No Spin News - Weekend Edition - April 26, 2025

Summary

Bill O’Reilly’s No Spin News and Analysis: Weekend Edition – April 26, 2025

Host: Bill O’Reilly

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1. Border Control and Drug Seizures

Key Discussion: Bill O’Reilly opens the episode with a significant focus on U.S. border control, highlighting a substantial decrease in border crossings under the Trump administration compared to the previous Biden administration. Despite the reduction in illegal crossings, illicit drug seizures have paradoxically increased.

Notable Points:

• Border Crossings Decline: The number of illegal crossings dropped to 673 per day in March 2025, a 94% decrease from 5,673 daily under Biden. This achievement is attributed to stricter law enforcement and Mexico deploying troops to the northern border.

  "Border lowest in history now. Amazing achievement by the Trump administration... 5,673. 94% lower because Trump's just enforcing the law." [00:31]

• Rise in Drug Seizures: Contrary to expectations, drug seizures have risen. Brian Townsend, a former DEA special agent from Springfield, Missouri, explains that cartels are highly adaptive, using sophisticated methods like tunnels, drones, and leveraging legal entry points to smuggle drugs.

  "These cartels... they're highly adaptive. They're going to respond to our movement on the border... to overwhelm our resources." [03:21]

• Substance Abuse Crisis: The U.S. faces a severe substance abuse problem, with 49 million Americans involved and 27 million drug addicts. Annual expenditures to combat this issue amount to $46 billion, with 86,000 overdose deaths and 178,000 deaths from excessive drinking each year.

  "86,000 died from overdoses in the latest stats. 178,000 died from excessive drinking... that's a year that's horrendous." [01:35]

Insights and Conclusions: O’Reilly argues that stopping drug importation is unfeasible due to rampant corruption and the immense demand for drugs in the U.S. He contrasts this with Singapore’s approach, which focuses on reducing demand through mandatory rehabilitation, although he acknowledges its impracticality in the American context.

"You're not going to win the importation war. It's just too much corruption, too much money... almost 30 million Americans wanting to buy it on a daily basis." [05:11]

2. Harvard Funding and Ideological Bias

Key Discussion: Bill shifts focus to higher education, particularly the Trump administration's financial disputes with Harvard University. He criticizes Harvard for its perceived ideological bias, asserting that funding taxpayer money to an institution dominated by liberal faculty defeats the public good.

Notable Points:

• Funding Freeze: The Trump administration froze $2.3 billion in federal funding to Harvard, prompting the university to sue, claiming the freeze impacts students, faculty, and research.

  "Harvard’s going to lose that from the federal government... They filed a lawsuit to halt the funding freeze because it is unlawful and beyond the government's authority." [11:15]

• Ideological Composition: According to O’Reilly, 82% of Harvard’s faculty are liberal or far-left, leading to an environment that promotes ideological agendas over practical outcomes.

  "82% of the Harvard faculty is liberal or far left. That’s how you get an ideological college." [11:15]

• Guest Perspective: Anson Fredericks, president of Strive Asset Management and Harvard Business School alumnus, agrees but suggests that historically, federal funding was more impactful. He advocates for shifting incentives toward the private sector rather than relying on government funds.

  "Should the federal government, should your tax dollars be going to fund universities in the first place?... Today, the government's spending over $60 billion a year." [14:02]

Insights and Conclusions: The debate centers on whether taxpayer money should support higher education institutions, especially when perceived ideological biases may influence academic and research outcomes. Fredericks emphasizes the need for private sector involvement and performance-based accountability.

"We need to incentivize more private companies...because they have performance clauses." [15:31]

3. Bud Light Campaign Controversy

Key Discussion: The conversation shifts to corporate America, focusing on Anheuser-Busch’s controversial marketing campaign involving a transgender individual, Dylan Mulvaney, which led to significant backlash against Bud Light.

Notable Points:

• Marketing Misstep: Anheuser-Busch’s decision to feature Dylan Mulvaney in a Bud Light campaign aimed at diversifying their consumer base backfired, resulting in a decline in sales and brand reputation.

