The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 6.19 What Karen Read's Acquittal Really Exposed & How Romance Scam Compounds Built a Global Crime Empire

Episode Date: June 19, 2025

PDS Debt is offering a free debt analysis. It only takes thirty seconds. Get yours at https://PDSDebt.com/defranco  Get $10 OFF https://BeautifulBastard.com "Very Normal" & "Bite the Hand" Tees right now! Subscribe for New shows every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, & Thursday @ 6pm ET/3pm PT & watch more here: https://youtu.be/_-iDMGL2LQg?si=xi5Pq6nOnKUiznpS&list=PLHcsGizlfLMWpSg7i0b9wnUyEZWI-25N3&index=1     – ✩ TODAY’S STORIES ✩ – 00:00 - Karen Read Acquitted But Conspiracy Mounts 07:48 - Iran Bombs Israeli Hospital, Trump Reportedly Approves Attack Plans on Iran 10:41- Alex Jones Sued for Hiding Money from Sandy Hook Families 13:05 - Sponsored By PDS Debt 14:08 - Apple, Meta & Starlink Are Fueling Online Scam Compounds -——————————   Produced by: Cory Ray Edited by: James Girardier, Maxwell Enright, Julie Goldberg, Christian Meeks, Matthew Henry Art Department: William Crespo Writing/Research: Philip DeFranco, Brian Espinoza, Lili Stenn, Maddie Crichton, Chris Tolve, Star Pralle, Jared Paolino  ———————————— For more Philip DeFranco: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-philip-defranco-show/id1278424954 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6ESemquRbz6f8XLVywdZ2V Twitter:   https://x.com/PhillyD Instagram:   https://instagram.com/PhillyDeFranco Newsletter: https://www.dailydip.co TikTok:   https://www.tiktok.com/@philipdefranco?lang=en ———————————— #DeFranco #Hasanabi #KarenRead ———————————— Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Find an agent today at Desjardins.com slash business coverage. No Frills delivers. Get groceries delivered to your door from No Frills with PC Express. Shop online and get $15 in PC optimum points on your first five orders. Shop now at NoFfrills.ca. Karen Reed was just acquitted, but for many, this verdict, it feels less like the end of a murder case and more like the beginning of a police cover-up unraveling.

Alex Jones, who's been called America's most notorious conspiracy theorist, is now being accused of an illegal conspiracy of its own. Online scam compounds are torturing trafficked workers, stealing billions, and Mark Zuckerberg, Tim Cook, and Elon Musk's companies are helping make it possible. And Iran just bombed an Israeli hospital, Israel's vowing vengeance, and all of that is,

Trump has reportedly approved attack plans on the country. We're jumping into all that and even more on today's brand new Philip DeFranco show. You daily dive into the news starting with this. Three years, two trials, and one very popular HBO docu-series later, and Karen Reed is finally free. But she's that Boston woman who was accused

of murdering her boyfriend by hitting him with her car while drunk. And if you're not fresh on this, don't worry, cause I'm gonna go through the broad details and then we're gonna talk about what just happened. So first up, the people. We've got Karen Reed, a now 45 year old financial analyst and adjunct professor and her boyfriend, John O'Keefe,

a then 46 year old cop at the Boston Police Department. And then second, you have the events, right? Starting on the night of January 28th, 2022, when the couple had been dating for about two years. And what both sides agree on is that they went out drinking in the suburbs of Canton that night. And then shortly after midnight, Reed dropped O'Keefe off at the home of his colleague,

Brian Albert, where other cops were gathered. And then finally, at around six o'clock in the morning, Reed and two other women found him lying unresponsive in the snow outside of Albert's house. And he was later pronounced dead with his official cause of death being blunt impact, injuries to the head and hypothermia. But that is pretty much where the agreement ends

and the disagreements begin. Because the police, they alleged that after she dropped him off Reed and a drunken rage, backed her Lexus SUV into O'Keeffe and then drove away, leaving him to die in the snow. And as evidence, they cited drops of blood, a broken cocktail glass and shards from the car's tail light that they supposedly found at the scene.

