The Everyday American Who Hustled for North Korea

The Journal.

The Wall Street Journal

Daily News, Business News, News

4.2 • 5.3K Ratings

🗓️ 3 June 2025

⏱️ 15 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Christina Chapman presented herself as just another influencer on TikTok. In reality, she operated a “laptop farm” that allowed North Koreans to take jobs as U.S. tech workers and scam more than 300 U.S. companies out of millions of dollars. WSJ’s Robert McMillan breaks down the scam and Chapman’s crucial role in it. Annie Minoff hosts. Further Listening: - North Korea's Propaganda Mastermind - Your New Hire May Be a North Korean Spy - Hack Me If You Can Sign up for WSJ’s free What’s News newsletter . Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Bob, can you tell me about this influencer you've been watching on TikTok?
0:09.3	Yeah, her name is Christina Chapman.
0:12.4	Hi, Loeys.
0:14.5	I just wanted to pop on for a second.
0:18.7	And she talks about food accountability.
0:22.0	I guess it's day three.
0:23.3	Day three.
0:24.1	Day two of accountable eating.
0:28.7	She talks about political causes.
0:32.3	That I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States.
0:37.8	She talks about Japanese boy bands.
0:42.1	And I'm wearing my shirt.
0:43.2	Epidemia.
0:44.4	This is not official march.
0:45.7	These are shirts that I made myself.
0:48.3	And every now and then she'll slip in something about maybe a Renaissance fair.
0:54.0	You know, just the kind of things that people want to watch TikTok videos about.
1:00.5	Our colleague Bob McMillan covers cybersecurity.
1:04.0	And there's one video of Chapman's in particular that he says is a bit unusual.
1:08.9	On its face, it's pretty innocuous.
1:11.5	Chapman's showing her followers some breakfast that she picked up.
1:14.2	I just got a smoothie bowl.
	...

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