Jul 16, 2026 · 54 min · 14 segments
Every major global event brings the same scam tactics wearing a new mask. In this interview, David Ruiz, journalist and privacy advocate at Malwarebytes, breaks down how to identify (and avoid) scams…
David RuizGuestHenry FisherHost
Anytime there's something global, anytime there's something big, anytime that something is on every single person's mind, scammers are out there trying to make money off of it.
Right now, tens of thousands of fake World Cup websites are out there hunting for fans who are vulnerable.
But that's not really what the episode's fully about because that same scam playbook really hits any major event and is a recurring pattern anytime there's something big.
He also spent years fighting government surveillance at the EFF and just watched a law reauthorized every six years for decades quietly fail to renew.
By the end, you'll know how to spot a scam before you click, how it might be almost similar to bad marketing for some organizations and how to spot the difference between those, and overall privacy and security advice that's especially shareable with friends and family.
So if you're a video listener, you might see some of that, but hopefully the audio is still good and you get all the value you need from this interview.
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Anytime there's something global, anytime there's something big, anytime that something is on every single person's mind, scammers are out there trying to make money off of it.
Right now, tens of thousands of fake World Cup websites are out there hunting for fans who are vulnerable.
But that's not really what the episode's fully about because that same scam playbook really hits any major event and is a recurring pattern anytime there's something big.
He also spent years fighting government surveillance at the EFF and just watched a law reauthorized every six years for decades quietly fail to renew.
By the end, you'll know how to spot a scam before you click, how it might be almost similar to bad marketing for some organizations and how to spot the difference between those, and overall privacy and security advice that's especially shareable with friends and family.
So if you're a video listener, you might see some of that, but hopefully the audio is still good and you get all the value you need from this interview.