And so they charged her with second degree murder, manslaughter while operating under the influence and leaving the scene of a collision resulting in death. But Reed, she pleaded not guilty, maintaining that she only came back to Albert's house to look for O'Keefe after he didn't return home or answer his phone. So instead, you had her pointing the finger

at O'Keefe's fellow cops, accusing them of beating him during a fight inside of Albert's home and then dumping his body in the snow. But they're then also explaining the broken taillight in one of two ways. Saying either one, it shattered when she hit O'Keeffe's parked car

while exiting the driveway as she left to look for him, or two, the state police broke it after they seized the car and then planted the evidence at the crime scene to frame her. And so this trial had unfolded last year and both sides rolled out their arguments. With Reed's lawyers calling up forensic experts who testified that O'Keeffe's injuries

and the damage to Reed's car were inconsistent with the collision, as well as claiming that injuries on O'Keeffe's arm were indicative of dog bites's car were inconsistent with a collision, as well as claiming that injuries on O'Keefe's arm were indicative of dog bites, suggesting that he may have been attacked by Albert Sherman Shepherd. Right, and that is then on the other side, you have the prosecutor bringing up evidence

that the couple's relationship was rocky, including admissions by Reed herself that she supposedly saw O'Keefe kissing another woman and that she sent flirty texts to an ATF agent whom O'Keefe knew. Or with him then pairing that with angry texts and voicemails that Reed sent to O'Keefe after dropping him off.

But there you would read claiming that she sent those because he wasn't answering his phone and she believed that he was screwing around with a former romantic partner who allegedly lived down the street from Albert's house. But their lawyer is also painting a much different picture in general of a loving and affectionate relationship. And the wildly differing stories could be seen

in arguments over one particular moment the morning after O'Keefe died. With a responding officer claiming that at the scene, Reed repeatedly cried, "'I hit him, I hit him,' an apparent admission of guilt." But you would read countering that, saying what she actually cried was, "'Did I hit him? Could I have hit him?'

And that is the defense also accused the other side of sloppy police work, with them pointing to officers who scooped up blood samples and borrowed plastic cups and not even searching Albert's home before selling it in 2023. But very importantly, they said it wasn't just sloppy, it was malicious.

With Reed's lawyers accusing Michael Proctor, the lead investigator on the case, of having personal ties to certain cops inside of Albert's home and having a vendetta against Reed. And a key takeaway there were text messages that he reportedly sent to a group chat the night after O'Keefe's death saying, "'There will be serious charges brought on the girl.

"'She's a whack job, cunt. "'Zero chance she skates, she's fucked.'" And then when someone wondered whether the homeowner would quote, receive some shit for O'Keefe's death as well, Proctor reportedly said, "'Nope, homeowner's a Boston cop too.'" With him also mocking her medical condition, joking about finding nude photos of her

and wishing she would take her own life. With the defense then also pointing to an internet search made by Jennifer McCabe, Albert's sister-in-law, and O'Keefe's friend for how long to die in cold. Which the defense claimed was searched early in the morning before O'Keefe's friend for how long to die in cold, which the defense claimed was searched early in the morning before O'Keefe was found. But then the prosecution, they claim that the search was actually made later in the morning

after O'Keefe was found, and in fact, at the request of Reed herself. And so needless to say, that first trial, it was deeply contentious and ended in a mistrial thanks to a hung jury. But then days later, you had the defense telling the judge that five of the jurors actually came forward after the fact to say that actually all of them

had agreed on a not guilty verdict for the most serious charges, murder and leaving the scene. It's saying that the only charge that they were deadlocked on was the lesser one of operating a vehicle under the influence stripped of the manslaughter component. And so Reed's lawyers, they appealed all the way to the Supreme Court, arguing that she couldn't be retried on those charges that the jury supposedly agreed on.

