147: Scams Don’t Look Like Scams Anymore

AI-Powered Misinformation and Financial Scams: Fake Opportunity, Authority, and UrgencyHosts Josh Sheluk and Colin White of Barenaked Money welcome back misinformation researcher and author Matthew Facciani (Misguided) to discuss current misinformation trends, especially how AI scales personalized scams across social media, email, and increasingly convincing audio deepfake phone calls. Facciani outlines three common scam patterns—fake opportunity, fake authority, and fake urgency—and shares examples of AI-tailored job-offer and book-club scams that quickly pivot to small fees. He recommends habits and tools to reduce risk: pause and reflect before reacting emotionally, avoid clicking links, verify credentials via official sources, use lateral reading to check independent coverage and digital footprints, and leverage tools like reverse image search, the Wayback Machine, and URL checks. The conversation also covers identity and network overlap as drivers of bias, plus Facciani’s interactive tools for mapping identity complexity and social network diversity.Click here to view the episode transcript. Links: Matthew Facciani's newsletter: https://matthewfacciani.substack.com/Matthew's Identity Map Tool: https://matthewfacciani.github.io/identity-map/Matthew's Post on Verecan's Blog:  Don't Get Fooled Out of Your Money: A Fact-Checker's Guide for Every Kind of Investor 00:00 AI Scam Wake Up00:11 Meet The Misinformation Expert01:25 State Of Misinformation Now03:23 Financial Scams Three Buckets05:35 Deepfakes Voice And Text06:48 Personalized Job Offer Scam11:18 Spotting Scams Daily Habits13:48 Book Club Flattery Trap17:54 Predatory Conferences Gray Lines20:49 Verify Claims With Lateral Reading25:20 Identity Bias Map26:41 Overlapping Identities Risk28:46 Complexity Score Tool30:29 Network Diversity Shield34:29 Echo Chambers Everywhere35:34 Privacy And Metrics36:34 Critical Ignoring Chatbot40:21 Making It A Business41:41 Contrarian Matching Ideas44:48 Where To Find Everything47:16 Contact Info And Disclosures47:16 Financial Advisor Disclaimer