot. I do lots
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Speaker 2: of presentations for different organizations so forth. I think frequently
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Speaker 2: recently did another presentation for Frank LeRose. Again, kudos to
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Speaker 2: your Secretary of State. They've had these sort of traveling
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Speaker 2: cybersecurity seminars all around the state of Ohio, gear for
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Speaker 2: small businesses, and they'll usually get you know, maybe a
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Speaker 2: couple hundred people show up at this thing, and afterwards
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Speaker 2: there's a chance to just talk one on one to folks,
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Speaker 2: and I'm constantly amazed by how people will say, well,
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Speaker 2: you know, I never thought this could happen to me,
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Speaker 2: but it did, or yeah, I was surprised how much
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Speaker 2: time and effort the bad guy put into the scam.
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Speaker 2: And the point I'm trying to make here is these
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Speaker 2: people most the people behind most of the crime. Now
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Speaker 2: I'm not talking about like trade secrets and military secrets,
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Speaker 2: but the stuff that leads to money. They're generally not
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Speaker 2: really sophisticated and technically skilled hackers. They're con artists who
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Speaker 2: are using technology to reach people and using technology to
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Speaker 2: fool people, to social engineer people into doing their thing.
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Speaker 2: It's easy to send a spoofed email that looks legitimate.
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Speaker 2: It's easy to make a spoofed phone call or spoofed
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Speaker 2: text that looks legit. And by spoofing, I mean to
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Speaker 2: the naked eye, the email address that the email claims
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Speaker 2: sort have originated from, or the phone but looks real.
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Speaker 2: And you know they're they're reaching large numbers of people. Again,
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Speaker 2: that you're looking for a job, probably not a great
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Speaker 2: situation to be in for most people. Some people obviously desperate,
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Speaker 2: so their defenses are down suddenly, whether it's on LinkedIn,
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Speaker 2: here's a recruiter quote unquote that wants to help you. Hey,
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Speaker 2: here's a great job offer, too good to be true salary.
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Speaker 2: You know they're they're taking advantage of the fact that
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Speaker 2: you're already potentially more likely to jump at something because
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Speaker 2: you need a job, which frankly I think is even
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Speaker 2: more despicable to take advantage of the people well they're
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Speaker 2: looking for jobs.
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Speaker 1: And the elderly here quite often more gullible too, So
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Speaker 1: you get into that other realm as well. But these
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Speaker 1: are people are unscrupulous and uh, well.
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Speaker 2: Yes we get it.
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Speaker 1: Dave had a pause right out of time in the
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Speaker 1: segment we got to come back and talk about don't
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Speaker 1: troll the scam text should be comical. But first Father's
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Speaker 1: Day coming up. You can get the atok station sixty
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Speaker 1: KCD talk station. It's interest dot com where you find
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Speaker 1: Dave had and the crew for your business computer needs.
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Speaker 1: Sponsor of this segment, we'd like to call it tech
5:41
Speaker 1: part of a Dave hat or so. So don't have
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Speaker 1: fun trolling the scam text. This is like leading someone
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Speaker 1: on who could calls you one of those those telemarketer
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Speaker 1: calls when people stroll them around.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly, Brian. So this is I think a very
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Speaker 2: valuable thing for people to understand. It was originally published
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Speaker 2: in the Wall Street Journal. Now I'll admit I get
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Speaker 2: a lot of these texts, and occasionally, depending on my
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Speaker 2: mood and what they say, I feel like obligated to
6:11
Speaker 2: attempt to play with them a little bit. Yep. And
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Speaker 2: you know there are folks out there. I know I've
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Speaker 2: mentioned him on your show before. A great site for
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Speaker 2: people for a number of reasons. Kit Boga Kit Boga
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Speaker 2: is a guy who scams the scammers and his objective
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Speaker 2: basically is to get these people talking to him and
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Speaker 2: then waste as much of their time as possible. He's
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Speaker 2: got a YouTube channel. It's very funny because eventually they'll
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Speaker 2: figure out he is actually scamming them. Then they usually
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Speaker 2: you know, that's where the fireworks ensue and the hilarity
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Speaker 2: kicks in. But it's really insightful. It's great training for
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Speaker 2: people to see this sort of lies. These scammers will tell.
