Stripe Did What?! | Scammer Are Getting BOLD! | Facebook Marketplace Scams! | Biz To Biz Podcast

Justin and Allen discuss Stripe's $1.1 billion purchase of Bridge, a stablecoin company that may compete with SWIFT, then pivot to a hacked robot vacuum in Michigan, Facebook Marketplace scams involving fake deposits and ATM schemes, and why passwords and SMS authentication leave you vulnerable.
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You are now watching the Biz to Biz podcast with Allen and Justin. Yo, what's up everybody? It's Justin live from B2B Vault, the Biz to Biz podcast sponsored by Nationwide Payment Systems, hosted by this guy, the Chris Mullin of payment processing himself, Allen Kopelman. What's up, bro?
Busy week. October, Halloween coming up.
Yeah. I love it.
Holiday season?
Not excited for— I don't know, I, I don't know if you're looking for some sort of excitement for me for about Halloween, but, uh, not my favorite time of year, sir.
No, I don't like— I'm not a big Halloween, like, get up in a costume person.
I used to be until I— it was involved in a home invasion and a guy ran into our house with a scream mask on.
No, that's no good.
Yeah, so I kind of said I'm not a fan of Halloween. Yeah.
All right.
And the movie Scream, but I'm over it. Shout out to therapy.
So the, so the kind of crazy story came out this week. You know, Stripe has been kind of like anti-cryptocurrency for a while. They were, they were big on it.
I don't know.
Well, they were big on it.
Don't follow Stripe's thoughts on crypto.
So they paid $1.1 billion for this company that's a stablecoin company to move stablecoins.
They bought stablecoin.
No, they bought this company that moves the stablecoin.
I thought they bought stablecoin.
Yeah, they bought stablecoin, but they bought some company that moves it around.
That doesn't make any sense, Al.
Well, they transfer it between—
No, I'm trying to say, like, this is what they just did is they bought stablecoin, right?
They also bought a company.
That's, uh, what's the other company? Uh, whatever, bro.
I bought this company and everybody's, everybody's, you know, stablecoin.
You could use stablecoin as transfer.
I don't understand. They bought a company that has the system to move it back and forth.
Stablecoin moves monies back and forth.
Yeah, but it's— you need like a platform to do it.
That's stablecoin.
Okay, they didn't buy the company Stablecoin. They bought something.
All right, let me go, go. I have to, because—
so that's— so this—
what is it, Stripe or Square?
Stripe. So, right, so the thing everybody's blogging about is, is did Stripe do this to compete with the SWIFT system, where that's how people move money?
Like, Stripe acquires stablecoin platform Bridge, right? Bridge. Let's, let's confirm this because what you're saying, I didn't understand. So Bridge is a $1.1 billion transaction, making the largest transaction in crypto industry to date. Uh, confirmed the news through a post, blah blah blah. The acquisition of Bridge reflects Stripe's growing commitment to cryptocurrency. Bridge offers software that enables businesses to accept payments in stablecoin, right? And not— no, it doesn't.
It doesn't say anything like that. Well, they're— it's the same thing if you're accepting it. So it's letting me—
so you can make payments and stable— and now you can make payments in crypto with whatever. There you go.
Yeah. So basically they're just talking about like, is that a move to take over like international payments from SWIFT? Because now like when you're doing international transactions with credit cards, it's a little difficult. And then a large transaction usually you know, you have to send an international wire and you have to do it through SWIFT. It has to move sometimes through 2 or 3 different countries before it ends up where it's going. So using stablecoins could be a lot faster. And that's what people speculating what Stripe's going to do with that.
I got nothing. I got no stake in the game.
Okay. Any stablecoin And then, uh, so the crazy story I found on the internet was this, this lawyer in Michigan, he had an Ecovacs Deebot X2 robot vacuum cleaner, and apparently it got hacked into and the vacuum cleaner started running around the house by itself. And then also you know, they talk, those vacuum cleaners. Like, I have one, it'll say, oh, now charging, or it'll say off the floor, because when it gets stuck or if you pick it up, it says stuff. And somebody got in it and they started like yelling curse words.
Nice.
And apparently, uh, they were also at— I guess those things have cameras on them so they can kind of get around, and, uh, they were the person was able to hack the camera. Apparently the guy took it and threw it in the garbage, but, um, well, he put it in the garage, and then ABC News went out to the guy's house, and then they tried to, um, hack the, the robot vacuum cleaner, and they were able to actually access the camera and see the guy in his house. I mean, yeah. I mean, that's just crazy. I mean, someone can imagine that.
Not crazy to me, bro.
