WEBVTT - The Phisher King: Filippo Bernardini 0:00:00.480 --> 0:00:04.920 Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio Zara Elizabeth. 0:00:06.120 --> 0:00:07.960 You know you know I'm just char dance and waiting 0:00:08.000 --> 0:00:09.520 for you as I do these days. 0:00:09.520 --> 0:00:12.680 I love it. I love a good shared dance. Listen. Yeah, 0:00:12.840 --> 0:00:13.880 you know it's ridiculous. 0:00:14.080 --> 0:00:16.720 I do. I've been Christmas shopping for you and it's 0:00:16.800 --> 0:00:21.520 not easy to So I was looking up the James 0:00:21.560 --> 0:00:24.640 Gardner's daughter was mentioning a cookbook almost got for you. 0:00:24.760 --> 0:00:26.360 Then I was like, nah, she won't want this. It's 0:00:26.400 --> 0:00:29.760 called the Cop Cookbook, The Cop. Yeah, and so it's 0:00:29.840 --> 0:00:32.159 like it was about because you know, he played uh, 0:00:32.800 --> 0:00:35.960 obviously Rockford files Garner, and then before that he was 0:00:35.960 --> 0:00:39.280 also Philip Marlowe, so he'd played some detectives and then 0:00:39.320 --> 0:00:42.400 they're like, yeah, so James Garner, you know, other than 0:00:42.440 --> 0:00:46.159 taking on Raymond Chandler's memorable character and then playing uh, 0:00:46.640 --> 0:00:52.800 the my favorite Jim Rockford. So they have this cake 0:00:52.840 --> 0:00:55.280 recipe and I was like, oh. It was like I 0:00:55.320 --> 0:00:56.520 was looking through it. I was like, what are they 0:00:56.560 --> 0:00:58.240 got in there? And so I wanted to tell him 0:00:58.240 --> 0:01:03.960 about this cake recipe. It's called Marlowe's Low Cholesterol Lemon Cake. Right, 0:01:04.040 --> 0:01:07.040 So in the description, this is not like this is 0:01:07.160 --> 0:01:10.280 older recipe books, so it's not like you get an 0:01:10.360 --> 0:01:11.240 essay before. 0:01:11.000 --> 0:01:14.080 You get the time a low cholesterol. 0:01:14.720 --> 0:01:18.560 Yeah yeah, late seventies case. So they have just like 0:01:18.680 --> 0:01:21.600 one sentence or two sentences to describe the cake before 0:01:21.600 --> 0:01:23.920 you get to the recipe, which is like old recipe 0:01:24.520 --> 0:01:28.320 so wonderful. So the sentences are these. This is our 0:01:28.360 --> 0:01:31.000 family's favorite cake, which was given to us by our 0:01:31.040 --> 0:01:35.760 friend Seanna Treebert. It's made for every birthday and holiday 0:01:35.920 --> 0:01:38.880 and it's always gone by morning, eaten by thieves in 0:01:38.920 --> 0:01:42.840 the night. So my favorite part though, this is where 0:01:42.880 --> 0:01:45.360 you get the low cholesterol. The first ingredient is non 0:01:45.440 --> 0:01:48.960 stick cooking spray. The second ingredient is all purpose flour. 0:01:49.080 --> 0:01:52.440 The third ingredient is one package of white cake mix. Wait, 0:01:56.720 --> 0:01:59.960 and then it's like you get some vegetable oil, some waters, 0:02:00.080 --> 0:02:03.280 mag whites, and vanilla extract, and then three ounce package 0:02:03.320 --> 0:02:04.920 of sugar free lemon gelatin. 0:02:05.120 --> 0:02:12.560 Stop. It is so Southern to use. I used to 0:02:12.840 --> 0:02:17.000 try and collect all these like church cookbooks, because there 0:02:17.040 --> 0:02:20.080 would have they would have stuff like this like Grandma's 0:02:20.200 --> 0:02:24.400 something cake. Get one box of chocolate cake. No no, no, no, 0:02:25.000 --> 0:02:27.560 But my all time favorite is. There was one recipe 0:02:27.760 --> 0:02:29.880 in a church cookbook that I got when I lived 0:02:29.880 --> 0:02:32.040 down in the South that was for Snicker biscuits. 0:02:32.120 --> 0:02:34.880 Okay, that sounds good and ingredients. 