Episodes

In US bankruptcy law, an automatic "stay" prevents creditors from collecting debts from a debtor who has declared bankruptcy. The idea is to give the debtor breathing space from creditors and to allow the debtor time to reorganise and reschedule its debts. But the stay doesn't apply to all creditors. In 1978, reforms to the US bankruptcy code exempted certain types of financial contract (commodity contracts and margin payments) from the automatic stay, with the objective of ensuring the smooth ...

The finance industry wants to use artificial intelligence agents to get customers to spend more, faster, bigger... But AI agents don't mix easily with the security standards that ensure client safety in payments. For more, listen to the latest episode of Unseen Money from New Money Review, featuring Paul Amery and Timur Yunusov.

In the latest New Money Review podcast, I interview Mordecai Kurz, Joan Kenney professor of economics emeritus at Stanford University. Kurz, the author of "Private Power and Democracy's Decline", to be published in May 2026, says that it's time to suppress technology firms' market power---or we will lose democracy. In the podcast, we cover: why free market capitalism and democracy are no longer compatible the similarities and differences between the first and second US "gilded ages" why tec...

In the latest episode of Unseen Money, Timur Yunusov helps Paul Amery unravel a strange real-life story involving a spoofed eBay delivery, Paul’s phone number and a photo of an Indian lady in a pink dressing gown. The story is part of a rapidly growing form of crime involving so-called “synthetic” identities. In a synthetic identity fraud, criminals create fake online identities by blending real, stolen data with fabricated information. They then use those identities to conduct money laundering...

Tech firms and governments are pushing passkeys as a replacement for online passwords. They argue that using passkeys will help cut down on fraud, prevent account takeovers and protect against password theft. But Paul Amery and Timur Yunusov are sceptical that passkeys will take off. Listen to the latest episode of Unseen Money from New Money Review to find out why. Here’s what we discuss in the podcast: (0’ 45”) why we need to get rid of passwords (2’ 35”) safer and less safe ways of using...

Last week, Google’s threat intelligence group warned that artificial intelligence (AI) is making malware attacks more dangerous. [Malware is malicious software—programmes designed to disrupt, damage or gain unauthorised access to computer systems—usually delivered via phishing emails, compromised websites or infected downloads] “Adversaries are no longer leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) just for productivity gains, they are deploying novel AI-enabled malware in active operations,” Googl...

Some people have labelled the recent alliance between Silicon Valley and right-wing populist leaders “techno-fascism”. Is that too strong a term? No, says Jacob Silverman in the latest New Money Review podcast. “What do you call it when the highest levels of the corporate world merge with the executive of the government?” Silverman asks in the podcast. “I think that’s corporatism or fascism.” Silverman is the author of a new book, “Gilded Rage”, in which he chronicles the radicalisation of Si...

Long gone are the days when the Escobar family had to spend $2,500 a month on rubber bands to hold the cash they earned trading cocaine. Now, the invention of cryptocurrency has made money launderers’ life a whole lot easier—or has it? Investigative journalist Geoff White joins Paul Amery and Timur Yunusov in the latest episode of Unseen Money to discuss: Why a New York crypto money laundering case is attracting such close attention How technology has changed the business of crime Cryptocur...

The decentralised finance (DeFi) market is booming—but the world’s best hackers are on a constant look-out for ways to steal your crypto tokens. North Korea, which recently committed the largest theft in cryptocurrency history, is probably top of the hackers’ game. What do crypto users need to know about the risks in this unregulated but fast-growing market? In the latest episode of Unseen Money from New Money Review, Timur Yunusov and Paul Amery are joined by Arseny Reutov, chief technology ...

Most scams where the victim is tricked into paying money to fraudsters originate on social media—often on Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. But in the UK around one scam in five—and nearly half by the total value stolen—exploits weaknesses in our telecommunications infrastructure. That could be someone spoofing the number of a legitimate entity, such as the tax office or your bank, when calling you. It could be a scammer exploiting security vulnerabilities in the mobile network to compromise a...

The UK’s company formation process is fast, easy and cheap. The net result of being open to almost any business is that up to half the companies on the UK’s Companies House register may have no legitimate purpose. Instead, those companies are used by fraudsters as a vital tool in scams and money laundering schemes. Many are set up using fake identities and addresses. Often, they break the reporting rules and never file accounts. And Companies House has become a honeypot for organised crime grou...

In the latest episode of Unseen Money, Timur Yunusov and Paul Amery talk about the role of QR codes in scams and whether these popular barcodes may lull users into a false sense of security. Also in this episode: team Trump's Yemen fiasco, Signal and Telegram how scammers can mass-blast SMS phishing messages browser-within-browser attacks and their possible use in scams why the trend of limiting bank compensation to scam victims was inevitable

There’s a big security loophole affecting plastic payment cards—called a replay (or pre-play) attack. Banks have known about this loophole for years. But they may still blame you, the victim, if a scammer makes use of it. In a 2022 fraud, a former British soldier holidaying in Brazil found that £20,000 had been charged to his bank card in eighteen separate transactions. The ex-soldier, Henry Williams, said he’d only used his card once and that most of the money had been taken from his account w...