I'm just saying that's like over the top, like too much technology and not enough security on any of this stuff. And the companies from China and they said the hacker used a credential stuffing attack and that's how they were able to, to, to get into it. But the ABC News said they were able to hack the thing from outside the person's house. They were able to actually hack onto the vacuum, control it, and see the camera from on the thing, and they could see the people in the house doing stuff. That's kind of nuts. I mean, I know people that are like flipped out because like some of these TVs have cameras on them I don't even know where they are, but a lot of the smart TVs, they have cameras. And I mean, some people have those blockers on like their laptop or on their— it's desktop.
The technology is there. You don't even need cameras to see who's in your house or to listen. So it doesn't matter. It goes off Wi-Fi signal. It creates a whole 3D visual of the room. Been doing this. That's not new technology.
No, I know, but I'm saying it's scary that people are doing this stuff to people. Attack of the vacuum cleaner.
I don't, you know, I don't have a vacuum cleaner that I, you know, that's too rich for my blood.
So I mean, some of them are $600, $700, $1,000. I mean, I mean, you can get them cheaper, but I'm just saying that's two car notes and You know, I guess for me, buddy. And, uh, and then this other thing I've been following, which is kind of— this is like really like freaking me out. So apparently like there's a, there's an excessive amount of people getting like their Instagram accounts and their Facebook accounts shut down because people are hacking their Rocky, what are you doing? They're hacking their, their Facebook, or they're hacking their Instagram. And maybe— and you know your Instagram is linked to your Facebook, right?
Uh, yeah, I guess.
Okay, so, well, you know more about that than me. It's— they're linked together, right?
They don't have to be.
Okay, so I guess some people have it linked together, and like A couple of friends of mine, somebody was able to hack onto their Instagram and post some, I guess, controversial or naked videos or something you're not supposed to post. And then Facebook went in and shut off their Instagram and closed their whole Facebook account. Even though the person got hacked, they don't know how they got hacked. Or anything like that.
Sorry, it happens every day, bro.
Yeah, I know. I'm just saying it's been, it's been happening a lot lately. Like, it was actually somebody did a news story about it. And then the other news story I saw was, and this one like really freaked me out because this is like over the top. Like, people doing this kind of stuff need to spend their time doing something more productive. So what people have been doing is posting like appliances for sale. There has been ones like with real estate, like renting an apartment for some really cheap price that, you know, doesn't make sense. Like someone has a house, like you saw a couple of houses and you were like, no way somebody's really renting that house for $1,000 a month or whatever it was.
Yeah.
And then the people give the actual real address of like Oh, the washer and dryer or the stove is like at this house and they know the person's name because obviously they can find it either through, you know, public records, you know, search on a property appraiser or they can— they search, just Google the address. And sometimes your name comes up associated to that address and they take a deposit, let's say, for a washer and dryer.
I'm sorry, but that's just dumb.
And then the person shows up at the person's house.
I'm sorry, but that's just dumb. Whoever's doing that, who in the hell is buying anything on the marketplace and giving you a deposit, bro? This is just, come on with the stupidness.
You're an idiot.
I will take your money gladly.
So they're interviewing this homeowner, right? And he's like, 20 people showed up at his house knocking on the door saying they purchased a washer and dryer and they were there to pick it up. And give him the rest of the money. One guy got so upset, right? He came back with a baseball bat and just started like smashing the windows on the guy's car. The cops had to be called and all that. And there's, you know, now these like unsuspecting— it could happen to anybody.
I'm sorry, man. I don't feel— that's stupid.
Yeah, but don't you feel bad for the homeowner?
I don't.
What about the guy? I don't care.
It doesn't matter to me, man. That guy, obviously he did something. To where his phone and his address is out there, right?
Everybody's is out there. Yeah, sure. I'm sure if I Google your name—
Oh yeah, no, well, that's 'cause I have a business.
I know, but I'm just saying, like—
I mean, I guess you could say I feel bad for the business owner, but was he a total dick to the guy?
No, he just said I—
You don't know.
They interviewed him on TV.
So what? That doesn't mean that he told the truth about how he was those people were cut. I mean, sure, he might have been annoyed that 20 people came to his house, but at the same time, he's got to be empathetic to those people. Those people just got robbed. He's just dealing with an inconvenience of having to answer his door. Don't be a dickhead.
Well, yeah, I mean, I mean, somebody comes back with a baseball bat.
But what I'm trying to tell you, ask you, Allen, is we don't know that interaction between the two. That guy could have been so frustrated by people knocking on his door that he was really mean and rude to these people, which would in turn, if I'm trying to figure out what just half of the money that I hard work hard for and tried to buy something so that I could wash clothes, come to find out that I just got robbed, I'm going to be a bit irritated too, and I might want to break somebody's kneecaps as well.
So, you know, he called the cops and the cops came.
Exactly. But you're immediately jumping on this guy's side, like maybe Maybe this guy was in on it.