  "You hire a trans person, Dylan Mulvaney... America goes, no, we're going to punish Bud Light." [16:30]

• Corporate Ideological Alignment: Fredericks attributes the failure to European ownership (InBev), which promotes stakeholder capitalism, pushing companies to engage in social and political issues rather than focusing solely on shareholder profits.

  "InBev... believes in more of this stakeholder capitalism philosophy where businesses are supposed to get involved in social and political issues." [19:03]

• Loss of Traditional Branding: The shift from traditional, unifying marketing (e.g., Clydesdales) to politically charged campaigns alienated long-time consumers who preferred the brand’s previous focus on bringing people together.

  "When you had this ideological capture, a lot of companies...putting social issues into their campaigns became a problem." [19:22]

Insights and Conclusions: O’Reilly criticizes the strategic misalignment between corporate actions and consumer expectations, suggesting that abandoning traditional, non-political branding in favor of ideological stances can harm profitability and brand loyalty.

"Why would the board of directors...allow something that could backfire so badly?" [19:45]

4. Cybercrime and Phishing Scams

Key Discussion: The episode concludes with a segment on the escalating issue of cybercrime, particularly phishing scams, which have resulted in substantial financial losses for individuals across the United States.

Notable Points:

• Prevalence of Cybercrime: In 2023, the FBI received approximately 900,000 complaints related to internet crimes, totaling over $12.5 billion in losses. California ranked as the worst state, with 80,000 complaints and $2 billion in losses.

  "2023, the FBI received about 900,000 complaints about crimes on the Internet, losses exceeding $12.5 billion." [25:09]

• Phishing Tactics: Clayton Cranford from Cybersafetycop.com explains that phishing involves sending fraudulent emails or texts that mimic legitimate institutions to steal sensitive information. The strategy relies on alarming recipients into immediate action.

  "They send you something that is urgent... they want you to panic a little bit and... click on that link." [24:19]

• Prevention Measures: O’Reilly and Cranford discuss practical steps to avoid falling victim to phishing, such as not responding to unsolicited communications, verifying sender authenticity, and maintaining secure online practices.

  "I never respond to anything that I don't know... when I get something like that, I just deleted immediately." [25:09]

  "Listen to that voice... feel like something's not quite right, you need to hit the brakes and look at it." [27:33]

Insights and Conclusions: The discussion emphasizes the importance of vigilance and education in combating cybercrime. With the surge in phishing attempts, especially targeting vulnerable populations like the elderly, the need for robust cybersecurity measures and public awareness is critical.

"This is happening... at epidemic rates... more elderly people who maybe aren't as Internet savvy." [24:05]

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Final Notes

Throughout the episode, Bill O’Reilly engages with experts to dissect contemporary issues ranging from border security and substance abuse to higher education funding biases, corporate marketing strategies, and the pervasive threat of cybercrime. The discussions underscore the complexities of policy-making, corporate responsibility, and the evolving challenges in safeguarding both national interests and individual well-being.

Key Quotes Recap:

• "You're not going to win the importation war... almost 30 million Americans wanting to buy it on a daily basis." [05:11]
• "82% of the Harvard faculty is liberal or far left... you get an ideological college." [11:15]
• "They send you something that is urgent... they want you to panic a little bit." [24:19]

For a comprehensive understanding and further analysis, listeners are encouraged to visit BillOReilly.com and explore additional content and premium membership options.

Transcript

[Bill O'Reilly]

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[Bill O'Reilly]

Border lowest in history now. Amazing achievement by the Trump administration. And it is 673 a day in March. That's it. Okay. That was down from 5,000 in March 24 under Biden. 5,673. 94% lower because Trump's just enforcing the law. And he got Mexico to put their troops on the northern border. That's why. But apparently illicit drug seizures are not down. What? So some stats. 49 million Americans are involved with substance abuse, 27 million of them drug addicts. That's a big market. 27 million. Okay. USA spends 46 billion to fight the drug problem every year. 86,000 died from overdoses in the latest stats. 178,000 died from excessive drinking in the latest stats. That's in a year that's horrendous. I mean, a quarter of a million people biting the dust. Joining us now from Springfield, Missouri, is a former special agent of the DEA Drug Enforcement Agency. He served in law enforcement 28 years. Brian Townsend, who is an expert on the drug situation all right, I don't understand. So if you're sealing a border down and illegal migrants, many whom were carrying illegal narcotics with them for the cartel, smuggling them in, why aren't drugs. Why are drug seizures actually up from the Biden administration?

