The American Family Association's mission is to strengthen moral foundations of our culture

>> Speaker A: The American Family Association's mission is to inform, equip and activate individuals to strengthen the moral foundations of our culture. Our goal is to be a leading organization in biblical worldview training for cultural transformation. We stand on the biblical truth that all human beings, including the unborn, are created in the image of God and are endowed by him with the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Thank you for standing with the American Family Association.

>> Tim Wildmon: Welcome to Today's Issues, offering a Christian response to the issues of the day. Here's your host, Tim Wildmon, president of the American Family Association. Hey, good morning, everybody, and welcome to Today's Issues on American Family radio. Today's Wednesday, December 17, 2025. We thank you for listen. Tim Wildmon. And in studio with me today is Tony Vitagliano. Good morning, brother Tony.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Good morning.

>> Tim Wildmon: Your dad, Ed, is he off to 2026?

>> Tony Vitagliano: He has sailed away. Yeah. Not to see him. We won't see him until next year.

>> Tim Wildmon: next year. I think he's coming in for trivia Friday. Yeah, Friday. Good morning, Fred Jackson.

>> Fred Jackson: Good morning to you, Tim and Chris Woodward.

>> Tim Wildmon: Good morning. Good morning, brother Chris. So for those of you watching on the Internet and watches our, watch YouTube, Facebook or our own streaming service. What is our streaming service, Tony?

>> Tony Vitagliano: Yeah, you can go to, stream.afa.net stream.afa.net watch the video stream there. Yeah, you can listen to us on afr.net or the AFR app.

Our HR department decided to have a fun thing every day for our staff

>> Tim Wildmon: So this week at our offices, our HR department decided to have a fun thing every day for our staff to participate in. And today was, wasn't today like costume day or something like that? Or dress up your favorite.

>> Tony Vitagliano: I would hope, I would hope.

>> Chris Woodward: It is character day.

>> Tim Wildmon: My wife, last week, she said, hey, you're going to participate in this. I'm going to order you something on that. Their Internet, as Ed calls it. So if you're watching, guess who I am. I am none other than. Go ahead.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Well, Clark, Clark Griswold.

>> Tim Wildmon: We got the sweater, the tie, huh? And the hat. I'm not gonna wear the hat much longer here because I'm not gonna make y' all look at that. The whole show. But anyway, so, yeah, Clark Griswold, Christmas, vacay.

>> Chris Woodward: We need to get you like one of those moose shaped eggnog mugs like he has in the, in the film.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah, well, we need one of y' all to come in next year at least if I do this again as cousin Eddie and back it up.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Yeah, Hey, I think. I think Ed, I'm volunteering.

>> Tim Wildmon: Volunteering Cousin Eddie. Yeah.

>> Tony Vitagliano: I think he needs.

>> Fred Jackson: Give him a pair of white shoes for Christmas.

>> Tony Vitagliano: You gotta have the. Yeah, the white dickies with the nose.

>> Speaker A: The.

>> Tony Vitagliano: It was the black. Black dicky under the white sweater.

>> Tim Wildmon: Or the scene where he's, doing the. The waste from the. From the, from the rv.

>> Fred Jackson: No, no, no, the rv.

>> Chris Woodward: Our HR director actually, did that one time in a Christmas card, I think with another employee here who works in marketing. They were wearing the robe and the.

>> Tim Wildmon: I just like this. That's real nice, Clark. Yeah, real nice.

>> Speaker A: Real nice.

Tim Ferriss: We have Tom Hanks dressed as Polar Express today

>> Fred Jackson: Well, Tim, to your point, we also have Tom Hanks wandering through the halls here today.

>> Speaker A: We do?

>> Tim Wildmon: Oh, man.

>> Fred Jackson: From Polar Express.

>> Chris Woodward: I have a picture. I'll post it.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah. Bronson doesn't care.

>> Chris Woodward: Oh, no, he won't.

>> Tim Wildmon: I don't think he cares because I.

>> Chris Woodward: Posted a picture of himself and me yesterday in our Christmas.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah. One of our staff here, Bronson, in the news department, he goes. He goes all out, all out, man. Every day. He is a head to toe. And he's a big rascal, like six, four or something.