0:02:34.880 --> 0:02:38.280 You get one can of Pillsbury biscuits, like the kind 0:02:38.280 --> 0:02:40.600 where you have to like pop it over violently pop open, 0:02:41.400 --> 0:02:44.280 so you get those biscuits and then you get little 0:02:44.520 --> 0:02:48.440 bite sized Snickers. The individually wrapped is the other ingredient, 0:02:48.520 --> 0:02:51.480 and you shove it into the biscuit. Yeah, and then 0:02:51.520 --> 0:02:53.200 wrap like the biscuit around it and bacon. 0:02:53.560 --> 0:02:54.560 That's the recipe. 0:02:54.680 --> 0:02:58.239 That's the recipes I came up with a Snicker biscuits. 0:02:58.240 --> 0:03:01.840 Those are my favorite stoner Snickers biscuits. 0:03:02.080 --> 0:03:07.600 What you need to doms you can't even forget it. 0:03:07.600 --> 0:03:09.400 It was the crat Snicker biscuits. 0:03:09.720 --> 0:03:11.960 So Grandma, oh yeah. 0:03:12.320 --> 0:03:14.400 But any of these like family recipes that call for 0:03:14.560 --> 0:03:18.000 box cake, Thick's amazing. And you know what, they are ridiculous? 0:03:18.160 --> 0:03:18.640 You know it. 0:03:19.200 --> 0:03:20.799 Do you want to know what else is ridiculous? 0:03:21.160 --> 0:03:21.560 Please? 0:03:21.760 --> 0:03:47.400 Stealing for stealing's sake? Oh oh, this is Ridiculous Crime 0:03:47.440 --> 0:03:51.920 a podcast about absurd and outrageous capers. Hie cons. It's 0:03:51.960 --> 0:03:55.760 always ninety nine percent murder free and one hundred percent ridiculous. 0:03:56.120 --> 0:03:56.480 Damn. 0:03:56.920 --> 0:03:57.680 Yes, I am. 0:03:57.920 --> 0:04:05.480 Books, Elizabeth Books. I love books, books, books, McGee. 0:04:06.560 --> 0:04:10.760 How many books do you think you own? 0:04:11.040 --> 0:04:13.280 Hundreds and bordering into the low thousands. 0:04:13.360 --> 0:04:16.560 Yeah, i'd say so. I don't have that many physical 0:04:16.839 --> 0:04:19.520 copy books in my possession right now, Like I'd say 0:04:19.520 --> 0:04:22.320 I probably have maybe around one hundred or so. Really, Yeah, 0:04:23.000 --> 0:04:24.839 most of my are stored at my mom's house. 0:04:25.240 --> 0:04:26.120 How many do you have there? 0:04:26.240 --> 0:04:29.800 Well, her collection is like in the thousands. Yeah, i'd 0:04:29.800 --> 0:04:34.200 probably go up to like fifteen hundred or something like that. Yeah, 0:04:34.240 --> 0:04:36.719 she has a full library in the house. She means business. 0:04:36.760 --> 0:04:38.560 I think it's safe to say that she reads like 0:04:38.680 --> 0:04:39.560 four books a month. 0:04:39.920 --> 0:04:40.400 That's good. 0:04:40.520 --> 0:04:43.679 Yeah. Anyway, I have a ton of books on my kindle. 0:04:44.120 --> 0:04:46.640 Oh okay, I checked earlier today. I can't read off 0:04:47.080 --> 0:04:50.080 nine hundred and seventy three damn my library. But I've 0:04:50.279 --> 0:04:51.960 recently moved over to audible. 0:04:52.240 --> 0:04:52.560 Okay. 0:04:53.000 --> 0:04:55.279 So, because I have to wear glasses now both distance 0:04:55.320 --> 0:04:59.240 and reading, and I'm miserable, so I like to visually 0:04:59.320 --> 0:05:01.400 raw dog the world old. So I don't usually wear 0:05:01.440 --> 0:05:04.480 my glasses at all, and the only time I always 0:05:04.480 --> 0:05:05.600 wear them is when I'm driving. 0:05:05.920 --> 0:05:07.960 Huh, well that's least responsible of you. 0:05:08.080 --> 0:05:10.040 Yeah. Or it's like I have to read more than 0:05:10.040 --> 0:05:12.279 like a paragraph. You put them on, I snap on 0:05:12.360 --> 0:05:15.719 the specs because I'm so old anyway, I don't like 0:05:15.760 --> 0:05:17.520 to do that. So I started listening to books. 0:05:17.839 --> 0:05:19.120 Wait a minute, that's why. 0:05:19.200 --> 0:05:21.600 Yeah, I only have eighty four books on my audible 0:05:21.640 --> 0:05:22.479 library right now. 0:05:22.839 --> 0:05:25.840 I can't read books off of kindles, and I cannot 0:05:25.920 --> 0:05:28.479 listen to books on Audible because I won't remember what 0:05:28.560 --> 0:05:30.479 I hear. I have to like read them so I 0:05:30.480 --> 0:05:33.040 can create. It is a problem. It is I can't 0:05:33.080 --> 0:05:35.960 read where I'm not flipping pages. For some reason, I 0:05:36.000 --> 0:05:37.760 really need the tactile feel. 0:05:37.920 --> 0:05:42.440 Okay, I like the did I resisted the Kindle went 0:05:42.480 --> 0:05:45.719 to it actually really liked it. And then I'm trying 0:05:45.720 --> 0:05:46.760 to get into audible. 