Podcast Episodes

Paper Empire | The Case of Equity Funding Corporation of America

Episode 66

Join Caleb and Greg on a twisting saga of an insurance company that began in the late 1950s, rose to spectacular heights in the 1960s, and came crashing down in the 1970s.

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Published on 1 year, 5 months ago

Pyramid Schemes: How to Lose Friends and Alienate Money

Episode 65

You’ve probably heard of pyramid schemes, but are you confident that you know what it is? And if you are, do you know the difference between them and multi-level marketing companies? Or Ponzi schemes…

Published on 1 year, 5 months ago

We’re Not a Bank in Kansas Anymore

Episode 64

Legend has it that when asked why he robbed banks, the infamous 20th century bank robber Willie Sutton said, “Because that’s where the money is.” In the 21st century, banks still have the money, but …

Published on 1 year, 5 months ago

Meet the Cybersecurity Scholar: Riana Pfefferkorn of Stanford University

Episode 63

As a co-teacher of Stanford University’s Introduction to Cybersecurity course, Riana Pfefferkorn regularly had to guide enterprising students away from violating the law. And it was one of those laws…

Published on 1 year, 6 months ago

The Jacksonville Jaguars Employee Who Went All In on Fraud

Episode 62

Gambling is often a factor when a person perpetrates a fraud, sometimes to a shocking degree. Caleb and Greg discuss one such case involving a finance professional who went to extraordinary lengths t…

Published on 1 year, 6 months ago

More Pandemic Pillagers Got What They Had Coming

Episode 61

More than four years after the COVID-19 pandemic began, stories of regular people and their ill-fated schemes to exploit pandemic aid programs continue to emerge. In this episode, Caleb and Greg disc…

Published on 1 year, 7 months ago

We’re All Somebody’s Fool | Dan Simons & Chris Chabris

Episode 60

Think you’re too smart to be taken in by a fraudster? If so, that may make you an even bigger mark. In this episode, Caleb and Greg speak with psychologists Dan Simons of the University of Illinois U…

Published on 1 year, 7 months ago

You’ve Got Fail | The British Post Office Scandal

Episode 59

The US Postal Service has long been the butt of jokes for poor service, but nothing that comes close to this. In this transatlantic episode, Caleb and Greg unpack the story of hundreds of British sub…

Published on 1 year, 8 months ago

The 2024 ACFE Report to the Nations, Annotated with Wisecracks

Episode 58

In many episodes, Greg cites statistics from “A Report to the Nations,” the biennial report on occupational fraud, from the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners. As luck would have it, the most r…

Published on 1 year, 8 months ago

Next Stop, Fraud | The Case of Frederick Darren Berg

Episode 57

We all have childhood dreams. Not all of us get to make them come true. In this episode, Caleb and Greg discuss the story of Frederick Darren Berg, who as a boy, developed a fascination with buses, a…

Published on 1 year, 9 months ago