What happens when people looking for work become targets for organized fraud?

In this episode of Scam Rangers, Ayelet Biger-Levin speaks with Jay Jones, known as The Profiler, an investigator exposing fake job postings, fraudulent recruiters, and hijacked professional identities.

After being laid off from an advertising job, Jay encountered a fake résumé-writing operation targeting job seekers. Instead of looking away, he began following the threads. What started as one investigation became a one-man mission to expose the networks using fake opportunities to steal money, personal information, and access to professional accounts.

Today, Jay says he has helped get nearly 60,000 fake job listings removed, most from LinkedIn and some from Tea, and has flagged more than 7,000 scam profiles. His work has recently been featured by The Wall Street Journal, Fox News Radio, and Bloomberg.

Together, Ayelet and Jay explore the growing job-scam ecosystem, from fake résumé writers and “LinkedIn optimization” offers to fake recruiters, hijacked profiles, and impersonated company pages. They discuss why profile age, mutual connections, verification badges, and polished language are not always enough to establish trust.

Jay Jones, known as The Profiler, turned his own experience with job-search fraud into a mission to expose employment scams at scale. He investigates fake job postings, recruiter impersonation, professional-profile takeovers, and fraudulent companies targeting job seekers.

Learn more about Jay’s work: https://www.theprofiler.org/

Recent coverage:

The Wall Street Journal: https://www.wsj.com/tech/the-vigilante-whos-taking-down-recruitment-scammers-one-fake-job-ad-at-a-time-e441b100

Fox News Radio: https://radio.foxnews.com/2026/10/02/laid-off-to-scam-hunter-how-one-man-takes-on-fake-job-listings/

Bloomberg This Weekend: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I591wG6jB9E

Ayelet Biger-Levin is the Founder and CEO of RangersAI and the host of Scam Rangers, a podcast exploring the human side of scams and the people working to protect consumers from financial and emotional harm.

Through her work at RangersAI and her advisory for the Global Anti-Scam Alliance and Stop Scams Alliance, Ayelet works with financial institutions and industry leaders to advance a more human-centered approach to scam prevention.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ayelet-biger-levin/

To learn more about RangersAI: https://www.rangersai.com/

Scam signals exist across telecom networks, messaging platforms, and financial institutions. Why aren’t they translating into stronger protection?

In this episode of Scam Rangers, Ayelet Biger-Levin speaks with Ian Matthews, founder and CEO of Strata Labs and former founder and CEO of WMC Global, about the limits of message filtering, the changing role of carriers and technology platforms, and the intelligence banks could use to intervene earlier.

Ian explains what reported messages reveal about scammers and their targets, and why getting those signals to financial institutions could help prevent losses before money moves.

• Why scam messages still get through network filters.
• How RCS and iMessage are changing visibility and protection.
• What reported messages reveal and how banks could use that intelligence.
• The barriers to sharing signals across industries.
• How AI is accelerating scams and the need for stronger collaboration.

Ian Matthews leads Strata Labs, a strategic advisory focused on telecommunications, cybersecurity, and AI. Previously, he founded and led WMC Global, connecting telecom threat intelligence with the organizations working to protect consumers.

Ayelet Biger-Levin is the Founder and CEO of RangersAI and the host of Scam Rangers, a podcast exploring the human side of scams and the people working to protect consumers from financial and emotional harm.

Through her work at RangersAI and her advisory for the Global Anti-Scam Alliance and Stop Scams Alliance, Ayelet works with financial institutions and industry leaders to advance a more human-centered approach to scam prevention.

Follow Ayelet on LinkedIn

Learn more about RangersAI

Scammers have made calls, texts, and messaging platforms central to the way they reach and manipulate victims. And as scams become more targeted and move across multiple channels, the challenge is no longer simply blocking spam or stopping robocalls.

In this episode of Scam Rangers, Ayelet Biger-Levin sits down with Jaime Zetterstrom, VP of Product & Innovation at Somos, to explore the role of the telecom industry in fighting scams—and the difficult balance between protecting consumers, preserving privacy, and keeping communications open.