0:05:47.320 --> 0:05:48.719 But how's it working for you? 0:05:49.440 --> 0:05:52.320 I love it, but I do miss reading like actually 0:05:52.320 --> 0:05:54.200 looking at I should probably put my glasses. 0:05:54.640 --> 0:05:57.760 Do you remember the stories with the same vivid No, 0:05:58.640 --> 0:05:59.320 that was quick. 0:05:59.480 --> 0:06:01.680 But then, and I also don't remember the stories that 0:06:01.760 --> 0:06:03.039 I read on hard. 0:06:03.600 --> 0:06:05.159 I don't remember anything anymore. 0:06:05.279 --> 0:06:09.119 No, I remember who are you? So what's my point? 0:06:09.600 --> 0:06:12.200 My point? Is that we love books. We both love 0:06:12.400 --> 0:06:16.360 we've both written books. It's true, yep books. I told 0:06:16.440 --> 0:06:17.520 you stories about book. 0:06:17.360 --> 0:06:19.560 Criminals before you have I have a book. 0:06:19.839 --> 0:06:22.600 I'm gonna do it again today. Son. Yeah, so I 0:06:22.640 --> 0:06:26.280 have a book thief. But he's unusual, so I usually 0:06:26.320 --> 0:06:28.400 I actually don't think there's a typical book thief. 0:06:28.680 --> 0:06:29.520 I was wondering about that. 0:06:29.920 --> 0:06:32.440 They're a weird lot, but this guy is even outside 0:06:32.640 --> 0:06:35.840 of that to some extent. He's kind of like our 0:06:35.880 --> 0:06:39.400 man John Gilkey, who was pursued by biblio Dick Ken Sanders. 0:06:40.200 --> 0:06:43.040 This guy he wasn't into the thefts as a means 0:06:43.080 --> 0:06:44.560 of enriching his bank account. 0:06:44.839 --> 0:06:46.640 Okay, so he wasn't going for high dollar. 0:06:46.440 --> 0:06:48.000 Books, and he didn't do it for the money. 0:06:48.000 --> 0:06:49.920 Looking for delicious books. Is he like eating them? 0:06:50.120 --> 0:06:51.960 No, he did it for the love of books. 0:06:52.680 --> 0:06:54.280 No, m giving the game. 0:06:54.400 --> 0:06:56.120 But he didn't do it in the way that Guilkey 0:06:56.160 --> 0:07:00.599 did it because remember, like Guilkey wanted rarities, first editions, 0:07:00.600 --> 0:07:03.800 and he wanted to build like this impressive library, so 0:07:04.000 --> 0:07:07.359 something that someone important would have, like someone accomplished. The 0:07:07.480 --> 0:07:09.400 guy I'm going to tell you about today. He also 0:07:09.440 --> 0:07:12.160 stole books, but He didn't do it to sell them 0:07:12.160 --> 0:07:14.680 and make money. It was for the love of the books, 0:07:14.760 --> 0:07:17.560 but also for what they meant, And in his case, 0:07:18.160 --> 0:07:20.880 it wasn't the glamour or the power of a fine library. 0:07:20.960 --> 0:07:24.520 It was the symbol of access. Oh so I'm curious, 0:07:24.760 --> 0:07:29.280 zaren close your eyes. No, I'm not messing. You really 0:07:29.320 --> 0:07:31.400 are close them. I want you to picture it. 0:07:32.800 --> 0:07:40.160 Don't yell it. 0:07:40.160 --> 0:07:44.080 It's January fifth, twenty twenty two. You are a customs 0:07:44.120 --> 0:07:47.680 agent at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City. 0:07:47.800 --> 0:07:50.480 Before you is a long line of travelers eager to 0:07:50.520 --> 0:07:54.040 get their passport stamped, passed through your kiosk, and head 0:07:54.080 --> 0:07:57.160 out into the US of A. Some chat with each other, 0:07:57.680 --> 0:08:00.600 All of them seemed exhausted from their travels and flummixed 0:08:00.600 --> 0:08:03.760 by the long line ahead of them. Some looked longingly 0:08:03.840 --> 0:08:07.040 over at the global entry area. No line, just