Didn't seem to be in the interview they interviewed.
That's a good con.
That would be— that's a crazy con. You have to be nuts. And they said it's going on a lot and Facebook's not doing anything about it.
Yo, listen, man, stop being stupid. Like, yo, like, I don't know, like, is it because I'm 44 and shit that I don't fall for dumb shit like that? Like, I don't understand. Like, yo, like If I'm selling something, or if I'm trying to buy something, I'm gonna go and put my hands on it before I send you a dollar.
I don't care.
Like, no, there's no deposit. Like, what? Either you're going to sell it to me or you're not gonna sell it to me. That's it. And if you don't want to sell it to me, that's fine. I don't, you know, I don't get it, man. People are the, you know, the internet has made people dumb. I'm literally— it is the internet. Social media has made people dumb. Like, I don't get it. I just don't understand. I'm terrified for the future of the world.
No, I'm like, I'm just amazed that this many people— one, they were interviewing one homeowner and he said more than 30 people showed up at his house on a Saturday asking him to cut— said they put a deposit on the washer and dryer to come get it.
I'm sorry that happened.
No, it's bad.
I feel bad for the people that got robbed. I don't care about the guy that's had 30 people knock on his door.
No, I feel bad for the people that got robbed.
I don't feel bad for the guy that got the scammer inconvenience of having to answer his door. I don't feel bad for him at all.
Okay, well, I think Facebook needs to like figure out how to, how to vet these. They can't just let them— the marketplace just—
I can go right here right now and said, I'll, I'll put every item in this studio for sale. Yeah. And I guarantee you I'll have hits before I— before the end of this podcast.
That'll be crazy.
I'm just saying, like, we don't want anybody showing up. Facebook doesn't give a shit. The internet doesn't care. Okay, they, they're literally here to make money.
I know, but I'm just saying it's bad.
Is it then don't use the internet?
Well, I don't— I would never, I would never like go put a deposit on something or put a deposit on an apartment or something and just with some random person and then show up and then they're like, huh, no, nobody— this place isn't for rent, or this car is not for sale. And listen, I had it happen to me one day. I was sitting in the office and I get a phone call from one of the nightclubs where we have ATMs, and they're like, oh, there's two people here and they said they bought the ATMs. I'm like, they can't buy the ATM. So I ended up having to drive over to the place. It was about 15 minutes from the office. I show up and there's this man and woman there, and they're like, oh, we spoke to whatever, this person, I forget the guy's name. This and spoke to this guy and he showed us these reports and they showed me all these reports and they're like, yeah, we're here to take over the ATM machine. And I was like, I don't know who that is. I said, these are my ATMs. They belong to me and the owner of the bar. And you got ripped off. And they gave the person like $5,000. I'm sorry, man, that's hilarious to me, dude. So I'm at the bar, right? And now there's people, this husband and wife, they're getting like upset with me, right? So I'm like, there's no way, like, they're not yours. They're like showing me like paperwork and emails and, and, and, and messages. And they're like, oh, we're calling the cops. I'm like, go ahead, call the cops. So the cops show up, right? Cops show up, they go, they talk to them, and the cops come over and they talk to me. And I go, those are my ATMs. I said, they don't have the combination to open the safe. I said, they don't have the— they don't have the code to program the top. It's— it's— they're showing me reports that's not even the company we use. Right. And I said, you know, you want to talk to the business owner, we'll call the business owner up right now and he'll tell you that they're my ATMs. And even the manager will tell you. And then the people— the lady was in the parking lot crying, all this stuff. And I was like, I'm sorry, you know, that somebody ripped you off, but that's— these are not— these ATMs don't belong to that person. And you know, that's what I'm saying. And that shit's going on on Facebook, and they showed me the ad and everything that it was on, and I reported it to Facebook, wrote to Facebook, everything. The guy has a Facebook group and it's still up where the guy says learn about the ATM business. Yeah, whoever the scammers are, I haven't— they've called the—
well, it might still be up. Facebook might have took over the Facebook group and banned him. That's, that's—
they have— that's possible.
They have the authority to do that.
But I'm just saying, it's crazy the amount of scams. Listen, I saw another scam on Facebook where a guy was saying, saying, oh, you can get into the merchant service business and you're gonna make— and you're gonna make all this money. And he offers a training course for $15,000. Well, why are you hating on him? No, I'm just saying But he's not telling the— it's not telling the whole truth. He's saying, oh, you can get a— he's gonna, uh, you're gonna put these machines in and you're gonna make a dollar a transaction on every transaction.
Maybe he knows something you don't. Uh-huh.
Maybe there's some— I think he's selling, uh, those cashless ATM machines or something. I don't know what the guy's doing. Like, I didn't sign up with it, but I'm just saying, it's, you know, people get, you know, I've seen people write about—
people get shot every day, Allen.
