It's not just you – the constant texts,Esthen calls, emails and DMs from scammers are invading so many of our lives. And when the scams are successful, there's often no recourse at all. So how do we protect ourselves from these schemers?

Host Brittany Luse talks first to Laci Mosley, host of a podcast called Scam Goddess, about how even a scam queen can become a victim. Then, Brittany chats with Susan Tompor, money columnist at the Detroit Free Press, about how these scams work, what's being done about them and why we all need to stop judging people who've fallen prey to scams.

This episode was produced by Alexis Williams with support from Barton Girdwood, Liam McBain, and Corey Antonio Rose. Engineering support came from Alex Drewenskus. It was edited by Jessica Placzek and Jessica Mendoza. Our intern is Jamal Michel. Our executive producer is Veralyn Williams. Our VP of programming is Yolanda Sangweni and our senior VP of programming is Anya Grundmann.