But the courts ended up not being convinced. And so the second trial began in April of this year. Right, and in the meantime of all this national attention on Reid's case, it absolutely exploded. With HBO releasing a docu-series that attracted millions of viewers, Reid supporters, and skeptics alike,

debating whether she was guilty in Facebook groups and Reddit threads, and Reid herself giving interviews to media outlets. I have nothing to hide. My life is in the balance and it shouldn't be. And I believe sunlight is the best disinfectant. And that's been our team motto since inception. Also a big thing is that Michael Proctor,

who was a key witness during the first trial, was conspicuously absent during the second. And that because in March, he was actually dishonorably discharged after the state police trial board found him guilty of unsatisfactory performance and consumption of alcohol on duty. So, you know, although the underlying facts

are pretty much the same, the two trials just felt very different. I mean, all of it leading to each side giving their closing arguments with the prosecutor saying. Get drunk, she hit him, she left him to die. It's that simple. This week, when she chose to drive back at Mr. O'Keefe in that night with a 6,000 pound Lexus,

in that anger, 75%, whether she meant to hit him or not, didn't mean to kill him, she hit him. She doesn't even have to know she hit him. But she did. And then the defense attorney firing back. This case was corrupted from the start. It was corrupted by biases, conflicts, and personal loyalties that you heard about.

And most fatally, it was corrupted by a lead investigator whose misconduct infected every single part of this case from the top to the bottom. On full display, you saw the lengths to which some, some police officers will go to to protect their own. There was no collision. There was no collision. There was no collision. There was no collision. The truth is, Karen Reed is not guilty.

And after multiple days of deliberation, the jury delivered their verdict, and that is Karen Reed was guilty, but only of operating a vehicle under the influence. With him finding her not guilty of the other more serious charges, meaning in essence, she's been exoneree. With the judge handing down a sentence of one year

of probation, which is nothing compared to the life in prison that she was facing. So when Reed emerged from the courthouse of Victoria's, the mood there was ecstatic. I mean, by the roar of the crowd, you'd think that Taylor Swift just announced reputation TV to the Swifties. I just want to say two things.

Number one is I could not be standing here without, I just want to say two things. Number one is I could not be standing here without these amazing supporters who have supported me and my team financially and more importantly emotionally for almost four years. And the second thing I want to say is no one has fought harder for justice for John O'Keefe than I have, than I have and my team. Thank you. And that is where Reid ended. She didn't say anything else.

She didn't take any questions. She just went back to her life. Though technically it's not 100% over because Reid is still facing civil litigation. Because O'Keefe's family actually brought a wrongful death lawsuit against her and two bars where they drank that night. And so you don't have to wait to see what happens there.

But in the meantime, I'd love to pass the question off to you, what are your thoughts here? Is justice served here? Is this a miscarriage of justice? And what do you think actually happened that night? But then next up from that in the news, Iran just bombed a key Israeli hospital with now Israel vowing vengeance and all of that

as Trump has reportedly approved attack plans on Iran. Because Israel's air defense system has been intercepting most of the missiles that Iran's been hurling its way, but of course it's not 100% effective. And since today you saw three buildings being hit, including the largest hospital in Southern Israel though, according to Iran, that hospital was not their intended target.

Instead, they claimed that they were going after military and intelligence headquarters near the hospital, but either way, Israel's health ministry service said that 71 people were left with minor injuries, with there likely only being minor injuries because the missile hit an old surgical inpatient building which had been evacuated in recent days. But still, you had Israeli president Isaac Herzog

tweeting this morning, calling the attack a war crime and declaring that Iran's supreme leader can no longer be allowed to exist. And that is you had Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying, we will make the tyrants from Tehran pay the full price. With him adding that while Israel struck targets in Tehran, as well as several nuclear sites overnight, Iran instead chose to go after a hospital, quote,

where people can't even get up and run away. Though there you then also had a lot of people calling those words viciously hypocritical, given Israel's unrelenting assault on hospitals in Gaza. For example, vocal commentators in the space like Hassan Piker tweeting, timeline is lit up with Israel defenders finally speaking up about a hospital being bombed after spending

the last 20 months defending the bombing of every hospital in Gaza. And that is reportedly of the 36 hospitals in Gaza, 19 are completely shut down and the other 17 are only partially operational. With also NBC noting that in recent weeks, Israel's bombings on hospitals in Gaza have risen to their highest level so far this year.