[Brian Townsend]

Yeah. Thanks, Bill, for having me on. The problem is these cartels, these criminal networks are. They're highly adaptive. They're very sophisticated, and they're going to respond to our movement on the border and the, you know, the decrease in apprehensions in a way that makes them successful.

[Bill O'Reilly]

Specific. Specific. I mean, if they're nailing down all of the illegal crossings in the night over the river into the desert, there's a truck picks them up, takes them to Chicago. If all of that is stopped, how are the heroin, the cocaine and methamphetamine, the fentanyl, how do you get in?

[Brian Townsend]

Well, the legal points of entry, the same roads and highways that we would take to go into Mexico are the same ways that they're bringing a lot of the drugs into the United States are just, you know, they're trying to overwhelm the. Our resources there with just the high volume of traffic. And. And, you know, fentanyl is. It's. It doesn't take a lot to do a lot of damage. I mean, so, you know, multiple small loads is just as effective as, you know, one or two large loads. And, you know, they'll use tunnels, they'll use drones, they'll use, you know, the ocean, Canada. I mean, they're gonna. They're gonna adapt.

[Clayton Cranford]

They're.

[Brian Townsend]

They're gonna figure out ways to.

[Bill O'Reilly]

I got it, but it should. I. I'm stunned that the drug importation is up while the migrants have been largely stopped. Now, fentanyl is usually mixed in with heroin or cocaine, and that's how it's sold on the street. The price of drugs on the street is pretty cheap right now throughout the United States, right?

[Brian Townsend]

It is. Unfortunately, we haven't seen a rise in our prices. It means they just saturate the market and they continue to do so. They're very good at that. They, you know, they control the supply chain, the distribution chain, and. And, yeah, we haven't seen a reduction in the prices, unfortunately, that the demand is too great.

[Bill O'Reilly]

Yeah, the demand is huge, and it's not expensive now to buy a lot of drugs, even though crimes are committed to get the money by the addicts. My thing has always been, you're not going to win the importation war. You're not going to stop the drug importation. It's Just too much corruption, too much money, and you're always going to get it in. And if I'm wrong, tell me, because 30 years in this business, you know more than I do. But you can't stop it, particularly when you have almost 30 million Americans wanting to buy it on a daily basis. But the demand side, you can't stop. And that's what they did in Singapore, where I did my thesis at Harvard on. They stopped the demand side, where if you are caught in Singapore, which is a fascist country with drugs in your bloodstream, you go to mandatory drug rehabilitation 21 months. So you're gone, you can't buy any drugs anymore and they took the market away. So there's no drug problem in Singapore. You couldn't exactly do that here, but you could replicate some of it. Am I wrong?

[Brian Townsend]

Yeah, we could absolutely do more here to reduce the demand. We, you know, first of all, let's, let's, let's have the serious conversation. Let's fund it, you know, instead of putting band aids on the situation. I mean, we, we have such a small portion of the world's population, yet we consume the majority of drugs. When we need to figure that out.

[Bill O'Reilly]

More than anyone else, you know, by.

[Brian Townsend]

Far more than anyone else.

[Bill O'Reilly]

Right. Because we have money. But you say fund the drug rehab, you got to want drug rehab. Most of these addicts don't want it. And that comes from the rehab studies. They don't want to get off it. They want to be high every day. And you can take them in and try to rehab when they're back out and they want to use. Right?

[Brian Townsend]

Yeah. Unfortunately we know it does take, you know, numerous attempts through rehab to, to, to, to break through. Right. To help them.