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Speaker 2: As I said in the last segment about the jobs thing,
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Speaker 2: most of the time these people are not super sophisticated hackers.
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Speaker 2: They are con artists. They're the same people who have
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Speaker 2: stolen your wallet out on the street or or run
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Speaker 2: something like the scam in miss Sting, you know, one
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Speaker 2: hundred years ago. Now they have technology to reach people
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Speaker 2: and to help their their scam whatever it is. And
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Speaker 2: you know, it's so easy, Brian, to generate text messages
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Speaker 2: or phone calls to a phone number. All US phone
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Speaker 2: numbers follow a known pattern, So I can have a
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Speaker 2: server that just sits and dials phone numbers and sends
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Speaker 2: texts or makes phone calls. Right and when it connects.
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Speaker 2: Everyone's got that call where you know there's a delay
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Speaker 2: there and then it connects and you're talking to someone.
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Speaker 2: It is trivially easy and inexpensive to do that sort
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Speaker 2: of thing. And I would bet everyone in your listening audience,
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Speaker 2: probably you and Joe included, definitely me, gets the weird
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Speaker 2: sort of catfishing type of text like hey, I thought
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Speaker 2: we were having lunch Monday, you know, yeah, And people
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Speaker 2: will be like, well, okay, what who are you? Right,
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Speaker 2: That's exactly what they want. That's what they want, as
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Speaker 2: they point out in this this uh this article, right,
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Speaker 2: they say it seems innocent, but you don't know what's
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Speaker 2: happening in the background. Even if you're only giving out
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Speaker 2: fake information and never click a link, you're telling the
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Speaker 2: scammer this phone number is active and its owner is
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Speaker 2: willing to engage and likely put your number up for
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Speaker 2: saleing the dark web, providing fresh meat for other scammers.
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Speaker 2: The professional gangs who operate these scams may not hit
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Speaker 2: your number up again for weeks, and you may not
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Speaker 2: fall for the next one, but there could be a
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Speaker 2: time and a few months in your guard is down,
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Speaker 2: you're in a rush, and you click through to say,
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Speaker 2: reset a password or something, you know, and they go
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Speaker 2: on to say, this is the thing that I think
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Speaker 2: the average person doesn't understand. If you start to engage
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Speaker 2: with this. Right again, you've told them there's a live
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Speaker 2: person there and that you're willing to engage if you
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Speaker 2: give them any information at all. Right, If they can
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Speaker 2: have access to information that's leaked about you on the
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Speaker 2: dark web, they may be able to piece enough information
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Speaker 2: together to even again, you don't bite today well to
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Speaker 2: attack on the next scam or the next scam. Understand, folks,
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Speaker 2: you know, if I'm a scammer, I'm probably in some
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Speaker 2: third world cunt. If I could make let's just say,
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Speaker 2: if I could send out ten thousand texts, I get
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Speaker 2: a one percent response, and one percent of them somehow
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Speaker 2: give me a thousand dollars, I'm living like a king.
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Speaker 2: It's yeah. People misunderstand and underestimate how little money it
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Speaker 2: takes for these people to do a lot, and they're
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Speaker 2: operating at volume, right, So it's I understand the urge.
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Speaker 2: Every once in a great while, again, depending on what
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Speaker 2: they send me, I will engage, usually with something like, yeah,
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Speaker 2: I'm at the FBI office. We're tracking your number now
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Speaker 2: or something like that, you know, and then usually I'll
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Speaker 2: get some you know, vulgar response and then they go
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Speaker 2: away for the time being. But again I've pretty much
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Speaker 2: stopped doing that because there's no point guaranteeing that I'm
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Speaker 2: going to get more of it by engaging. That's right,
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Speaker 2: you're just asking it for more.
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Speaker 1: That is a great piece of advice. You certifying it's
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Speaker 1: an accurate number alone can put you into peril and
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Speaker 1: jeopardy down the road. Other reason, you just don't want
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Speaker 1: you want to avoid more of those. You don't have
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Speaker 1: to worry about deciding what's real and what's not.
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Speaker 2: Your best bet report scam block done all right?
