The prince, the pretender, and the PSA.

As Maria is on vacation this week, our hosts ⁠Dave Bittner⁠ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/dave-bittner-27231a4/) and ⁠Joe Carrigan⁠ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/joecarrigan/) , are sharing the latest in social engineering scams, phishing schemes, and criminal exploits that are making headlines. Joe and Dave are joined by guest Rob Allen (https://www.linkedin.com/in/threatlockerrob/) from ThreatLocker (https://www.linkedin.com/company/threatlockerinc/) who shares a story on how a spoofed call to the help desk unraveled into a full-blown cyber siege on MGM Resorts. Joe’s story is on a new FBI warning: scammers are impersonating the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), the very site where people go to report online fraud. Dave’s got the story of a so-called “Nigerian prince” scammer who turned out to be a 67-year-old man from Louisiana, now facing 269 counts of wire fraud for helping funnel money to co-conspirators in Nigeria. Our catch of the day comes from a scams subreddit, and is on a message received from the Department of Homeland Security reaching out to a user to share that they are a victim of fraud.

Resources and links to stories:

• Investigating the MGM Cyberattack – How social engineering and a help desk put the whole strip at risk. (https://thrivedx.com/resources/article/investigating-the-mgm-cyberattack-how-social-engineering-and-a-help-desk-put-the-whole-strip-at-risk?utm_source=chatgpt.com)

• Brian Krebs LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/posts/bkrebs_todays-most-meta-announcement-the-fbi-is-activity-7319031085093269504-6CJd/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAABolDgBa1OkcRIevOVLL65vUF8SOgJfvpI)

• FBI Warns of Scammers Impersonating the IC3 (https://www.ic3.gov/PSA/2025/PSA250418)

• IC3 2024 Report (https://www.ic3.gov/AnnualReport/Reports/2024_IC3Report.pdf)

• ‘Nigerian prince’ scammer was 67-year-old from Louisiana, police say (https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/nigerian-prince-scammer-was-67-year-old-louisiana-police-say-n833801)

Have a Catch of the Day you’d like to share? Email it to us at ⁠hackinghumans@n2k.com⁠ (mailto:hackinghumans@n2k.com) .

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