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Cybercrime / Privacy

Podcast: Minnesota assassin used data brokers as a deadly weapon

July 2, 2025 Bob Sullivan 0

I’ve called Amy Boyer the first person killed by the Internet…with only a hint of a stretch in my assertion.  She was stalked and murdered by someone who tracked her down using a data broker …in 1999.  I told her story in a documentary podcast called “No Place to Hide” [Keep reading]

Cybercrime / Privacy

In Lina Khan’s America, there’s plenty of common ground — for those willing to challenge corporate power

June 19, 2025 Bob Sullivan 0

What is the greater threat to your personal liberty — a government that is too large or a corporation that is too large? Yes, of course, the right answer is probably both, but Americans have a long-standing urge to blame government for all ills — for some reason, we’re quicker [Keep reading]

Bob Sullivan's podcast projects

When justice comes ‘too little, too late,’ financial criminals can’t lose

June 12, 2025 Bob Sullivan 0

“I believe that a good lawyer has to acknowledge what the law in the system can do, but also what the law in the system cannot do. And that is brought into relief by this case. The law is primarily reactive. It is often playing catchup, and in the case [Keep reading]

Bob Sullivan's podcast projects

Crypto criminals now targeting artists, because of course they are

June 3, 2025 Bob Sullivan 0

Organized digital criminals have found another vulnerable group to attack: artists.  Using the confusion and buzz around crypto and NFTs, they are approaching artists with tempting partnership offers — we’ll make and sell NFTs of your work, and you’ll earn tidy commissions. But after months of promising messages, and alleged [Keep reading]

Cybercrime / Privacy

Trying to avoid a heart attack, Instagram attacked me with ads

May 28, 2025 Bob Sullivan 0

It’s almost like they want you to be sick… I went for a relatively routine cardiovascular screening the other day, and I’ve never hated social media more. Before I even walked into the exam room, I was pounded by ads telling me the test I was taking wasn’t good enough [Keep reading]

Bob Sullivan's podcast projects

New scam alert: Families searching for lost pets targeted

May 20, 2025 Bob Sullivan 0

“Lost pet. Help find Fido!” I’m sure you’ve seen signs like that taped on telephone polls, plastered all over bulletin boards at coffee shops, maybe even popped into your mailbox.  There’s just something about lost pet signs that always make my heart sink. I immediately picture a family, worried sick, [Keep reading]

Cybercrime / Privacy

Can the new pope give Big Tech and AI a conscience?

May 15, 2025 Bob Sullivan 0

The AI Pope? The Pope for AI times, anyway. Just over a century ago, Pope Leo XIII stood for workers and humanity over the creeping inhumanity of the Industrial Revolution.  It seems Leo the XIV is spoiling for the same kind of fight, and boy do we need that. It’s [Keep reading]

Cybercrime / Privacy

My interview with Hollywood director/actor Josh Margolin about his scam-revenge film ‘Thelma’

April 28, 2025 Bob Sullivan 0

Reading about scams isn’t necessarily fun, and I’m sure I don’t have to tell you writing about them isn’t exactly a barrel of laughs. I’ve done a few pretty heavy stories lately, so I’m delighted to share something much lighter — dare I say, cathartic — with you this week. [Keep reading]

Bob Sullivan's podcast projects

Podcast: Follow a sextortion scam unfold as it ends in unimaginable tragedy

April 19, 2025 Bob Sullivan 0

Jordan: Please, bro….It’s over. You win, bro. Dani: Okay. Goodbye. Jordan: I am KMS RN….which stands for, I’m killing myself right now….because of you. Dani: Good. Do that fast or I will make you do it. I swear to God. And that message … was the last one that he sent to [Keep reading]

Bob Sullivan's podcast projects

Cruel, relentless online criminals leave behind enduring scars for family, friends too

March 19, 2025 Bob Sullivan 0

How relentless and cruel are online criminals? I recently heard a story about an elderly victim whose family took his phone and Internet access away so he could not longer talk to the criminals who were stealing his money. So they hired a taxi driver who traveled an hour to [Keep reading]

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About me

BOB SULLIVAN is a veteran journalist and the author of four books, including the 2008 New York Times Best-Seller, Gotcha Capitalism, and the 2010 New York Times Best Seller, Stop Getting Ripped Off! His latest, The Plateau Effect, was published in 2013, and as a paperback, called Getting Unstuck in 2014. He has won the Society of Professional Journalists prestigious Public Service award, a Peabody award, and The Consumer Federation of America Betty Furness award, and been given Consumer Action’s Consumer Excellence Award.

Bob Sullivan

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