>> Fred Jackson: Oh, God. And literally today it's head to toe.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah. And he is. He's got the costume on of Polar Express.

>> Fred Jackson: Tom Hanks and Polar Express.

>> Chris Woodward: It is on our Today's Issues Facebook page now.

>> Tim Wildmon: It is.

>> Tony Vitagliano: And that's. And that costume, that doesn't look like, Amazon cheapo special.

>> Chris Woodward: That looks like.

>> Tim Wildmon: Let me. Yeah, I mean, he has got it going on now. you got to give him credit.

>> Fred Jackson: I asked this morning where he, you know, where did you get this?

>> Tim Wildmon: Polar Express.

>> Fred Jackson: He ordered some parts and some parts he added himself. But it is excellent.

>> Tony Vitagliano: It is.

>> Fred Jackson: Yeah. It really is.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah.

>> Fred Jackson: He's got a doubt.

>> Tim Wildmon: You think he's going to go out to lunch with that Polar Express outfit on?

>> Chris Woodward: I will make him.

>> Tony Vitagliano: I don't know.

>> Tim Wildmon: Somebody needs to follow him around, videotape that. Make a documentary.

>> Fred Jackson: That's right.

>> Tim Wildmon: Or something like local TV stations will.

>> Fred Jackson: Be saying Tom Hanks is in Tupelo.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Things you don't think about when you full dress up fully. As the conductor from Polish Press, I have to go other places besides work.

>> Chris Woodward: So what's funny is he does the news video for us. And. And, he. He has brought a change of clothes to be able to do the news video because it's kind of hard to take him seriously when you're dressed like that.

>> Speaker A: Right.

>> Tim Wildmon: The book. Book.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Oh, okay.

>> Tim Wildmon: All right. So before Chris gets into the news of the Day, at the bottom of the hour, our friend Dr. Ed Holiday, who is a Tupelo native, he is going to be with us in studio. he had a terrible experience this earlier. I think it was earlier this year, where he got scammed.

>> Speaker A: Yeah, he sure did.

>> Tim Wildmon: He got scammed out of a lot of money. And we're going to tell him, tell his story. So maybe people can be more aware of, of scams out there that are there to try to drain your bank account. Right? Yep. So, we'll, we'll talk to, Brother Ed coming up. Ed Holiday, coming up at the bottom of the hour, the book is called Crypto Cond that he wrote about this. It's a short book. I read it, but it's, it's a warning to all.

President Donald Trump will give a primetime address tonight on economic issues

All right. You're listening to Today's Issues on American Family Radio. Chris, what is our first story?

>> Chris Woodward: Well, President Donald Trump is going to have a primetime address tonight at 9:00pm Eastern, 8:00 Central to sell his agenda. this will be, various top the economy. Remember last week, President Trump, spoke in Pennsylvania where he talked about how he has, helped lower prices, and he will continue to help lower prices as more of his economic agenda gets, put into place. So tonight is basically a continuation of that. And quite frankly, it's going to be something I think we're going to see over the next several weeks or the next few months gearing up for the midterm elections. to go with this, we've got some audio from his press secretary, Caroline Levitt, talking about tonight's speech.

>> Jeff Chamblee: Clip 1 I hope your audience will tune in and Americans across the country will tune in to hear from their president as well about the historic accomplishments that he has garnered for our country over the past year. If you look at the security of our border, if you look at stopping Joe Biden's inflation right in its tracks, bringing down gas prices to the lowest level in five years, President Trump will be talking about what's to come. The best is truly yet to come, as he often says. And so he'll be addressing the country about all of his historic accomplishments over the past year and maybe teasing some policy that will be coming in the new year as well as we head into this Christmas season.

>> Tim Wildmon: Okay, so, so President Trump speaking from the Oval Office tonight.

>> Chris Woodward: I think so.

>> Tim Wildmon: That's rare. Presidents, don't do that. Well, it's always been rare. It's only reserved for really a, maybe once a year or some kind of announcement about a military action that we got engaged in, Tony. So it's rare.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Yeah, yeah, it is rare. You know, he does have.

>> Tim Wildmon: What do you think about what he's going to say tonight?

