December 22, 2023

The Downpayment Scam

You are about to buy a home. Suddenly an email arrives from your agent or broker, telling you to wire your down payment to a bank. Watch out! It may be a clever scam, one that is happening nationwide. Then, the foster care system is meant to protect kids. But when foster care makes a mistake, taking kids from parents when there is no problem, what happens next?

Episode Segments:

Home Buyers Beware Scammers have devised a new scheme to steal thousands of dollars from home buyers who are about to close on a house. Ryan Kalember, Senior Vice President of Cybersecurity Strategy for online security company Proofpoint said buyers are often tricked into wiring their down payment on the day of closing to a fraudulent offshore account, by criminals who have hacked their real estate agent's or title company's email account. He explained how consumers can protect themselves.
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How the Child Protection System Puts Families at Risk The number of children in the U.S. foster care system is at record levels, thanks in part to the opioid crisis. With nearly 450,000 children in the system, Diane Redleaf, family defense attorney, author of They Took the Kids Last Night: How the Child Protection System Puts Families at Risk discussed what happens when caseworkers make mistakes, taking children from parents who are neither abusive nor neglectful. She noted that minority families are disproportionately affected by this trend. She also said that once children are taken, parents and their attorneys sometimes can't learn where the children are being housed.
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Raking Versus Composting David Mizejewski, Naturalist at the National Wildlife Federation talked about the benefits of allowing leaves to decompose naturally, rather than raking them up and disposing of them. In addition to serving as a natural fertilizer, he said butterflies and songbirds depend on leaf litter for food sources. He also discussed the environmental impact of bagging up lawn debris for disposal.
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Guest(s) Appearing on this Episode

Ryan Kalember With over 15-years of experience in the information security industry, Ryan currently leads cybersecurity strategy for Proofpoint and is a sought-out expert for media commentary on breaches and best practices for enterprises as well as consumers. He joined Proofpoint from WatchDox where he served as chief marketing officer and was responsible for successfully building and leading the marketing team through the company’s acquisition by Blackberry. Prior to WatchDox, Ryan was instrumental in running solutions across Hewlett-Packard’s portfolio of security products. He has also held a variety of marketing leadership positions at ArcSight and VeriSign including EMEA regional manager. Ryan received his bachelor's degree from Stanford University, where he studied fault tolerance, cryptography, and authentication algorithms. Proofpoint.com

Diane Redleaf As the Founder, Executive Director/Legal Director of the Family Defense Center (2005-2016) and its Legal Director (2016-2017), Diane Redleaf initiated and co-led over a dozen civil rights cases and changed the law in Illinois through precedential cases. The agency she sued dozens of times (DCFS) credited her with making the system "better and fairer." Her work exonerated tens of thousands of families and advancing the rights of families to remain together. She continued her pioneering work in 2017-2018 at the National Center on Housing and Child Welfare, recently stepping down from that position in order to work on the launch of her book, build her consulting practice, Family Defense Consulting, and support the new Family Justice Resource Center (as a volunteer in the position of the President of its Board of Directors. Through all her professional and community service activities, Diane builds on her decades of work as a pioneering leader in protecting the rights of families to raise their children. Family Defense Consulting