How a fake police officer nearly stole Graham's cryptocurrency

**Graham Cluley** (0:02)
You can access their crypto currency if you know those 24 words. They said, is it possible that the hackers have managed to get that for you? And I said, I think that's really unlikely because I haven't been dumb enough to paste it in anywhere. If I have it securely... No, it's not tattooed on my buttocks or anything like that.

**Danny Palmer** (0:19)
Yeah, it's just on the bottom of your website.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:31)
Smashing Security, Episode 479, How a Fake Police Officer Nearly Stole Graham's Cryptocurrency, with Graham Cluley and special guest Danny Palmer.

**Graham Cluley** (0:42)
Hello, hello and welcome to Smashing Security Episode 479, my name's Graham Cluley.

**Danny Palmer** (0:47)
And I'm Danny Palmer.

**Graham Cluley** (0:48)
Now, Danny, I've had a little bit of a running with, well, maybe with cybercriminals. I'm not sure. Let me tell you something which happened to me just a few days ago.

**Danny Palmer** (0:58)
Pray tell.

**Graham Cluley** (0:59)
I got a phone call from somebody out of the blue and I thought, I know that phone number. It said 800 555 111, which is the number of Crime Stoppers, of course. Not that I'm regularly calling up.

**Danny Palmer** (1:13)
Not that you're regularly involved with crime or crime stopping. Pans on anyway.

**Graham Cluley** (1:17)
Not that I'm regularly the victim of crime. Anyway, this call came through and it said Crime Stoppers. I thought, oh, okay. So anyway, I took the call and this chap started speaking to me who sounded very much like he could work for the law. He could be a policeman and he introduced himself and said he was some sort of detective or something.

**Danny Palmer** (1:34)
Did he sound like Gene Hunt or someone like that?

**Graham Cluley** (1:38)
No, not as obvious as that. No sort of ashes to ashes or life on Mars connection. But no, he said his name was Dave Pullen.

**SPEAKER_4** (1:48)
Hello, this is Detective David Pullen here at the Crime Stoppers Organization.

**Graham Cluley** (1:52)
And he said he was working on a computer crime case and he said, don't be alarmed. He says, you haven't done anything wrong. He said, and he put me at my ease that I wasn't in any trouble myself. But he said, maybe you can help me with an investigation. And I thought, well, maybe I can, you know, because I have helped the police before with some computer crime cases, investigating various hacking groups. I thought it was a little bit unorthodox, but okay, all right. So he wants to talk to me. And he said that they had arrested someone on suspicion of some cyber crimes. And during the investigation of the digital evidence, they had found some information about me.
They had got my phone number and they'd got my personal email address. And he told me what that was. And that was correct. And he said, and we've also found a scan of your passport and other information as well. And I said, oh, that sounds bad. I said, tell me more.

**Danny Palmer** (2:44)
Yeah. He said, oh, this sounds not great.

**Graham Cluley** (2:47)
No, it doesn't sound great, does it? And he told me the name of the chap who they had arrested. And I'm not going to name him here on the podcast because it's quite possible this person is completely insane. He gave me the name of somebody. They said, do you know this person? I said, no, I don't know him. He said, do you have any reason to think that he might have a vendetta against you? And I said, well, it is possible, I said without being big headed. It is possible.
He knows me, but I don't know him.

**Danny Palmer** (3:11)
Don't you know who I am?

**Graham Cluley** (3:13)
I said, I didn't quite say, do you know who I am? But I've got a podcast, you know. But I said, I've been working in cybersecurity for 35 years or whatever, and I have a certain prominence. So it is possible. And I have received threats in the past from criminals. And so it is possible there's been some kind of breach. And they said, well, have you shared your passport information with anyone? And I said, well, you know how it is sometimes, I go and give talks around the world, and sometimes people are booking me flights, and sometimes people do ask for your passport. So much as I groan about it and grumble, like how bloody hell can this be allowed? And it shouldn't be. And I tried to ensure that they delete it afterwards. It is possible that a scan of my passport is out there being held by somebody. So I said, yeah, well, it is possible they've got my passport. And they said, OK, all right. And they said, well, he said you sent it to him because you were booking an Airbnb in Manchester.