>> Tony Vitagliano: Yeah, I think, I think, he'll tout the border, which he has done a, ah, you know, an excellent job with the border, securing it, cutting immigration almost, you know, nearly down to zero. I think he'll tout that. And the inflation. He'll talk about inflation, and good or bad? Well, he'll have a good report to give. You know, he'll, he'll say reporting bad news. No, that's going to be any bad news. He's probably just going to, from what I can tell, probably just kind of tout some.

>> Tim Wildmon: Okay, so let me just say this. I'm not saying this. I'm just reporting. I'm just the messenger here. I read a report last night where a majority of Americans believe that the economy is not doing well and that I know that's a generic phrase, not doing well, and that president, Trump is not doing enough about it to improve it. That's the general theme, Fred, that's out there across the country.

>> Fred Jackson: Fair.

>> Tim Wildmon: Fair or not, I'm the one who believes most presidents get too much blame and too much credit. Kind of like quarterbacks. but as they say, perception even is. Even if perception is reality, in the minds of a lot of people. Go ahead.

>> Fred Jackson: Yeah. And I think I'm puzzled to a certain extent by some of this polling and I know it depends on where they poll all of that sort of thing, but just a little bit of anecdotal, I, went to my favorite fill, up my gas tank place this week.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah.

>> Fred Jackson: $2.17 for regular gas. Now I know that's below the national average, but it's been a long time since Regular gas was $2.17 in this town.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Yeah.

>> Fred Jackson: So, if that is, and I can't say that's because of what Donald.

>> Tim Wildmon: Trump has done, you'll talk about that tonight, I'm sure.

>> Fred Jackson: M. You know, gas prices. But you remember how much in the way of economists tie the price of groceries to gas prices, all of that sort of thing. So I think it is improving. Now, grocery prices, I have to admit, higher than last year still.

>> Fred Jackson: But if gas prices are going to stay, on their deceleration, 217 is in my books, is absolutely incredible. I mean, if it gets down below $2, I can't remember the last.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Well, the last time it did was, I believe, at the tail end of Trump's last presidency. We got it. Just under $2.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah.

>> Chris Woodward: Yeah. Today's national average for a gallon of regular is $2.90, which is down from last month and last year. Diesel is also down, from recent weeks. I would like to hear how we're going to do more in the way of maybe getting more diesel or putting more diesel fuel into the market, because I think that will help bring down the price of groceries further. Everything we buy is brought there by gasoline, as Fred pointed out.

>> Speaker A: Yeah.

>> Fred Jackson: And I think that, national average of $2.90, I blame California for that because you get off the plane in California, rent a car, and you go to a gas station.

>> Tony Vitagliano: I mean, it's like being on another planet.

>> Fred Jackson: That's right.

>> Speaker A: Yeah.

>> Fred Jackson: It's amazing.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah. All right, well, we'll see what President Trump says tonight from the Oval Office. about. So the theme of the speech is going to be about the economy, is that right?

>> Chris Woodward: Yeah, it's supposed to be.

>> Tim Wildmon: All right. All right, well, we'll see what happens there.

Senator Tommy Tuberville is concerned about the rise of Islam in Alabama

All right, you're listening to today's issues. What's the next story?

>> Chris Woodward: Well, I want to make sure that we get this one in, and we've got a couple of different sound bites to go over. but let's begin with this one. Tommy Tuberville, the senator from Alabama who wants to be the governor of Alabama, is one of the Republican lawmakers out there, and really just Americans that are concerned about the rise of Islam throughout the United States. And Tommy Tuberville, Senator Tommy Tuberville is concerned about the rise of Islam, specifically the rise of radical Islam, and he's sharing his concerns about that as well as his efforts to maybe fight the spread of Islam in Alabama.

>> Tim Wildmon: Clip 5 Islam is not a religion, it's a cult. And their cult is believes in totally different things. We believe in. They don't believe in Americans. Kill the infidel, do away with everything that we believe in. They hate Christians, so I'm saying they don't belong here. Let's pack them up and send them home. There's a small school that's a Muslim school in that area. They want larger area where they can build a bigger school and bring in more young people to teach them the Muslim faith. I'm a senator right now, and I'm going to fight it. In a year, I'll be the governor. We're going to protect the people of Alabama. We're Going to protect our Constitution, we're going to protect our state, we're going to protect our country.

