In this brief broadcast interview, host John Keller talks with identity‑theft and fraud expert Robert Siciliano about the rise of a "culture of fraud" exemplified by Bernie Madoff and other high‑profile scams. The conversation highlights that wealth, education, and status do not protect people from being duped; greed, naivety, entitlement, and ego create fertile ground for con artists. Siciliano stresses that humility, skepticism, and the classic warning "if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is" are the primary defenses. The dialogue also references other fraud cases (John Edwards, local scams) to illustrate that fraudsters are pervasive and that everyone must stay vigilant.
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Bernie Madoff, he's just the latest symptom of what's becoming a culture of fraud. How you can avoid getting burned by it. Scam artist Bernie Madoff may be the most prodigious fraud in recent memory, but he's hardly the only one.
Yeah, the victims just keep coming, and wealth and education are no guarantee of immunity from being victimized. John Keller is at large tonight with a local expert on fraud. And John, can he help people like ourselves keep from being scammed?
You know, I think he can, and he will, if people Well, listen, Jack and Lisa, to his wake-up call, because in the end, it seems that the best defenses against the Bernie Madoffs of the world are information and a healthy dose of skepticism. There he goes. The decade's biggest fraud, but a man with plenty of company. On the local scene, there's Woody Allen Jr. here, or whatever his name is. And who will ever forget the happy family story peddled by adulterer John Edwards, the political world's version of Bernie Madoff?
A sucker born every minute.
What is with this booming culture of fraudulence? Security expert Robert Siciliano of Revere has spent years dealing with it, and he sees an attitude of entitlement both inspiring the hunters and haunting the hunted.
I think greed plays into it. I think a certain amount of, you know, being naive plays into it. But overall, uh, we are a society that does not take responsibility for our own plot, that it's others' issues, that it's others that We're supposed to be watching the henhouse.
What can we do to protect ourselves against the Madoffs in our midst? For starters, listen to your mother.
Like mom said, if it's too good to be true, it absolutely is. But we lose sight of that.
We must be in heaven, man! And Siciliano says it's time for the naive and the smug among us to wise up to the fact that predators and liars are as much a part of humanity as ever. And just because we may fancy ourselves more enlightened and evolved doesn't make it so.
Humility certainly is in order. This should be a huge wake-up call for the human species.
Siciliano says ego opens the door to fraud when we refuse to believe someone might be capable of conning us. Well, after what we've been through in politics and finance over the past decade or so, it's hard to believe there's anyone left who's still naive about that. But the fact is, there are people, and it's not just vulnerable granny.
No. And we saw with those victims of Bernie Madoff, you know, a lot of very, very smart people were taken Hey, Steven Spielberg.