[Bill O'Reilly]

So why am I doing that? I don't want my, I don't want my money doing that. I don't want to spend money on those people. I want to take them, put them someplace for a period of time, all right? Isolate them and then if they do it again, then the period of time gets more and then they'll stop because they can't get their drugs. I don't want to be paying for 15 rehabs. Am I wrong? Am I mean, I rely on physical precious metals like gold and silver to protect my savings. And the only company I trust is American Hartford Gold. A Tax Advantage Gold IRA can protect your savings from inflation, recessions and more. You can even roll over your 401k or IRA tax and penalty free with thousands of five star ratings and an A from the Better Business Bureau. American Hartford Gold has delivered billions in precious metals. Trust American Hartford Gold to help you, call or text American Hartford Gold. Tell them Bill O'Reilly sent you for up to $15,000 of free silver on qualifying orders. 8663-2655-5768-6632, 65576. Or you can text BILL to 998-899 again, 866-326-5576. Or text BILL to 998-899.

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[Brian Townsend]

To get started, I think we need to isolate. Why are they using drugs? I mean, that's why we.

[Bill O'Reilly]

What do you mean, why? They're using it because they want to get high. That's why they're using it. They want to get intoxicated. What do I. I don't care whether they had a bad childhood. All right, well, I mean, well, it.

[Brian Townsend]

May not be our problem, but, but we can, we can be human towards them and, and fund that problem because we know that that trauma, waste of money, the abuse, those things are waste of money. If we can solve the root problems, we can.

[Bill O'Reilly]

You can't solve the root problem. This is like migration. You can't sign a root problem. The root problem is they're poor in Honduras, we're wealthy. That's the root problem. Ask Kamala Harris. She was in charge of the root problem. The root problem with taking drugs is weakness, cowardice. These people are weak. They want to get high. They don't want to live in the real world. That's what drives me crazy because we as a country won't admit it. Last word.

[Brian Townsend]

I know we look at this as a moral failing, but I think there's more than this, than that. And the stigma and the, and the way that we treat folks because of this, you know, make it difficult for them to get treatment. And I think if we look at this a little differently, yeah, we might spend a little more money on the front end, but I think on the back end, we're going to be. One is saving people and number two is ultimately saving money.

[Bill O'Reilly]

All right, Resources well, you and I have a gentleman's disagreement. And you talk about stigma. What about the stigma of these people mugging some old lady, going to the bodega, trying to get some food, you know, is that okay? Yeah.

[Brian Townsend]

No, absolutely.

[Bill O'Reilly]

What about ruining the city of San Francisco? What about shooting up heroin in your neck in front of children? What about all that? Does anyone feel sorry for them? I'll tell you what. I'm in charge of this, Mr. Townsend. You give me six months, I'll cut it by half. But these people aren't going to like what happens to them. I'm not going to be mean to them, not going to abuse them. They're not going to be. They're going to be isolated. And that is the only way to do it. We appreciate your time very much.

[Announcer]

You're listening to the no Spa News Weekend Edition.

[Bill O'Reilly]

Harvard suing the Trump administration. My God. So the President doesn't like Harvard. I can tell you that because I attended Harvard and he knows it. And you know, it gives me jazz. All right, so 2.3 billion is gone. Harvard's going to lose that from the federal government. Now he may freeze another billion dollars. And Harvard's fighting back. President is named Alan Garber. Okay? And Garber is now ordered his counsel at the school to sue the Trump administration. Quote, these actions have stark real life consequences for patients, students, faculty, staff, researchers, understanding of American higher education in the world. Moments ago, we filed a lawsuit to halt the funding freeze because it is unlawful and beyond the government's authority. I encourage you to read our complaint. Harvard will lose in federal court, but it'll have to go to Supremes. They'll go all the way up, but I think they'll lose because we, the taxpayer, have no obligation to fund ideological schools. According to the student newspaper, the Crimson, which is decent, it's run by lefties, but they try. 82% of the Harvard faculty is liberal or far left. 82%. How does that happen? It happens because the people doing the hiring at Harvard University are only hiring left wingers, I guess. There aren't any smart conservatives or traditionalists or libertarians. There's no smart people in those categories. 82%. So you get an ideological college. That's what you got. And my tax money supposed to go there? I don't want Rush Limbaugh University financed either. Okay, if you're an ideological school, I'm not. You're not entitled to public tax money, period. That's the Constitution. The public money is for the public good. Promoting far left tenants isn't the public good, it's an ideological good. Trump's right, and Harvard just try to come to some accommodation. All right. Joining us now is a guy who graduated from Harvard Business School with an mba. His name is Anson Fredericks. I got him on for two reasons. He's got a new book out called Last Call for Bud Light, the Fallen Future of America's Favorite Beer. But he did go to Harvard. He's a smart guy. He's the president of Strive Asset Management, and he knows the turf about Harvard and about Bud Light. So we'll get into both of those. First, Harvard, did I make any mistakes in my commentary on it?

