Brian Ler on WNYC.

And listeners, before we close out today's show, we want to let you know about a scam that's been taking place out there.

It involves people posing as me or claiming to represent

the Brian Laira show as well as other WNYC hosts and shows. They're emailing listeners with

what looks like a warm invitation to come on the air, but then they ask for money in exchange

for the slot. Let me say this up front. Our interviews and our airtime are never for

sale, nor do we collect fees from our guests for logistics, production, or anything else that

goes into making the show. We will never ask you to pay to come on the Brian Laird show. If you

have a book to promote or for any other reason, we never

have and we never will. Impersonation scams like this are a much bigger problem out there than just

our station. And there's something we've been keeping an eye on as part of our ongoing cybersecurity

coverage, but we didn't realize that this series would hit so close to home until some listeners

reached out to tell us who was trying to scam them. So we want to take a few minutes now at the

end of the show to walk you through what these emails look like, what red flags to watch for,

and what to do if you've already been targeted or even fallen for one yourself temporarily

regarding this show or the station or any other such scam.

Joining us now, Rachel Tobak, co-founder and CEO of Social Proof Security,

where she works on protecting people and organizations from social engineering scams,

as they're called.

We've also got our own Kenneth Atkins,

assistant director of IT and data security here at WNYC. Welcome to you both. Hi.

Thanks for having me. Thanks for having me. So Kenneth, you are our resident,

...