And while you have Israel consistently maintaining that Hamas is using the hospitals for military purposes, organizations like the UN have said that Israel has not provided enough evidence to actually prove that. But either way, you have NBC saying the wider health system, including ambulances, field hospitals, and clinics has been attacked more than 700 times since the start of the war,

killing at least 900 people and injuring more than 1,000. With the death toll across all of Gaza climbing to 55,000 over the last 19 months, according to its health ministry. Then going back to Israel and Iran fighting each other, that's now entering its seventh day. And everyone's kind of still waiting to see if Trump's gonna throw the US directly into the mix.

Because this week he's been saying stuff like, I may do it, I may not do it. Nobody knows what I'm gonna do. Which my bad impression of my dad's voice aside, that's a literal quote. But according to the Wall Street Journal, Trump actually told senior aides on Tuesday that he has now approved attack plans on Iran.

However, the report says that he's holding off on pulling the trigger to see if Tehran will abandon its nuclear program first. With the BBC adding there that Trump's specifically considering striking an underground uranium enrichment facility at Fordham. But that is, there's also a pretty fierce debate not only about should the US do it,

but whether the US could actually destroy the site with some defense officials worried that a U.S. bomb wouldn't be able to strike deep enough. And then just to throw even more uncertainty into the mix, today you had Trump posting on Truth Social, the Wall Street Journal has no idea what my thoughts are concerning Iran. So we're gonna have to wait to see what happens

as we go into the weekend, but I'm not gonna leave you high and dry. I'm gonna be covering the updates on my main TikTok. It's Philip DeFranco, I'll link it in the description. You can join the DeFranco fam there where over three and a half million people trust us with breaking news. But then shifting gears from that,

we should talk about the news that Alex Jones, who some have called America's most notorious conspiracy theorist, is now accused of an illegal conspiracy of his own. Because as you might remember, he was ordered to pay nearly $1.5 billion to the families of Sandy Hook victims a few years ago. And that, after two lawsuits in which he was found

to have defamed them by claiming that the school shooting was a hoax and the victims were all actors. So then you have Jones who has maintained that he's completely broken, that he has no money to pay the damages awarded to the plaintiffs. And in fact, as the dollar amounts were read out,

he sarcastically hooted and cheered from behind his computer. B total of $120 million. Yeah! By jury rule. Woo! Get those numbers up! Eight.

Do these people actually, do they get any money? But now what we're seeing is that U.S. bankruptcy trustee Christopher Murray has filed three lawsuits accusing Jones of hiding some $5 million that the families are rightfully owed, claiming that Alex Jones went to what he called extraordinary lengths to transfer the assets to his family members, including his ex-wife,

his father, and his kids' trust. So for example, he allegedly sent some one and a half million dollars in cash to his wife, claiming that she was owed the money under a pre-marital agreement. But according to Murray, that agreement was never actually ratified. Then Jones allegedly sold part of a Texas ranch

to his father for just $10, backdating papers to make it appear as if it happened years earlier than it really did. He also allegedly gave more than $500,000 in cash to his father, trying to pass it off as reimbursements and gifting the man three luxury vehicles. But with that, you have Murray saying that the transfer was so disorganized and hairy that Jones didn't even know

which cars they were. It's also alleged that Jones gave two condos worth some one and a half million dollars who had trust for his children, which he argues is unreachable by his creditors. But you have Murray saying that he never actually transferred one of the condos to the trust. And so Murray argues that all of this,