[Anson Fredericks]

No, Bill, I think that you nailed it. I think most importantly is take a step back. I think we need to be asking ourselves, should the federal government, should your tax dollars be going to fund universities in the first place? This is sort of a relic of an older time. The US government never funded universities really until World War II.

[Bill O'Reilly]

Okay, let me stop. Let me stop you, though. The government asks Harvard, Harvard doesn't ask the government to fund their research. The government asks Harvard to do it because the smartest people or very smart people are at Harvard, mit, Princeton, Penn, and they have areas of expertise. So the government comes in and says, look, we want you to find a cure for Alzheimer's at the Harvard Med School, and we're willing to fund your research to try to find that cure. That makes perfect sense to me. It doesn't make sense to you?

[Anson Fredericks]

I think it might have made sense maybe 50 years ago when again, you didn't have venture capitalists. You have private equity. You have a lot of money that was going into trying to solve cancer or trying to create the next great thing on the Internet or trying to do AI because you had a very kind of nascent sort of private markets at that time. And Harvard, with $3 billion that used to spent in 1970s, they could actually help create the Internet, help create these, these technical advances. Today, the government's spending over $60 billion a year. Like, you know, most things, the government starts spending money and it just keeps spending more and more and more. And we're seeing less and less is actually coming out of these universities, much more is coming out of the private sector. So I actually think that the federal government, they should be incentivizing more private companies, whether it's via tax breaks, whether it's being private.

[Bill O'Reilly]

I mean, look, in both cases, the folks watching us should know that nobody's held accountable if you fail. So if the government's Financing a doctor to research a disease and he doesn't come up with anything. The doctor still gets a fed federal money. There's no performance clause in the private sector or in the academic world. And that troubles me a little bit. All right, let's pivot over to Bud Light. So this was one of the dumbest things, and everybody knows it was dumb. You hire a trans person, Dylan Mulvaney. Right. Okay. I was looking at your book last night to sell a beer that's consumed mostly by men, straight men, macho men, sportsmen. And there is this Dylan Mulvaney person, smug, promoting Bud Light. And America goes, no, we're going to punish Bud Light. That's essentially what happened, right?

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[Anson Fredericks]

Actually this is really much related to what happened at Harvard. One of the reasons that Harvard and Trump is resending a lot of the funds is you recall that under the Civil Rights Act 1964, you can't discriminate this of race, sex, religion, etc yet 2 years ago you had Harvard's president clauding gain after Israel was attacked by Hamas. Could not say if calling to the genocide of Israelis was hate speech. And this is because you had people on the left like Harvard and this whole cadre of what I call the DEI complex. You had McKinsey who was pushing DEI studies. You had BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager pushing DEI and ESG. You had the universities doing it and they essentially kind of follow the money bill. They were the ones that were directing large corporations. I mean Anheuser Bush became the essentially the poster child of what went wrong in corporate America. But a Lot of other companies were essentially putting money towards supporting. Very progressive, very.

[Bill O'Reilly]

Okay, but it doesn't make any.

[Anson Fredericks]

It was a. Bush was the one that just became the one that became the poster child of what went wrong.

[Bill O'Reilly]

When you're in Harvard Business School teaching you how to make money, it's a capitalistic thing is, I know there's dei, but Bud Light, Anheuser, Bush, and you work for them for 11 years. Are they that stupid? That's a question. Are they that stupid?

[Anson Fredericks]

Well, they were, because, you know, when I worked there, you never would have gotten Bud Light, the largest beer brand in America that was enjoyed by Democrats and Republicans alike. You never would have had a touch anything that was close to a political issue. You wouldn't have a touch transgenderism. You wouldn't have a touch abortion.

[Bill O'Reilly]

So you had horses, you had Clydesdale's dragging the beer thing around.