We all now use one-time passcodes (OTPs) to verify our identity online. In the last few weeks, I’ve personally received OTPs from Amazon, Apple, Google, the UK Driving Licence Authority, my pension provider, payments app Yotta, National Savings and parking app Ringgo. Some OTPs were sent to me in text (SMS) messages, others arrived via email. Identity authentication online using OTPs is much safer than using a single piece of information like a password. But OTPs are not safe, for a number of ...

The UK prides itself in being open for innovative tech firms—and companies in general—to set up business. It takes only £12—and 15-20 minutes—to create a new company online. But the laxity of the country’s system for new company formations has made the UK a goldmine for scammers. And the problem is getting worse: fraud, much of it digital, now accounts for over 40 per cent of all recorded crime in England and Wales In the latest episode of Unseen Money, Timur Yunusov and I discuss a recent Fin...

Having your identity stolen is a catastrophe. You can lose your reputation, your credit rating, your money, your home or even be accused of fraud yourself. To victims, ID theft feels like a single, earth-shattering event. But it’s likely that the hacker has been stealing different aspects of your identity over time. Your name, address, email address, phone number, bank account number, passport number, medical records and log-in credentials are all valuable bits of information to hackers. Combi...

In the latest episode of Unseen Money, Timur Yunusov and I discuss how to stop a bad dream turning into a real nightmare: when a phone snatcher has your mobile device and is trying to get hold of your money as well. We cover: How a phone thief can access your bank accounts The security of contract and non-contract mobile phones Best mobile phone security practices and what to keep safe at all costs Multi-factor authentication and avoiding single points of failure Stopping a phone theft fro...

In the latest episode of Unseen Money, we talk about the recent $4.5 million fraud committed against Ol’ga Serova, a 71-year-old former bureaucrat from Samara, Russia. We discuss: KGB legacy: how Russian scammers play on people’s long-standing fear of the authorities Greed, fear and social engineering by country: how the weak points of fraud victims vary in Russia, the US and Europe Big brother in Singapore: new state powers to freeze the bank accounts of potential fraud victims AML, KYC and...

Last week UK prime minister Keir Starmer said artificial intelligence could help fix potholes, teach our kids and slash the cost of public services. What he failed to mention is that AI is also a dream come true for scammers. Listen to the latest episode of Unseen Money as Paul Amery and Timur Yunusov discuss how AI-enabled fraud is rocketing and why.

This is Unseen Money from New Money Review. I’m Paul Amery and I’m joined by my co-host, security researcher Timur Yunusov. Unseen money is our journey into the darker corners of digital payments. For many of us, transferring money is now faster and easier than ever before. It takes a couple of swipes on a smartphone. But with digital payments have come many new opportunities for criminals. Perhaps you’ve suffered from a phishing attack, an ID theft or a cryptocurrency scam. Maybe an onlin...

The latest New Money Review podcast focuses on Trump, tariffs, deglobalisation and the currency markets. My guest, Mark Astley, is a former colleague, a currency and fixed income specialist who recently retired as chief executive of asset manager Millennium Global Investments. “We are living in an epochal time in the history of exchange rates and trade policy,” Astley says in the podcast. During the recording, Astley suggests the 53-year experiment with a dollar-based floating exchange rate s...

In the last decade, the way we make our payments has become more seamless, faster and cheaper. We’ve switched from signatures on paper cheques to a few swipes and a tap on a mobile phone. But with these advances have come massive new opportunities for cybercriminals. From cons using deception and social engineering to romance fraud, unauthorised transfers, hacks and identity theft, the cat and mouse game between scammers and those policing the payments system has now reached a new level of in...

When, why and how do countries go bust? That’s the topic of the latest New Money Review podcast, where I’m joined by Greg Makoff, a former physicist, banker, government advisor and now senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School. Makoff is the author of a recent book on what has been called “the most contentious default in history”—Argentina’s 2001-2016 debt restructuring. In the podcast, we discuss: When, why and how countries go bust What distinguishes a sovereign insolvency from a corpora...

Supporters of the $10trn private equity industry say it fuels economic growth and delivers leaner, better-performing companies. One leading critic of the sector is Ludovic Phalippou, who says that the industry routinely overstates its financial performance. And, he says, private equity funds charge a whopping 6-7% a year in fees, wiping out any potential benefits to investors. In the latest New Money Review podcast, I interview Phalippou, who is professor of financial economics at Oxford Unive...