AI is undoubtedly the technology of the year for hacks and scams. While scammers are busy using AI to make scams more convincing, scam baiters are fighting back with ingenious grandma-style AIs that keep scammers busy for hours on end. There have also been some spectacular busts of scam centers. What’s next, AI scammers chatting with AI scam baiters? Now, that would be entertaining.

Resources

• Meet Daisy, the AI 'granny' chatbot that wastes the time of phone scammers
• SpaceX disables thousands of Starlink devices being used by Myanmar scam centers
• China sentences 5 to death for building, running criminal gang fraud centers in Myanmar's lawless borderlands
• Myanmar has declared a 'zero tolerance' policy for cyberscams, but the fraud goes on
• Content creators, banks use AI to waste scammers' time
• Kitboga on YouTube: I Built a Bot Army that Scams Scammers

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Ever get your hair cut and wonder, "Is my barber part of an international scammer ring?" In November 2025, the FBI arrested Victor Marion, the owner of Mecca Barber Shop in San Diego, and eighteen of his buddies for scamming elderly victims out of $40 million with the classic tech support and refund scams, and for laundering the funds through the shop. Come along and find out how the scams worked, and learn what's next for Marion and his friends.

Resources:

• 22 charged in elder scam targeting over 500 seniors: FBI San Diego
• Feds: Barbershop owner led California-based laundering cell in $40 million elder fraud scheme
• Case Number 25CR4061-TWR-01, reviewed via Pacer

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If Facebook has seemed scammy for the past few years, it's not your imagination. A leaked internal document shows that Facebook, and its parent company Meta, are well aware that many of their ads and posts are scams, but they make too much money off of them to do anything about it. Get all the details on this scathing report from Reuters that has rocked the scambuster world.

Resources

• Reuters report: Meta is earning a fortune on a deluge of fraudulent ads, documents show
• Maggie McGaugh on YouTube
• Pleasant Green on YouTube

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