[Anson Fredericks]

Budweiser frogs, real men of genius. The was up guys. I mean, you got it like that's what beer was, is actually brought people together. That's what excited people. That's what brought people together. But when you had this ideological capture, a lot of companies you remember, you know, Disney got involved in the parental rights issues down in Florida. Coca Cola got involved in voting rights issues. This became kind of.

[Bill O'Reilly]

But here's what I don't understand. Why would the board of directors. Why would the president, CEO of Anheuser Busch allow something that could backfire so badly? Surely they had to know that there was risk in putting this transgendered individual in their ad campaign. Surely they had to know that this was ideological capture.

[Anson Fredericks]

At its finest, though, Bill, is that you have this a European company now. So what a lot of people don't realize is Anheuser Busch is owned by a European company. This European company, InBev, has boards of directors that believe in more of this stakeholder capitalism philosophy where businesses are supposed to get involved in social and political issues. That's the purpose of a corporation in mind. They want every company to be like Ben and Jerry's. That's the problem. Those are not American values. That's not how most companies act here in the US that's where the company got into trouble. And that's what the company still hasn't apologized to this day, because it's really captured by, I think, a lot of Europeans and European thinking that businesses are supposed to be kind of part of social enterprises working with the government, not.

[Bill O'Reilly]

For the benefit of shareholders. And the one that benefit was Modelo, the Mexican beer. So the book is Last Call for Bud Light. Anson. Free Ricks. You might want to check that out. It's fascinating on how to destroy your profit margin. Thanks, Anson. We'll talk again soon. I hope.

[Announcer]

This is the no Spin News, Weekend Edition.

[Bill O'Reilly]

I got a letter from a concierge member who lost $200,000 in a scheme on the Internet and is coming to me for help. $200,000. And I read the case. He sent me the case, and there was not much I could do. The FBI is this guy's only hope. And whether the FBI is going to help him or not, I'm going to try to encourage that, but I can't force them to do it. The FBI, they got big things going on, and this is. 200,000 is a big thing for this guy, but it's not terrorism. Anyway, I don't know. I'm a Luddite. As I told you at the top of the program, I don't deal with the Internet. Nobody gets my private information. I go into Walgreens, and they want a phone number after I give him my credit card and I go, I'm not giving you my phone phone number. You're not getting anything from me. Okay? I don't want this stuff out. And they take my money, of course. But nobody gets any of my private information, ever, because there is so much crime on the Internet now. Listen to these stats. 2023, the FBI received about 900,000 complaints about crimes on the Internet, losses exceeding $12.5 billion. Okay? California is the worst state. 80,000 complaints, 2 billion in losses. This is all cybercrime, all right? The big thing is phishing schemes. Phishing schemes. Ph. I had no idea what that is. What it is is a type of Internet scam where criminals send you fraudulent emails to try to trick you into revealing sensitive information like your credit card numbers and things like that. Phishing. All right, now, my question is always simple. How do you stop this? It was a good article yesterday in the Wall Street Journal by Nicole Nguyen, and we want to get her on tonight, and she was totally disrespectful to us, so she'll never appear on this broadcast. I have to say, the Wall Street Journal in general is disrespectful to our operation. I don't know why, but they are. But we got a better guest. His name is Clayton Cranford joins us from California. He runs cybersafety cop.com cybersafetycop.com which is solutions to this horrendous problem. Okay, I'm 10 years old now, so you know that, Clayton. I don't know anything. Why? How. This is a better question. How do cyber criminals get to people in the first place? How do they do that?

[Clayton Cranford]

Well, if you are in the digital world, if you have an email address, if you have social media, if you have a text, a number that people can text you, you are available, right?

[Bill O'Reilly]

You.

[Clayton Cranford]

Your information's out there. And for them, it's a numbers game. They'll just blast these, you know, phishing emails or phishing texts to thousands and thousands of people, and they just need a small percentage of those people to. To take the bait. And that's really what.

[Bill O'Reilly]

Well, give me an example. Give me an example of the bait.

[Clayton Cranford]

An example. Debate.

[Brian Townsend]

Well, they.