the 0:08:07.080 --> 0:08:11.320 occasional traveler breezing through with no asshole. The airport speaker's 0:08:11.400 --> 0:08:16.160 broadcast announcements in a calm tone, calm yet unintelligible. A 0:08:16.200 --> 0:08:18.160 baby cries at the far end of the line, and 0:08:18.200 --> 0:08:21.360 in a silence, with gentle whispers from his mother. You 0:08:21.400 --> 0:08:23.640 look at the line in front of you, a woman 0:08:23.680 --> 0:08:26.600 with a messy updo, a chic yet casual outfit and 0:08:26.600 --> 0:08:29.240 a roller suitcases up next. You raise your hand to 0:08:29.280 --> 0:08:32.280 waver forward, and she approaches your counter. You run through 0:08:32.280 --> 0:08:36.640 your usual questions. What is the purpose of your visit tourism? 0:08:36.679 --> 0:08:39.360 I'm actually here to go shopping. How long will you 0:08:39.400 --> 0:08:42.760 be staying? Ten days, she tells you. Where will you 0:08:42.800 --> 0:08:45.880 be staying at the Ace hotel? You look down at 0:08:45.880 --> 0:08:48.960 a British passport. Do you have anything to declare? Not 0:08:49.040 --> 0:08:49.360 a thing? 0:08:49.440 --> 0:08:49.640 Love? 0:08:50.000 --> 0:08:52.319 She says? What do you do for a living? I'm 0:08:52.360 --> 0:08:55.680 an interior designa, she says, with a smile. Have you 0:08:55.720 --> 0:08:58.600 been to the US before? Many times? She says, I 0:08:58.679 --> 0:09:01.200 love it here. You stay up for passport and wave 0:09:01.240 --> 0:09:03.480 her through. She thanks you and heads out to the 0:09:03.480 --> 0:09:06.920 waiting city. You look up and see the next man 0:09:07.000 --> 0:09:09.640 in line. You look down at the portion of your 0:09:09.679 --> 0:09:11.559 desk that runs under the counter out of you with 0:09:11.640 --> 0:09:14.280 the travelers, there are a few photos of people for 0:09:14.360 --> 0:09:16.800 whom you are to be on the lookout. You compare 0:09:16.840 --> 0:09:18.800 one of the photos to the man standing in line. 0:09:19.240 --> 0:09:21.880 That's him. You press a button on the corner of 0:09:21.960 --> 0:09:24.760 your desk and then wave the man forward. He approaches 0:09:24.800 --> 0:09:32.040 your desk and slides his passport to you europe Republic Passaporto. 0:09:32.559 --> 0:09:36.240 You flip it open, Filippo Bernardini. You look him in 0:09:36.320 --> 0:09:39.439 the eye. He seems calm. You clear your throat, and 0:09:39.520 --> 0:09:41.440 you're about to ask him the purpose of his visit 0:09:41.520 --> 0:09:45.199 when he is suddenly flanked by FBI agents. They quietly 0:09:45.200 --> 0:09:49.680 tell him to take his passport come with them. So wait, zaren, 0:09:50.040 --> 0:09:51.360 that's the climax of the story. 0:09:52.360 --> 0:09:54.920 I gave it away, yes, wondering, I let you know. 0:09:54.960 --> 0:09:58.480 The story before everyone else got a chance. Actually, I 0:09:58.679 --> 0:09:59.920 was using a literary tech. 0:10:00.480 --> 0:10:00.800 What is that? 0:10:00.920 --> 0:10:02.760 I have a degree in this? There and mess with me. 0:10:02.880 --> 0:10:05.800 I know what I'm doing. Let's go back to the beginning. Oh, 0:10:06.080 --> 0:10:09.599 I'm already gripped, so Filippo Bernardini. 0:10:09.800 --> 0:10:15.480 Yes, Philip Phil, Hey, phil phil Phil. 0:10:15.960 --> 0:10:21.400 He grew up in Italy, m surprise. He was a 0:10:21.520 --> 0:10:24.839 lonely child. He was shy with drawn. Books were a 0:10:24.960 --> 0:10:29.080 refuge for him, so they gave him companionships, structure, meaning 0:10:29.720 --> 0:10:34.280 and reading friends. Friends. Reading wasn't just a hobby, it 0:10:34.400 --> 0:10:36.640 was how he learned to feel connected to something larger 0:10:36.679 --> 0:10:37.240 than himself. 