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Speaker 1: De flop max hidden surveillance cameras so you can drive
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Speaker 1: around them. We'll find out about that coming up next.
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Speaker 1: With the interest its Dave had or doing that tech Friday,
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Speaker 1: you follow Dave on LinkedIn. Go to LinkedIn dot com.
10:23
Speaker 1: He always has the articles he relies on in the
10:25
Speaker 1: subject matter we deal with on a Friday, but other
10:27
Speaker 1: articles throughout the week. It's well worth your checking out
10:30
Speaker 1: what he has to say at LinkedIn. Just search for
10:32
Speaker 1: Dave Hatter and you'll find him. It's pretty easy. To do.
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Speaker 1: Dave had Er, what is this hidden surveillance cameras so
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Speaker 1: you can drive around? What is going on with this one?
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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's an interesting grind. So I'm sure you're aware
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Speaker 2: of the flock controversy. Oh block is a license plate
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Speaker 2: reading camera. And let me just hit you with a
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Speaker 2: couple of headlines. Here, privacy guy, it's Ben Jordan exposes
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Speaker 2: severe security vulnerabilities and flock surveillance cameras n pry some
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Speaker 2: sit these are ditching their flock license plate readers. Electronic
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Speaker 2: Frontier Foundation EFFS investigation exposed flocks surveillance sorry, flocks safety
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Speaker 2: surveillance abuses. In twenty twenty five Douglas County flock camera
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Speaker 2: compromised this company leaves it exposed on the internet. I
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Speaker 2: could go on, but to get to the heart of this,
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Speaker 2: So there are a lot of concerns. Flocks leaked, cops
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Speaker 2: license plate searches via duck dot go and bing, so
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Speaker 2: you know, potentially you could have seen why someone was
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Speaker 2: being searched for. Again, the list is long. I'm not
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Speaker 2: a fan of these things, as you might guess. I
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Speaker 2: think we talked about this before here in Fort Wright.
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Speaker 2: We said yeah, thanks, but no thanks to flock cameras.
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Speaker 2: But there's a lot of people out there concerned about this,
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Speaker 2: you know, again, Electronic Frontier Foundation being a good example
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Speaker 2: of a privacy friendly organization that has raised serious concerns
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Speaker 2: about these but smart people out there. As interesting as
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Speaker 2: all this technology can be and cuts both ways so
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Speaker 2: many times. There are so many ways now that people
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Speaker 2: will say, what can I do to try to help
12:10
Speaker 2: people who are concerned about this? A waid these sort
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Speaker 2: of things. So someone put together an app. It crowd
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Speaker 2: sources twelve thousand of these cameras and basically helps you
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Speaker 2: plot our out where you can drive without being tracked
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Speaker 2: by these things, now, you know, Brian, My take on
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Speaker 2: all this is always, am I going to download some
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Speaker 2: app from somebody I don't know or trust to my
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Speaker 2: phone which could do who knows what, so that I
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Speaker 2: can drive around these cameras? I'm not going to do that.
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Speaker 2: I'm not going to do that. So I'm not necessarily
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Speaker 2: recommending folks go out and get this app. But I
12:47
Speaker 2: think it is interesting that there seems to be increasing
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Speaker 2: concerns about this, and when you look into a site
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Speaker 2: like deflock or this app right, it shows you how
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Speaker 2: prevalent these things are now, so just to hit a
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Speaker 2: couple of high points from this article, deflock transforms hidden
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Speaker 2: camera networks into something you can actually navigate around. Works
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Speaker 2: like ways for privacy conscious users. Built on Open Streetmap,
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Speaker 2: app displays nearly twelve thousand ALPR cameras, showing not just
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Speaker 2: where they're installed, but which direction they face and who
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Speaker 2: operates them. You justs can report new devices they spawn,
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Speaker 2: building a community driven database of surveillance infrastructure that law
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Speaker 2: enforcement and companies prefer to keep opaque. The deflock maps
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Speaker 2: companion site goes beyond mere dots on the screen. It
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Speaker 2: generates privacy optimized routes, so it's I think, a really
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Speaker 2: interesting site. They use one of my favorite terms that
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Speaker 2: I keep trying to raise when I talk about this, panopticon.
