#financial-fraud
53 episodes
#4428: Why Your Credit Card Keeps Getting Hacked
When your SSN is burned and fraud keeps coming back, the system itself is the problem.
#4424: Inside the 3D Secure Redirect: What Happens When Your Card Gets Challenged
That split-second redirect at checkout is 3D Secure 2. Here's how the ACS, risk scoring, and SMS challenges actually work.
#4400: Who Actually Moves the Euro-Dollar Rate?
Trade flows are just 3-5% of FX volume. Here's what actually drives the euro-dollar price.
#4377: The Club Card That's Actually a Credit Trap
Why a hardware store "membership" in Israel often means a 30% APR credit card — and why regulators haven't stopped it.
#4351: The Wholesale Price of Trust: LIBOR's Rise and Fall
Why banks borrow from each other overnight, how LIBOR became a fiction, and what SOFR means for global finance.
#4348: Beating Israel's Banking Oligopoly: Real Options
Israeli banks charge 5% per transaction. Here's how to get a US dollar card, better rates, and real customer service.
#4343: AliExpress Checkout: Dollars vs Shekels
Which currency should you pick at checkout? The hidden fees of DCC, PayPal, and credit cards explained.
#4310: What Actually Happens When You Tap Your Phone to Pay
94% of money exists only as digital IOUs. Here's how the system actually works when you tap to pay.
#4309: Where Does Your Money Go During Those Three Days?
Your money doesn't move during a transfer. It's just ledger edits waiting for trust. Here's why.
#4184: What Actually Stops $700M: Sovereign Payment Plumbing
How a single authorization code in a central bank database stopped 700 million shekels from moving.
#4153: The Corporate Org Chart of Cybercrime
Stop picturing a lone hacker. Today's cybercrime looks like a consulting firm with a really unethical business plan.
#4055: The Software Powering Modern Scams
Moving scams and rental fraud run on custom software — quotation engines, password managers, and CRMs built for deception.
#3843: Tracing the Grey Economy's Hidden Pipes
How journalists trace fraud from Tel Aviv boiler rooms to trafficking networks using public records and patience.
#3838: Startups That Got Rich Before Getting Coherent
When massive funding rounds mask a complete absence of product-market fit — and the employees who pay the price.
#3741: What Israeli Detectives Actually Do All Day
TV detectives solve cases in 42 minutes. Real ones spend months on fraud, counter-terrorism, and paperwork.
#3692: Authorization Holds vs. Actual Charges: How to Tell
Pending transactions look like charges but aren't. Learn the three structural tells that reveal the difference.
#3560: Virtual Cards vs. Reimbursement: Consulting Expense Guide
Virtual cards, advances, or reimbursement? How consultants should handle client expenses without tax or legal traps.
#3346: How $500M Trades Actually Work (Not Venmo)
No, fund managers don't have a "send $50M" button. Here's the actual plumbing behind $145 trillion in assets.
#3343: How Cash Caps Shrink Shadow Economies
Israel, Greece, and others are capping cash transactions to shrink shadow economies. How do these laws work, and what are the real costs?
#3305: Ghost Towers: Jerusalem's Empty Luxury Apartments
18% of units in new Jerusalem towers have zero electricity use. Who buys apartments no one ever lives in?
#3167: DeFi vs Microlending: What Actually Works?
DeFi's $180B locked vs 1.7B unbanked. Where does credit actually help?
#3159: How Bankruptcy Works Differently in the US vs. Israel
Two countries, two radically different philosophies on debt, failure, and second chances.
#3137: Credit Scores vs. Israel: Two Ways to Quantify Trust
The US uses a private scoring machine. Israel uses a government data registry. Two radically different answers to the same question.
#2781: When Voice AI Features Enable Fraud
Voice AI platforms now let you simulate background noise, hesitation, and natural conversation — and that's a problem.