Jaime explains why modern scams are increasingly “surgical,” how criminals move between platforms to evade detection, and why collaboration between telecom providers, financial institutions, regulators, and consumers is becoming essential.

They also explore a bigger consequence of the scam epidemic: the erosion of trust. When people stop answering unknown calls or trusting messages, legitimate businesses, banks, healthcare providers, and other organizations lose an important way to reach them.

Rebuilding that trust, Jaime says, may happen one call and one message at a time.

• Why telecom is at the center of many scam journeys
• How scams have evolved from high-volume spam to more targeted, cross-platform attacks
• Why stopping scam communications is more complicated than simply blocking suspicious calls or messages
• What telecom providers are already doing to combat fraudulent traffic
• How banks and telecom providers can share signals to disrupt scams earlier
• Why consumer reporting matters—and why consumers need a better feedback loop
• How scams are damaging trust in calls and messages
• The opportunity to create more trusted communication between legitimate brands and consumers
• Why Jaime believes scams are, at their core, an identity problem

Fighting scams isn't only about stopping a bad call or message. It's also about protecting the trust that allows people and legitimate organizations to communicate.

Rebuilding that trust will require collaboration across industries—and will happen one call and one message at a time.

Through her work at RangersAI and her advisory for the Global Anti-Scam Alliance and Stop Scams Alliance, Ayelet works with financial institutions and industry leaders to advance a more human-centered approach to scam prevention.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ayelet-biger-levin/

To learn more about RangersAI: https://www.rangersai.com/

What happens when someone is so deeply caught in a scam that facts and logic no longer reach them?

In this episode of Scam Rangers, host Ayelet Biger Levin sits down with Dr. Trina Clayeux, CEO of Give an Hour, to explore the emotional and psychological impact of scams and why empathy is so important in prevention, intervention and recovery.

When someone is in the middle of a scam, they may be under intense pressure, emotionally invested or deeply manipulated. Simply telling them, “This is a scam,” may not work.

Trina introduces a powerful green, yellow and red framework for understanding a victim’s emotional state. If someone is in the red, bringing more logic may only push them further away. Instead, we need to recognize where they are, slow things down and adapt how we communicate.

“Trust is the connective tissue to all of this.”

The conversation also looks at the broader scam lifecycle, from early intervention to financial institution response, recovery and healing. Because scams are not only financial crimes. They can leave victims struggling with shame, isolation, loss of trust and increased vulnerability to repeat scams.

Ultimately, fighting scams requires more than detection. It requires understanding human behavior and meeting people where they are.

• Why logic alone may not stop a scam
• The green, yellow and red emotional framework
• How empathy can improve scam intervention
• Building trust without shaming the customer
• The emotional impact of scams
• Preventing repeat victimization
• Connecting prevention, recovery and healing

Dr. Trina Clayeux is CEO of Give an Hour, a national social impact organization focused on mental health and supporting people impacted by human caused trauma. Give an Hour provides clinical support, peer support, education and training, including programs focused on the psychological and emotional impact of fraud and scams.

https://giveanhour.org/

Ayelet Biger Levin is the Founder and CEO of RangersAI, the company behind ScamRanger. With more than 15 years in fraud prevention and cybersecurity, she is an Ambassador for the Global Anti Scam Alliance and host of Scam Rangers, exploring how we can better protect people and fight scams.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ayelet-biger-levin/

To learn more about RangersAI: https://www.rangersai.com/

What happens when investigators follow a scam all the way to the people behind it?

In this episode of Scam Rangers, host Ayelet Biger-Levin sits down with Erin West, founder of Operation Shamrock and former prosecutor, and cybercrime researcher Paul Raffile to hear the incredible story of their investigation into financial sextortion.

Erin and Paul created a decoy social media profile posing as a teenage boy and quickly became targets of a sextortion scam. They followed the digital trail, built a blueprint of the network, and traveled to Nigeria to find the people behind it.