13:42
Speaker 2: For those who don't know what panopticon means, I encourage
13:45
Speaker 2: you to look this up. It was the idea of
13:49
Speaker 2: creating a prison where it's circular and in the middle
13:52
Speaker 2: is like a guard tower, so theoretically you could be
13:55
Speaker 2: watched all the time, but you don't know if you're
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Speaker 2: being watched. It's really interesting and sort of dystopian or
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Speaker 2: welling type of concept. And opticon. Look it up, folks,
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Speaker 2: this is what we're building with all of this surveillance technology.
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Speaker 2: So yeah, everyone should check out dflock. I'm not saying
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Speaker 2: use the app, but I think a lot of folks
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Speaker 2: who aren't maybe up to speed on this and the
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Speaker 2: capabilities and some of the potential future uses of this technology.
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Speaker 2: Oh yeah, because it's pretty or welling in my opinion,
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Speaker 2: not a fan, check out dflock. And then I would
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Speaker 2: encourage you if you again, just do a little research.
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Speaker 2: You'll see there are lots of concerns. Perhaps reach out
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Speaker 2: to your local elected officials and weigh in on this
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Speaker 2: sort of thing. I'm not against the cameras per se.
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Speaker 2: I'm against the advanced capabilities of these things, the way
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Speaker 2: they have already been abused in many, many documented cases,
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Speaker 2: and the possibility of things. And maybe we'll get to
14:47
Speaker 2: this one next week, Brian, I'll send you the article.
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Speaker 2: There's a company out there now that wants to build
14:50
Speaker 2: in technology so it's not just tracking your license plate,
14:54
Speaker 2: not just potentially using something like facial recognition, but reading
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Speaker 2: all the Bluetooth devices and so forth in your car
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Speaker 2: as well.
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Speaker 1: M It's very that's what really really concerns me. And
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Speaker 1: I guess you know, someone could say, well, this dflock
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Speaker 1: software allow people to, like, when they plan an assassination,
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Speaker 1: they can do an escape route to avoid being caught
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Speaker 1: with a flock camera reading device. I guess I would
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Speaker 1: have to observe that. What about all the other thousands
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Speaker 1: of ring doorbell cameras and other cameras that aren't hooked
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Speaker 1: up to the flock network that are still in existence
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Speaker 1: literally everywhere.
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Speaker 2: Well, you know, I understand the argument in favor of
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Speaker 2: these things, and they have been used to do some
15:31
Speaker 2: good like find someone whether go oh yeah, or missing
15:34
Speaker 2: children and so forth, So I'm I understand the argument
15:37
Speaker 2: for right, I understand why law enforcement wants it. But
15:41
Speaker 2: the potential dystopian negative implications of this, especially over time
15:47
Speaker 2: and as the capability to get more advanced, are pretty substantial.
15:52
Speaker 2: And you know, I would just people will always all
15:54
Speaker 2: come on day that could never happen. I used to
15:55
Speaker 2: hear that a lot. I hear that a lot less
15:57
Speaker 2: now because we've seen how rapidly this technology advance. Well, again,
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Speaker 2: I encourage you folks, look into the panopticon, look into
16:04
Speaker 2: the Church Committee and what they said back in the seventies,
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Speaker 2: and then decide if you want to live in a state,
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Speaker 2: you know, a surveillance state where you're surveiled around the clock.
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Speaker 2: Think Minority Report, you know. And I want us go
16:15
Speaker 2: back to Benjamin Franklin. He who gives up his liberty
16:17
Speaker 2: for safety deserves neither.
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Speaker 1: Or just reread or just reread nineteen eighty four and
16:21
Speaker 1: realize how far past that we already are.
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Speaker 2: Dave, it's too depressing for me. Brian, and that's one
16:26
Speaker 2: of my favorite books, but I can't even read it anymore.
16:29
Speaker 2: It's just too depressing.
16:30
Speaker 1: I trust me. I've read it multiple times over my life,
16:32
Speaker 1: and it gets worse and worse every time. I agree.
16:35
Speaker 1: If you know it really well, don't pick it up again.
16:37
Speaker 1: It's going to depress the hell out of you. Dave Hatter.
16:40
Speaker 1: Happy Father's Day,