0:10:37.400 --> 0:10:40.200 Aimes be like, you know, the cigar rollers in Cuba. 0:10:40.360 --> 0:10:42.199 He gets paid to read stories, like maybe he had 0:10:42.280 --> 0:10:45.079 like a grandfather who's like, I give him a couple 0:10:45.080 --> 0:10:46.920 of quarters, he reads me a book. Yeah, for his 0:10:47.120 --> 0:10:48.120 job as a child. 0:10:47.960 --> 0:10:52.640 For them, I mean, I get it. I was a 0:10:52.760 --> 0:10:56.160 child bookworm because books were often far more interesting than 0:10:56.200 --> 0:10:56.720 my peers. 0:10:56.960 --> 0:10:59.400 Oh you know I read yeah a kid. I used 0:10:59.440 --> 0:11:01.960 to a lot of pizza in the reading context. 0:11:01.679 --> 0:11:06.840 Exactly Slade. So this attachment to books shaped his ambitions. 0:11:07.320 --> 0:11:10.000 So he pursued education and work that would like put 0:11:10.080 --> 0:11:13.439 him near literature, not as a writer or creator, just 0:11:13.520 --> 0:11:17.600 someone like in proximity to it all in the reflected glory. 0:11:17.679 --> 0:11:20.400 He wanted access. He wanted to be part of the 0:11:20.440 --> 0:11:23.440 world that books came from before they reached the public. 0:11:24.800 --> 0:11:28.480 So on LinkedIn, he said he had a quote obsession 0:11:28.520 --> 0:11:31.280 for the written word in languages, and according to his 0:11:31.360 --> 0:11:34.600 profile on there, he got his bachelor's in Chinese language 0:11:35.200 --> 0:11:39.000 from the University in Milan. He said he also served 0:11:39.000 --> 0:11:42.040 as the Italian translator for the Chinese comic book author 0:11:42.840 --> 0:11:46.880 Rau Pingrew's memoir Our Story. He then got a master's 0:11:47.000 --> 0:11:51.160 in publishing from University College London and on the site 0:11:51.200 --> 0:11:53.679 he said his passion was ensuring quote books can be 0:11:53.800 --> 0:11:57.000 read and enjoyed all over the world and in multiple languages. 0:11:57.360 --> 0:11:59.960 This is so true, they really can't. 0:12:01.200 --> 0:12:02.520 It's a great thing about books. 0:12:02.880 --> 0:12:05.839 The thing about books read can be read all over 0:12:05.960 --> 0:12:09.480 the world. So by the early to mid like twenty 0:12:09.720 --> 0:12:13.200 tens of twenty teens, he had he got a job 0:12:13.320 --> 0:12:15.880 in the publishing industry in the UK. He worked as 0:12:15.920 --> 0:12:19.840 a rights coordinator for the British branch of Simon and Schuster. 0:12:20.520 --> 0:12:24.679 It's a big, big publisher. His role put him inside 0:12:24.760 --> 0:12:28.599 like a legitimate corporate structure, gave him daily exposure to 0:12:28.720 --> 0:12:30.880 the mechanics of global publishing. 0:12:30.920 --> 0:12:34.040 He's looking at all those arcs and manuscripts at the published. 0:12:34.080 --> 0:12:37.400 Yes, so a rights coordinator is not like a junior assistant, 0:12:37.440 --> 0:12:42.439 but it's also not central to editorial decision making. So 0:12:42.800 --> 0:12:46.520 it means like managing foreign rights communications. He would track 0:12:46.679 --> 0:12:51.120 licensing agreements, coordinate with all like international partners, had to 0:12:51.160 --> 0:12:54.679 have like a really good attention to detail, discretion, and 0:12:54.840 --> 0:12:59.920 like constant email correspondence with agents, editors and rights professionals. 0:13:00.960 --> 0:13:05.400 So it provided visibility into the movement of manuscripts without 0:13:05.480 --> 0:13:07.920 granting authority or access to them. 0:13:08.000 --> 0:13:10.080 Yeah, he's not changing any words, right. 