it amounts to what he calls a scheme bearing the classic hallmarks of actual fraudulent intent, saying quote, the mad dash to transfer property out of his name is indicative of the debtor's actual intent to hinder, delay and defraud his creditors when he transferred that property. Which is why Murray is asking a federal judge to compel Jones to return the assets to his bankruptcy estate

so they can eventually be distributed to the families. But also by law, if he wants one, Jones can request a jury trial to determine whether he intentionally hindered, delayed or defrauded those creditors. Meaning we may be seeing Alex Jones back in court soon. Right, and all of this is, you know, you have many out there saying,

hey, well, it's Alex Jones, he has the Trump card in his back pocket. But there, it could be argued that's questionable right now. Because in recent days, we've actually seen Alex Jones defending Tucker Carlson, who spoke out against Donald Trump. He even memed yesterday that Donald Trump is essentially George Bush

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say Trump's probably not gonna take as a compliment Hey for now, we're gonna have to wait to see how all this plays out But then I've got more news for you in just a second But first, let me say let's be real right we've all played financial Jenga at some point in life You know the game skip this bill juggle that payment hope nothing comes crashing down But here's the thing about financial Jenga, the tower always falls eventually. And when it does, your phone's blowing up like you've suddenly become super popular,

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But then next up from that today, a big thing that you should know is that big tech, it may have the power to actually cripple the online scam industry, but instead it would rather just make more money. Or I will say at least that's according to an investigation published in MIT technology review that we should talk about.

And specifically it was an investigation drawing on the testimonies of several workers from inside the scamming industry, as well as of course, anti-trafficking experts and technology specialists. The team behind the story finding that major tech companies, including social media platforms, dating app and messaging services,

they've given the fraud business the means to become industrialized, along with a little help from major cryptocurrencies and even Elon Musk's Starlink. And again, according to the investigation, there's plenty they could do to be stopping it, but they're not. And so with that, right,

the scams that we're talking about, they're often referred to as pig butchering scams, with the basic idea being that you've got to fatten your victim up before you take them to the slaughter. Or in other words, you got to spend time gaining their trust by forming a romantic or other close relationship with them. And then you take them for everything they got. With that, also mentioned that Interpol and other experts advise against the use of the term pig butchering out of a concern that it dehumanizes and stigmatizes the victims as well as dissuades them from

speaking up. So with that in mind, that's the last time I'm going to say it in this video. I just, I want you to know what we're definitely talking about. But what I will say is that while the full scale of this type of fraud is hard to estimate, it is undoubtedly massive. I mean, in 2024, for example, researchers at UT Austin published a study estimating that the criminal organizations that run these operations, they've stolen at least $75 billion from victims around the world since just 2020. And also another big key point here is that these scammers, they're often victims themselves. In 2023, for instance, the United Nations reported that hundreds of thousands of people have been trafficked

to work as online scammers in Southeast Asia. This whole business mostly being run by Chinese criminal groups. And as more has come out about the exploitation and brutal treatment of these workers, the issue has really come into the global spotlight. That's also because the groups behind these scams had in the past primarily targeted Chinese victims,

but are now increasingly targeting English speakers all around the world. And another big thing is that some say that the pandemic supercharged the industry, where there were just simply more people isolated and alone to rip off, as well as more people out of work who might've been persuaded to try scamming others,

or who were vulnerable and ended up being trafficked into the industry. With one of those examples being a South Asian man by the name of Gavesh, where he had reportedly held down a job in the tourism sector until COVID hit. And a couple of years later, he was instead working as a day laborer to support himself and his father

and sister with him saying, I was fed up with my life. I was trying so hard to find a way to get out. But then one day in 2022, when he was scrolling through Facebook, it seemed like his prayers have been answered. Because a company in Thailand was apparently looking for English speaking customer service and data entry specialists. With a company in Thailand was apparently looking for English speaking customer service

and data entry specialists. With a monthly salary being $1,500, which was far more than what he could earn at home. And the post also claimed meals, travel costs, a visa, and accommodation would be included. So he had Gavesh saying, "'I knew if I got this job, my life would turn around. I would be able to give my family a good life.'"