There, they interviewed scammers, worked with local partners and law enforcement, explored the role of juju rituals in some scam operations, and ultimately confronted the suspected scammer they had tracked.

“We came here to find you. We’re two investigators.”

What they discovered raises bigger questions about how we fight scams. Detection and prevention matter , but what about deterrence and consequences? When the scammers themselves were asked what could stop more people from committing these crimes, their answer was striking: more arrests.

• Inside a real-world financial sextortion investigation
• Following the trail from social media to Nigeria
• Building a blueprint of the criminal network
• What scammers revealed about how they operate
• The role of juju rituals in some scam operations
• Confronting the suspected scammer
• Why deterrence and enforcement matter
• What law enforcement and industry need to do differently

Erin West is the founder of Operation Shamrock and a former Deputy District Attorney who spent 26 years prosecuting crime, including eight years investigating high-tech and cryptocurrency-enabled crime. https://www.linkedin.com/in/erinnordbywest/

Paul Raffile is a cybercrime researcher specializing in transnational organized crime and financial sextortion, with a background in government intelligence, corporate intelligence and digital investigations. https://www.linkedin.com/in/raffile/

Ayelet Biger-Levin is the Founder and CEO of RangersAI, the company behind ScamRanger. With more than 15 years in fraud prevention and cybersecurity, she is an Ambassador for the Global Anti-Scam Alliance and host of Scam Rangers, exploring how we can better protect people and fight scams. https://www.linkedin.com/in/ayelet-biger-levin/

To learn more about RangersAI: https://www.rangersai.com/

In this episode of Scam Rangers, Ayelet Biger-Levin welcomes back Ken Westbrook, founder of Stop Scams Alliance and former CIA analyst, to discuss why scams should be treated as a national security threat, and why doing that starts with better data.

Ken shares the story behind Stop Scams Alliance’s collaboration with Gallup and what the new research reveals about scam victimization in America. The findings paint a troubling picture: roughly one in four Americans report having been scammed, nearly three-quarters of victims say the experience negatively affected their mental health or well-being, and 98% of U.S. adults believe scams pose a threat.

The conversation goes beyond the numbers to explore what needs to happen next: the role financial institutions can play in scam intelligence and reporting, how technology and AI can strengthen defenses, the need for greater public-private collaboration, and what it would actually mean to treat scams as a national security priority.

• Why traditional reporting doesn’t capture the true scale of scams
• What the Gallup research reveals about victims and the impact of scams
• Why financial institutions could play a larger role in scam intelligence
• How AI is changing both scam attacks and defenses
• Why stronger collaboration across government and industry is critical
• Why we need consistent measurement to know whether we’re actually making progress

Link to the Gallup survey: https://www.gallup.com/analytics/711827/scams-in-america.aspx

Ken Westbrook is the founder of Stop Scams Alliance, a nonprofit bringing together stakeholders across the scam ecosystem to improve how the U.S. prevents and responds to scams. Before founding the organization, Ken spent 33 years at the CIA as an analyst — experience that now shapes his approach to understanding and combating scams as an organized, evolving threat.

Stop scams Alliance: https://www.stopscamsalliance.org/

Ayelet Biger-Levin is the founder and CEO of RangersAI and host of the Scam Rangers podcast. A fraud and cybersecurity expert with more than 20 years of experience, she has held leadership roles at companies including IBM, RSA Security and BioCatch.

Through Scam Rangers, Ayelet brings together experts from financial services, technology, behavioral science, law enforcement and policy to explore how scams work, why people fall victim, and what we can do to build greater scam resilience.

www.rangersai.com

Follow Ayelet on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ayelet-biger-levin/

For years, the banking industry focused on one goal: reduce friction. Every extra interaction with a customer was viewed as something to avoid.

But scams have changed the rules.

When criminals manipulate customers into authorizing payments themselves, transaction monitoring alone can't tell the whole story. The missing piece is context—and the only person who has it is the customer.