0:13:10.080 --> 0:13:13.160 So basically he was positioned at the edge of the 0:13:13.240 --> 0:13:17.040 manuscript pipeline. He's talking about manuscripts, but he's not actually 0:13:17.200 --> 0:13:20.959 seeing them. He could see when books were being discussed, shopped, 0:13:21.080 --> 0:13:24.800 prepared for foreign sales. He can see the names of editors, agents, 0:13:24.840 --> 0:13:28.160 scouts who were like exchanging early drafts, but he wasn't 0:13:28.240 --> 0:13:32.360 in those exchanges. So over time he starts to feel 0:13:32.400 --> 0:13:36.280 really excluded, and he's like, this is even more than 0:13:36.400 --> 0:13:41.360 just like professional hierarchy. This is a personal slight soelt 0:13:41.920 --> 0:13:47.480 he felt invisible, he felt undervalued. Zerum he believed that 0:13:47.640 --> 0:13:52.679 access to manuscripts represented belonging itself. So without it, he's like, 0:13:52.760 --> 0:13:54.920 you know what, I'm not really a part of publishing. 0:13:56.320 --> 0:13:59.480 I'm just on the And so he's like, you know what, 0:13:59.480 --> 0:14:01.679 I want to check that right now. If you're in 0:14:01.760 --> 0:14:03.160 this position, how would you change that? 0:14:03.960 --> 0:14:07.040 Get a new job, could work in a bookstore, I 0:14:07.080 --> 0:14:09.120 don't know what would you do? 0:14:09.880 --> 0:14:11.840 Well, a lot of publishing is who you know. 0:14:12.200 --> 0:14:15.920 Definitely, and also how many followers. 0:14:15.600 --> 0:14:17.760 Do you have on Well, there's that, like there's some 0:14:18.080 --> 0:14:19.960 some people are able to make their way in the 0:14:20.120 --> 0:14:23.640 in the industry through like sheer displays of talent and acumen. 0:14:24.040 --> 0:14:26.960 Yeah, it's getting refer and uer for most of its network. 0:14:27.040 --> 0:14:30.680 Yeah, and it's like that's honestly so much it's how 0:14:30.720 --> 0:14:32.680 people get ahead. I mean, I know that's true of 0:14:32.720 --> 0:14:35.360 a lot of industries, but I am blown away by 0:14:35.400 --> 0:14:38.160 how outsized that is when it comes to publishing. 0:14:38.240 --> 0:14:40.640 Well, so it's much like Hollywood. They're more and more 0:14:40.760 --> 0:14:43.480 risk averse, more and more being counters have gotten involved, 0:14:43.520 --> 0:14:44.880 and now they want to have a book that's going 0:14:44.920 --> 0:14:46.880 to sell really well the first month, and you don't 0:14:46.880 --> 0:14:49.400 get like what's come girl with her book Conto that's 0:14:49.400 --> 0:14:52.560 sold like nineteen hundred copies after they pushed out of it. 0:14:52.920 --> 0:14:55.040 So whoever, it's such a cancer. 0:14:54.880 --> 0:14:58.080 Right, whoever signed Olivia Notzi her contract for that book, 0:14:58.440 --> 0:15:02.760 their whole career he's got foreshortened because some people don't 0:15:02.800 --> 0:15:04.080 want that. They don't want to be the one who 0:15:04.160 --> 0:15:05.160 brought Tanto to the. 0:15:05.200 --> 0:15:08.880 Market exactly exactly. So like here you've got Bernadini right, 0:15:09.000 --> 0:15:11.760 like he he's a guy who loves books, but he 0:15:11.840 --> 0:15:16.160 doesn't come from like a literary family with connections. He 0:15:16.240 --> 0:15:18.520 doesn't have school connections, because that's what I found is 0:15:18.560 --> 0:15:21.160 another thing like that makes a big difference in the 0:15:21.160 --> 0:15:25.840 publishing induto. And he's not like a hustler in terms 0:15:25.880 --> 0:15:28.120 of schmoozing and getting to know all the right people 0:15:28.240 --> 0:15:30.760 and positioning himself to move up the ladder. 0:15:30.800 --> 0:15:32.560 And then he doesn't have like the Italian equivalent of 0:15:32.640 --> 0:15:34.479 the University of Iowa's like workshops. 0:15:34.640 --> 0:15:38.600 It's like exactly, oh my gosh, exactly. But he wants more, 0:15:39.360 --> 0:15:42.760 and so he came up with a plan. He was 0:15:42.760 --> 0:15:45.400 gonna be sneaky. He was going to fool people. 0:15:45.600 --> 0:15:46.640 I'm listening, He's going to. 0:15:46.680 --> 0:15:50.840 Get what he wanted. Go for access. Let's take a break, 0:15:51.120 --> 0:16:18.440 we come back access Zaren, Elizabeth Saren, Philippe Berndi great name. 0:16:18.520 --> 0:16:22.560 But Phil Bernandi, Phil Barry, Phil Bernie, Bernie, Phil burn 0:16:22.600 --> 0:16:28.080 Burns unlikely criminal very much. So here he is here, 0:16:28.120 --> 0:16:31.040 he is Phil working and publishing, which had been his dream. 