And so he sent his resume to a telegram contact number and an HR rep replied and had him demonstrate his English and typing skills over a video call. With Gavesh noting that it all felt very professional and adding, I didn't have any reason to suspect. And so we flew to Bangkok and a few hours later he was in the backseat of a Jeep with a young Chinese woman being driven to a city on the border of Myanmar. With a man being marched through pitch black fields by flashlight to the side of a river where a boat was then waiting. And finally he ended up at the gate of a huge compound surrounded by high walls topped with barbed wire. This compound is actually

one of the most infamous scamming hubs in all of Southeast Asia. It's known as KK Park and it's in the Miyawaddy township of Myanmar with satellite imagery showing how in just a few years it's grown from almost nothing to now include dozens of large buildings. But in any case, Gavash, he handed over his iPhone and passport, he was given a batch of iPhone 8s and following his captors directions, he set up dozens of fake accounts on Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, X and Telegram, as well as even several dating apps.

And he got to work. And as far as the place that he said he had to pass through airport style metal detectors when he went into or out of the office, that our men patrolled the buildings and guarded the compound. He also claimed that yawning was banned. The bathroom breaks were limited to two minutes at a time

and that he himself was once beaten because he broke an unwritten rule against crossing your legs while working. And then beyond that, we know from other reporting that people inside of these compounds have been subjected to torture, sexual violence, and other cruel treatment. But then with that, you had Gavesh thankfully managing

to scrape together enough money to buy his freedom and he got dumped back into Bangkok without his passport along with about a dozen others. With him eventually getting help from an anti-trafficking nonprofit by the name of International Justice Mission or IJM. But then the guy who heads up the group's operations in Thailand saying about the whole situation,

private sector corporations are unfortunately inadvertently enabling this criminal industry. With them adding the private sector holds significant tools and responsibility to disrupt and prevent its further growth. And so that it's the next thing that we should unpack. Because to start, to be fair, the tech sector has, of course, implemented some anti-scam tools and policies. But there you have experts reportedly claiming

that these measures largely focus on the downstream problem, meaning that the losses suffered by the victims of the scams. And you have them saying that this approach, it overlooks the other set of victims. Where the people like Gavesh, and ultimately it has little impact on the overall industry. And then with that also claiming that the tech companies could certainly do more

to crack down saying that even relatively small interventions could make a big difference. With for example, a Wired investigation that was published back in February, finding that scamming networks appear to be widely using Starlink in Myanmar. With them identifying eight known scam compounds where hundreds of phones had used the service

more than 40,000 times in just a few months. They also had identifying photos that appear to show dozens of Starlink satellite dishes on a scamming compound rooftop. Notably, Starlink requires a subscription and is able to geofence its services. So it seems like it would be easy enough to cut off the service since I mean,

after all its terms of use say that SpaceX may terminate Starlink services to users who participate in fraudulent or illegal activities. And in fact, the company has previously limited access in areas of Ukraine under Russian occupation. But at least as a recording, we haven't had any acknowledgement or indication that they might do the same here.

But even with that, just knowing the locations of the scam compounds, which starling data could potentially help find, that might allow Apple, for example, to step in. And that because workers often rely on iPhones to make contact with the victims and these have to be associated with an Apple ID. And so with that, you have Eric Hines,

a global analyst at IGM explaining, if you have an iCloud account with five phones and you know that those phones' GPS antenna locates those phones inside a known scam compound, then all of those phones should be bricked. The account should be locked and then adding. This isn't like the other trafficking cases that we've worked on where we're trying to find a boat

in the middle of the ocean. These are city-sized compounds. We all know where they are and we've watched them being built via satellite imagery. But also, all that said, it's actually the very beginning of the scam recruiting process that big tech could arguably make the biggest impact. In particular, Facebook is reportedly the most common entry point for people recruited on social media, typically through ads posted in job seekers groups.

