Keeping Your Parents Safe from Scams with Patrick Coughlin

Why do smart, capable people fall for scams? According to cybersecurity expert Patrick Coughlin, it's not about being naive, it's about how our brains are wired, and how criminal organizations are exploiting that at scale. Patrick spent over twenty years protecting governments and Fortune 500 companies from cyber threats. He co-founded TruSTAR Technology (acquired by Splunk) and now leads Savi Security, where his team built Scamwise, a free tool that gives an instant read on suspicious messages. When his 73-year-old mother was targeted by an AI voice scam, that experience led him to write his debut book, Dark Side of the Boom: How Scammers Hijacked the AI Revolution. In this episode, we talk about the most common scams targeting older adults, how to bring it up with a parent without blame or condescension, real strategies to make them safer, why nine seconds can make all the difference and so much more TRANSCRIPT SaviSecurity ScamWise.com Dark Side of the Boom Daughterhood