0:16:31.480 --> 0:16:33.440 But once he's in it, he looks around, He's like, wait, 0:16:33.520 --> 0:16:36.520 I'm still an outsider. How did this happen? He didn't 0:16:36.560 --> 0:16:39.040 get to have his finger on the pulse of the industry. 0:16:39.680 --> 0:16:41.160 He didn't get to see the books as they were 0:16:41.280 --> 0:16:43.760 ushered through the process from hand to hardback. 0:16:43.880 --> 0:16:45.400 Yeah, he's a cog far from the action. 0:16:45.680 --> 0:16:48.560 Yes, everyone around him knew about the big hits way 0:16:48.600 --> 0:16:51.560 before they went to the stores. They'd already read them. 0:16:51.720 --> 0:16:55.080 They were miles ahead. He wanted that. So instead of 0:16:55.280 --> 0:16:58.200 using his crafty brain to maneuver himself into the area 0:16:58.280 --> 0:16:59.120 of publishing where he. 0:16:59.160 --> 0:17:01.560 Could be that guy, Yeah it would be possible. 0:17:02.000 --> 0:17:05.200 No, he tried something else. Around August of twenty sixteen, 0:17:05.840 --> 0:17:10.399 he started constructing this like multi year scheme. He was 0:17:10.440 --> 0:17:13.600 going to steal manuscripts, and not like in a cool 0:17:13.720 --> 0:17:18.159 Nicholas cageway. No, he was stealing the books before they 0:17:18.240 --> 0:17:21.400 became real books. He didn't want to steal the stories 0:17:21.520 --> 0:17:24.000 or like shop him as his own. He wasn't going 0:17:24.040 --> 0:17:25.760 to sell them. He just wanted to get his hands 0:17:25.880 --> 0:17:28.720 on the currency of his dream industry. He just wanted 0:17:28.800 --> 0:17:35.880 to feel the books, not even feel the digitals. 0:17:34.000 --> 0:17:37.240 Not even getting like he's got the scent of new paper. 0:17:37.520 --> 0:17:40.200 So basically he came up with like a multi layered 0:17:40.560 --> 0:17:42.400 cyber impersonation campaign. 0:17:43.520 --> 0:17:43.800 Phil. 0:17:44.200 --> 0:17:47.800 He built it to exploit weaknesses in the publishing world's 0:17:48.000 --> 0:17:52.960 very informal practices. So the publishing industry relies really heavily 0:17:53.040 --> 0:17:58.080 on email. Communication is real between authors, agents, editors, and scouts, 0:17:58.560 --> 0:18:02.879 and so pre publication manuscripts are typically circulated by like 0:18:03.000 --> 0:18:07.040 trusted individuals, but they are not elaborate security protocols. 0:18:07.080 --> 0:18:09.360 No, they're attachments and emails exactly. 0:18:09.960 --> 0:18:13.840 Hopefully a PDF, sometimes a word doc. So Bernardini built 0:18:13.880 --> 0:18:18.399 his own infrastructure that mimicked this trust network. So first 0:18:18.480 --> 0:18:23.000 we're spoofed domains. He registered domains that were nearly identical 0:18:23.119 --> 0:18:27.520 to actual publishers and literary agencies. His techniques fell into 0:18:27.640 --> 0:18:32.160 three major categories. First was character substitution. So let's say 0:18:32.200 --> 0:18:37.200 the actual website is, you know, realdomain dot com, right, 0:18:37.640 --> 0:18:41.320 so heat registered real door nain dot com. So making 0:18:41.560 --> 0:18:45.520 instead of having M use RN so it looks with 0:18:45.840 --> 0:18:50.800 bad Kurning or whatever, quick reading or r EAI domains, 0:18:50.880 --> 0:18:54.480 so instead of an L, put a lowercase I. The 0:18:54.600 --> 0:18:58.920 most common substitutions were M became RN, RN became M 0:18:59.760 --> 0:19:02.840 was his zero AE, that kind of stuff, so really 0:19:02.920 --> 0:19:07.440 subtle changes that bypassed casual visual scrutiny, and we're like 0:19:07.520 --> 0:19:10.159 really effective because most people don't look at email headers. 0:19:10.760 --> 0:19:13.800 You just skim it or you see their name and 0:19:13.840 --> 0:19:15.520 then like it's you know, peripherally. 