With anti-trafficking experts noting that the phony advertising, it tends to follow formulaic templates and use common language. And they say that in fact they routinely report those ads to Meta and point out the markers that they've identified. Which you know should help the platform's AI systems flag and delete content that break the law or violate the company's own policies. Which I will say is something that Meta already does to some degree. Where just last November for example the company claimed that it had purged two million accounts connected to scamming syndicates over the previous year. But of course you have experts saying that Facebook continues to be used in recruiting

and new ads keep appearing. But then also, similar to recruitment ads, fake profiles on dating apps tend to follow patterns that should set off alarm bells. Right, for example, they use photos copied from existing users, other social media platforms, or even made by AI. And then there's the scammers behavior, right?

They swipe too fast, spend too much time logged in, and most of them rely on pre-written scripts to reach out to targets. All of which should reportedly make it fairly easy for platforms to detect those signs and either stop the accounts from being created or make the users go through further checks. But again, scammers? They're still swiping, and once they develop a relationship on social media or on a dating site, they'll often move the conversation to a private messaging app like WhatsApp. And there, it gets a lot trickier, right? Because there's a greater expectation of privacy. It's end-to-end encrypted, so Meta couldn't even read the content of the messages

if anyone thought that that was a good idea. That said, however, it reportedly still should be possible for the company to pick up on on-behavior. For example, Jason Tower, the Myanmar country director at the United States Institute of Peace, asking, if you have an account that is suddenly adding people in large quantities all over the world, should you immediately flag it and freeze that account or require that individual verify his

or her information? Then adding the vast majority of these companies are doing the minimum or less. Saying if not properly incentivized either through regulatory action or through exposure by media or other forms of pressure, often these companies will under invest in keeping their platforms safe. And in fact, to that point, what we've seen is that social media companies like X, Meta, and others, they've laid off hundreds of people from their trust and safety departments over the past few years. And then you see things like more recently Meta rolling back its moderation and fact checking efforts. So that is connected, but separate, right? That's seen as more of a major shift at least partly brought on by the election of Donald Trump, who also opposed

greater content moderation, even promising to take action against foreign governments if they introduced measures that could quote inhibit the growth of American companies or force them to moderate online content. But then the Trump shift also matters because he's been especially supportive of deregulating crypto, with him even issuing a number of pardons for high-profile white-collar crooks who are connected to the industry. In crypto, it's not really something that we've touched on before, but importantly, it is vital to scamming and organized crime in general. But then another separate, but still connected thing, especially with Trump, is his dismantling of USAID.

Because among other things, it reportedly ended programs working to help people trafficked into scam compounds. And back in February, you had reports saying that every single one of the agency's anti-trafficking projects had been halted. And notably all of this at a time when there's a whole other set of reasons tackling online scamming is gonna be more challenging. Artificial intelligence. I mean, just think about all the AI powered face

swap, AI tech and apps and voice altering products to impersonate characters more convincingly. And so with that, you have Gabrielle Tran, a senior analyst at the Institute for Security and Technology saying, malicious actors can exploit these models, especially open source models to produce content at an unprecedented scale. And adding these models are purposefully being fine tuned to serve as convincing humans. So taking in all of these aspects that we've talked about, I mean, it's pretty hard to imagine that the situation is gonna get better anytime soon.

And if anything, it's not like gonna plateau, it's probably just gonna get a whole lot worse. You know, with all that said, I gotta pass the question off to you. Not only, you know, what are your thoughts about the whole situation that we're seeing in this whole big deep dive, but have you experienced something regarding the scamming industry? Whether you or someone you know, what are your thoughts about the whole situation that we're seeing in this whole big deep dive, but have you experienced something regarding the,

the scamming industry, whether you or someone, you know, or a victim or you were able to avoid it or thwart it, but that is where today's show is going to end. Thank you for watching. Thank you for subscribing. And remember I'll see you on Monday. Cause I got a brand new show for you every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at 6 PM Eastern,

3 PM Pacific. Love you mean it. Bye.