SLAM, scam, thank you ma’am.

In this episode of Hacking Humans, hosts Dave Bittner, Joe Kerrigan, and guest Michelle Kellerman explore the evolving landscape of social engineering scams, focusing on both preventative strategies and systemic shifts in accountability. The episode opens with a lighthearted segment about Joe’s chicken coop roof dilemma, transitioning into a serious discussion on romance scams, emphasizing the importance of pre-emptive 'inoculation' to protect vulnerable individuals. Michelle introduces the SLAM method—a phishing awareness framework standing for Sender, Links, Attachments, and Message—as a practical tool for identifying deceptive emails. She then presents a compelling thesis: the tide may be turning in the fight against scams, as financial institutions like UK banks are beginning to push liability upstream to telecom and social media platforms, mirroring the EMV chip liability shift in credit card fraud. This momentum is fueled by massive fraud losses, AI-driven vulnerability discovery (via Anthropic’s Mythos), and growing legal pressure on platforms like Facebook, which profit from fraudulent advertising. The episode closes with a real-world case of cousins running a nationwide rental scam using fake listings and discriminatory cancellations, highlighting how even trusted platforms like Airbnb are complicit in enabling fraud. The hosts reflect on the broader implications of consumer data exploitation and the need for systemic change, ending with a 'Catch of the Day' illustrating a subtle, emotionally manipulative scam via a vague text message.