In this episode, Ayelet sits down with Kate Pundik, Fraud Risk Management Program Manager at Valley Bank, and Juliana Bogotinoska, FVP and BSA Officer at Bankwell, to discuss why proactive customer engagement is becoming one of the most powerful tools in modern fraud prevention.

Together, they explore how banks are rethinking trust, why customer outreach is no longer viewed as unnecessary friction, and how partnering with customers can improve fraud detection, strengthen relationships, and prevent losses before money moves.

• Why scams require a completely different fraud prevention strategy than traditional account takeover.
• Why the customer often has the one piece of information banks cannot see: intent.
• How customer outreach helps prevent account takeover, check fraud, scams, and money mule activity.
• Why reaching out to customers is becoming a better customer service experience—not simply another security control.
• How financial institutions are building trusted communication channels with customers.
• Why fraud, AML, risk, technology, marketing, and customer-facing teams must work together to protect customers.
• How AI is changing both scam tactics and the way banks must respond.
• Why the future of fraud prevention is built on partnership, trust, and communication.

The future of fraud prevention isn't simply about detecting suspicious transactions. It's about building trusted relationships with customers, giving them the confidence to make safer decisions, and creating a partnership where banks and customers work together to stop fraud before money moves.

Ayelet Biger-Levin is the Founder and CEO of RangersAI and the host of Scam Rangers, a podcast exploring the human side of scams and the people working to protect consumers from financial and emotional harm.

Through her work at RangersAI and her leadership within the Global Anti-Scam Alliance and the Stop Scams Alliance, Ayelet partners with financial institutions, policymakers, and industry leaders to advance a more human-centered approach to scam prevention.

Follow Ayelet on LinkedIn to continue the conversation and learn more about the work being done to build scam resilience.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ayelet-biger-levin/

Most of us believe that if someone is being scammed, all they need is proof.

Show them the evidence. Point out the red flags. Explain the facts.

But what if that's not enough?

In this episode of Scam Rangers, I sit down with Ayleen Charlotte, survivor of the Tinder Swindler and founder of SAFE (Scam Awareness & Fraud Education), to explore what really happens when someone isunder the influence of a scammer and why breaking that manipulation requires much more than facts.

Ayleen shares her personal journey from victim to advocate, including the emotional aftermath of discovering that the relationship she believed in never existed. We discuss how scams reshape the way people think, why victims often defend the scammer, and what banks, investigators, frontline teams, and even family members need to understand if they truly want to help.

This conversation goes beyond one remarkable story. It challenges many of the assumptions we've made about scam prevention and highlights why understanding human psychology is just as important as understanding fraud.

• Why scam victims can't always be convinced with facts alone.
• How manipulation changes the way people think, process information, and make decisions.
• The different stages of the "scam spell" and why interventions must adapt to each stage.
• Why fraudsters intentionally position banks and loved ones as the enemy.
• What organizations can do to become more victim-centered and trauma-informed.
• How Ayleen transformed her lived experience into SAFE, a training platform helping financial institutions, law enforcement, and organizations better support scam victims.

Ayleen Charlotte is an international speaker, fraud awareness advocate, and founder of SAFE (Scam Awareness & Fraud Education). Following her experience as one of the victims featured in The Tinder Swindler, she dedicated her career to helping organizations better understand the psychology of manipulation and improve how they support scam victims through victim-centered, trauma-informed education.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ayleen-charlotte-09a338256/

Ayelet Biger-Levin is the Founder and CEO of RangersAI and the host of Scam Rangers, a podcast exploring the human side of scams and the people working to protect consumers from financial and emotional harm.

Through her work at RangersAI and her leadership within the Global Anti-Scam Alliance and the Stop Scams Alliance, Ayelet partners with financial institutions, policymakers, and industry leaders to advance a more human-centered approach to scam prevention.

Follow Ayelet on LinkedIn to continue the conversation and learn more about the work being done to build scam resilience.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ayelet-biger-levin/