Yeah, but I'm just saying, they'll be all right.
Put a blanket on, get yourself a cup of noodle soup, be fine.
But those, those scams, that's kind of crazy. I felt bad for the man and the woman. I felt horrible for them, but there was nothing I could do.
I do not feel bad for that type of shit.
No, I'm saying I felt bad, but I had to deal with the cops. Took like 3 hours. It was a pain in the butt.
So when you're naive.
Yeah.
And you don't know, I'm just sorry. You shouldn't put yourself in those positions.
Yeah. People have to do their homework and make sure it's a legitimate opportunity.
The world is a cold place, man.
So.
You know what I mean? Ain't gonna wait on you. So you get swallowed up pretty quick.
Yeah, it was pretty crazy.
Anyway, man. Wah wah wah.
Don't buy stuff on the Facebook Marketplace.
I mean, buy the shit. Just make sure you're actually buying something.
Like, go to the place and pay. Don't give a deposit to some random person because once you send money by Cash App Vamos, Al, your money's gone.
Yeah. And even if his goal is to get $10 off every deposit, I mean, you know, he does that 1,000 times, you do the math.
Exactly. Yeah, it's a little crazy. So October is also Cybersecurity Awareness Month.
It is. Okay, so they were talking about October is also Playoffs for baseball, so I don't care about anything else. Go Yankees.
Yankees versus the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The poopers. The Los Angeles poop sticks. Okay.
They have the highest paid guy in the game, Shohei Ohtani, whatever his name is.
He's an alien.
Is he the highest paid guy?
I think he is right now.
Is he pitching or no pitching?
Both.
Oh, he's doing both?
Oh no, not no more. He's just hitting.
He's just hitting now.
Well, it's the World Series. You never know what kind of tricks they'll pull out of their ass.
Yeah, didn't he hurt his arm though?
I was about to say something so inappropriate.
Okay, good thing I stopped you.
Holy smokes, buddy. You can tell I don't like the Dodgers.
Okay, what's the guy? What's the big giant? Well, the Yankees have the guy, Mike's, whatever the guy's name is, Stanton, who changed his name like a million times. He was Mike. Yeah, well, he used to be Mike Stanton too. Now he's Juan Carlos Stanton. Who's the other? Who's the right fielder? What's that guy? The big guy?
Judge.
Yeah, Judge. They have Judge.
Soto, Judge.
Yes, Soto, Judge. They got a big line. They got a good lineup.
Killer this year.
I wish it was the Brewers versus the Yankees, but whatever. Next year.
We're coming for you next, next year, partner.
So they were talking about stuff for the Cybersecurity Awareness Month. I was reading a few emails about it today. They were talking about phishing attacks, which are completely out of control. I mean, I get like probably 5 to 10 phishing attacks every day from fake DocuSigns, um, we owe you money with an attachment, all kinds of stuff. Don't open attachments if you don't know who it's from. Don't open it if you're not sure. Call the person, email them. I had some guy, I was getting all these drop boxes from this guy and I called him on the phone and it was— he was a potential customer like a few years ago. The guy started yelling at me and I was like, okay, dude, they're using— that's your email address. Like, obviously you're not sending me this. Somebody's hacked your email and they're sending all kinds of stuff to my email. And I sent it to him and he got like really pissed. Not my password. Exactly. And that's the other thing that we're talking about is like passwords, password programs. And I feel like passwords have become so useless because every website— I don't know what the right solution is. Multi-factor, a few places started using this thing called Magic Link. So you go to the website, you put in your email, and then they send you an email, and then you have to click that link.
There's a lot of— it's been like that.
Yeah. And that— do you like that, or do you like the multi-factor?
I don't like the fact that I got to click my email. I mean, again, this goes to like, what if my mobile network is shitty and I'm trying to log in? I hate that, that, that I like the text, the two-factor text.
Yeah. Oh, I think they just got quick with the iPhone.
Oh, I mean both smartphones in general, because once you just stay on the screen and then you click input from text messages and it puts the code right in there, you don't have to copy and paste no more. Back in the day it was a little bit more difficult, but now it's done.
Gmail.
I, okay, I guess because what you're talking about, YouTube has something similar. You have to— they said the two-step, they send an email and then you got to click the number that you see on the screen, right? That works, but it's still, again, it's like, well, what if I'm trying to do this on the fly or I'm on the road? And, you know, so I still think the text messages is the, is the most effective way of doing it.
I think the government needs to come up with some kind of—
I don't think the government needs to do it.
Well, okay, somebody needs to come up with a more—
I shouldn't have killed McAfee.
You shouldn't have killed him?
No, they shouldn't have did him so dirty. That guy would have been— none of this hacking shit would be going on.
Why do you think he had them?
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