0:19:15.840 --> 0:19:18.040 Oh and also if you're doing like typos, you wouldn't 0:19:18.119 --> 0:19:20.920 notice if he had one that's just one letter away 0:19:20.960 --> 0:19:21.480 on the on the. 0:19:21.520 --> 0:19:25.240 Keyboard, right exactly. So so that's where the emails are 0:19:25.320 --> 0:19:29.239 coming from. These these websites that have you know, these 0:19:29.359 --> 0:19:33.520 these domain names. Then there was top level domain variations. 0:19:33.600 --> 0:19:37.320 So let's say that the legitimate website is publishername dot com. 0:19:38.040 --> 0:19:42.000 The spoof is publisher name dot co or org or US. 0:19:42.560 --> 0:19:45.760 Sometimes he would add or remove a country code to 0:19:45.920 --> 0:19:50.560 like mimic multinational imprints. And then the third thing was hyphenation. 0:19:51.240 --> 0:19:53.680 So let's say that you had a literary agency, the 0:19:53.720 --> 0:19:58.080 Burnett Agency, okay, and your website is Burnett Agency dot com. Right, 0:19:58.480 --> 0:20:03.439 Bernardini would register Burnette hyphenagency dot com or agency hyphen 0:20:03.520 --> 0:20:06.760 Burnett dot com or like the Burnet Agency, right and 0:20:06.920 --> 0:20:09.480 like but putting these hyphens in, and so it would 0:20:09.520 --> 0:20:13.760 like mimic these naming styles used across international publishing. He 0:20:13.960 --> 0:20:17.760 made fake sites that looked plausible even to industry insiders. 0:20:17.880 --> 0:20:18.280 Oh wow. 0:20:18.400 --> 0:20:22.040 Yeah. So with the fake sites came fake email accounts. 0:20:22.080 --> 0:20:28.639 He configured email accounts under real employee names. So a 0:20:28.720 --> 0:20:32.080 lot of the spoofed emails contained copied signatures and formatting 0:20:32.160 --> 0:20:35.560 that he took from legitimate correspondence. Okay, and then he 0:20:35.760 --> 0:20:40.200 timed requests to coincide with like natural publishing workflows, so 0:20:40.359 --> 0:20:43.879 like right before the Frankfurt or London book fairs. So 0:20:44.040 --> 0:20:48.440 manuscript exchanges are increasing, Totally, a lot of authors and 0:20:48.520 --> 0:20:51.800 agents expect manuscripts to be sent around constantly, and so 0:20:51.920 --> 0:20:54.560 these emails they don't raise suspicions. 0:20:54.080 --> 0:20:54.479 Not at all. 0:20:54.680 --> 0:20:56.320 So who's the targeting's errant. 0:20:56.160 --> 0:21:00.320 And also who's really good? Who in the criminals sense 0:21:00.400 --> 0:21:02.480 of things. Yeah, you would not think criminals would be 0:21:02.560 --> 0:21:05.639 doing this, So it just so beneath the page. 0:21:05.600 --> 0:21:08.600 Your everyday work, you don't think twice about these things. Yeah, 0:21:08.960 --> 0:21:12.639 so the targets, right, He's focusing on individuals who control 0:21:12.800 --> 0:21:18.760 unpublished content. In that literary pipeline, authors were the main one, well, 0:21:18.840 --> 0:21:22.919 especially those with like upcoming high profile releases, so debut 0:21:23.040 --> 0:21:27.600 authors also they're more likely to quickly cooperate with requests 0:21:27.680 --> 0:21:28.879 from industry professionals. 0:21:28.920 --> 0:21:30.760 Yeah, they don't know it's a standard or totally. 0:21:31.240 --> 0:21:32.680 I guess I got to send it again to this 0:21:32.800 --> 0:21:36.240 guy so like they fell for it. He'd usually contact 0:21:36.320 --> 0:21:39.480 authors directly with like this urgent or super friendly tone, 0:21:39.560 --> 0:21:41.760 like hey, can you send me the latest draft for 0:21:41.840 --> 0:21:45.479 evaluation purposes, like just really quickly. So then we got 0:21:45.520 --> 0:21:49.760 the agents. Okay, agents are always sharing manuscripts with scouts 0:21:49.800 --> 0:21:53.440 and editors, so he exploited it by impersonating scouts or 0:21:53.560 --> 0:21:57.440