[Clayton Cranford]

They send you something that is urgent, right? They. They want you to panic a little bit, and it could be that, you know, your. Your bank account has been frozen because of fraudulent activity. You must log in here to restore it or something like that. So they. They want you to panic, and they want you to click on that link, and it may take you to a website that looks a lot like your bank account, but maybe it's a website that is, you know, spoofing that site, and then you enter your information. Now they have it. So they're really kind of betting on people just emotionally responding to things. And that's maybe the first thing we should say is when you get these things, we need to just stop, take a breath, and carefully read it, because there are some telltale signs that these are. These are phishing emails or text messages.

[Bill O'Reilly]

Okay? Here's what I do. I never respond to anything that I don't know. Okay? So my bank does not email me or does not text me, ever. My insurance doesn't. My lawyer doesn't. And when I get something like that, I just deleted immediately. There's no downside to doing what I'm doing, is there?

[I]

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[Clayton Cranford]

No, that's the right thing to do, because you're right. These institutions do not ask for your personal information. I mean, that is standard. And if you're not sure, give them a call, go to their reliable website.

[Bill O'Reilly]

Call a bank or whatever, ask to speak to the bank manager and whatever. But the fact that you're clicking on the fraudulent website, the criminal website, doesn't that give them some access to you?

[Clayton Cranford]

Well, it can if it's a link that's executing a application on your computer. I mean, they could install, you know, some spyware on your computer. That's possible. But, you know, it's, it, it's not difficult for them to do this. This is happening, like you said, at, you know, epidemic rates. And, and it's a lot of more elderly people who maybe aren't as Internet savvy that are often the, the victims of this.

[Bill O'Reilly]

But you had, for the guy who lost 200,000, he had to send money. I don't know whether he sent a PayPal or what. But here, to send these people money, right? Yeah.

[Clayton Cranford]

You got to wire them money. You got to send them money. Yeah. Well, they ask you to do it in ways that are a little weird, like, hey, buy some gift cards and send me the numbers for the gift card. So sometimes even when you're doing it, I've talked to victims, they're like, it just seemed weird to me. You need to listen to that voice. When you, when you feel like something's not quite right, you need to hit the brakes and look at it.

[Bill O'Reilly]

A little bit costly. When you say listen to a voice, isn't most of this done in print?

[Clayton Cranford]

Well, yeah, but what I mean is, like, just when I talk to victims, a lot of times they just have a gut feeling that there's something not quite right. And you should listen to that feeling.

[Bill O'Reilly]

I don't understand why people don't, why they engage anyway. It's like when someone calls you on the phone. My line is, I don't do business on the phone. Have a good day. Click. That's it. I'm not doing business on the telephone with somebody I don't know.

[Clayton Cranford]

That's an amazing policy. Yeah, absolutely. And like on social media, I have a very locked down private social media account that the only people who get in are people I know in real life, like friends and family. And when I get a request from Someone I do not know, it's an instant block. And so people do that. They've removed a lot of the.

[Bill O'Reilly]

All right, so you can do an instant block. And that's what your outfit, cybersafetycop.com does, right, right. Shows you how to protect yourself.

[Clayton Cranford]

Yeah. And we do a lot of education for families with children because a lot of children are being victimized, you know, in other ways online as well.

[Bill O'Reilly]

Oh, sure. I mean, there's no doubt about that. Evil is all over the place. Final question for you. When you lose 200,000, even if the guy goes to the FBI and reports the crime, because it's cyberspace, it's almost impossible to catch these criminals, Correct? Yeah.

[Clayton Cranford]

A lot of that money's being wired overseas, and once the money leaves the bank, it's kind of impossible often to get it back. If, if you can, if the, if the local law enforcement, their cyber crimes, if they can alert the bank before that money clears, then they, then they can get it back. But once it's gone.

[Bill O'Reilly]

Once it's gone, it's gone. And the FBI is, I would assume, overwhelmed when you have 900,000 of these reported crimes a year. I mean, that's just incredible. Last word.

[Clayton Cranford]

Yeah, it's heartbreaking for a lot of people. That's a life savings for someone, and there may not be any chance of getting it back.

[Bill O'Reilly]

All right, thank you very much, Gladney. Well, website again is cybersafetycop. One word dot com.

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