>> Tim Wildmon: That was Phil Robertson there. sounded like Phil Roberts, the late Phil Robertson. He passed away. But they sound very similar. He and Senator, Tommy Tuber there. we think about what he just talked about there, Tony.

>> Tony Vitagliano: I think he makes,

>> Tim Wildmon: Pack them up and send them off the.

>> Tony Vitagliano: I agree with the,

>> Tim Wildmon: Sentiment.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Sentiment, you know, as far as the execution of it, I think you. It's very problematic. However, you know, I understand that, we've had, we've had some terrible events here lately. And I think people are kind of getting to the point where you start espousing for things that a few years ago you would not, have considered. So he's referring to, I'm assuming, either shutting down, in this particular instance, either shutting down the school or just not granting them a larger area to grow.

>> Fred Jackson: There's been an Islamic school in Birmingham since 1995. The group there, the Islamic group, wanted to go to Hoover, which is a, part of Birmingham. Part of Birmingham, for larger, property. And there was a good deal of controversy about it. And Senator Tupperville was asked about it. And what you heard was his response.

>> Tim Wildmon: He didn't want to. He does not want them to have a larger area, for a bigger school because he, he views Islam as a threat to our country. yes, I mean, you may disagree with that, but there's a lot of people who share that sentiment. as you just said, Tony, I will say this too. this is a, this is a complicated issue to handle for Americans and people in the West. What do I mean by that? Islam does not, is not compatible with Western democracy. It's just not. Now you got a lot of Muslims who are nominal, who don't even know the Koran. They just. Their mom and dad, they're Arab or they're Persian or whatever, therefore they're Muslim. But they're not really practicing. Those people are basically harmless. but the teaching of Islam, you must submit to the Quran and the teaching of Islam, not submit to the values of America or our Constitution or our way of life that is Western society, particularly, you know, American, Canadian, free speech, freedom of religion, freedom of movement, freedom, to wear the kind of clothes you want to wear. All those things that we, I call it our way of life. And so if you have the spread of Islam, those things are going to be at odds with each other and listen, in Europe, they. The Muslims have flooded into Europe from North Africa and from the Middle east, and they're threatening to change Europe altogether.

>> Speaker A: Yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: and so we're not saying anything. Your dad is excellent on this in terms of his understanding of history and how Islam spreads and what they do when they get a majority. Yeah. Control.

Tony Dear says Islam is the greatest threat to Western civilization

let's hear from this lady. Yes. Yesterday I came, across a video from, Do you have her name?

>> Chris Woodward: Yes, it's Siggy Flicker.

>> Tim Wildmon: Okay. I'm not familiar with. I was not familiar with her, but she's evidently a actress.

>> Chris Woodward: Yes, she's an Israeli American podcast.

>> Tim Wildmon: She's an Israeli American. And what I've just talked about, she expresses, talking about her concerns about the spread of Islam. Go ahead.

>> Chris Woodward: It's called world domination. And they have a very simple plan, and it's actually brilliant. It's infiltrate, populate, dominate, never assimilate and then create a caliphate and then bring upon Sharia law. It's the greatest, greatest threat to Western civilization. And if you notice, 85% of Muslim refugees, they don't go to other countries. Their countries. They have 54 Muslim nations. You know why? They come to Christian nations to change them. And they do it by using our laws. And Charlie Kirk said it best. Immigration without assimilation is an invasion. When I say that the world has a huge problem. And you've seen what happened in Europe. Europe has fallen, and we're too nice in America. We're letting people who come here who really don't love this country. I want to live in a country where everybody can practice the religion of their choice but not have anybody threaten their right to exist or want to change this Christian nation that I'm living in.

>> Tim Wildmon: Okay. When you say what she said, which is a more scholarly, commentary than Senator Tuboville's, which was basically raw and from the gut. And I'm not criticizing him. I'm just saying she's been watching this for a long time and studying it. But when you say what she said, or you say what I said earlier, which was a perfectly rational analysis of what Islam is and what it intends to do, you will be called an Islamophobe.

>> Speaker A: Right.

>> Tim Wildmon: And you will be called, that. They will be called. Hate speech.

>> Fred Jackson: Yes.

>> Tim Wildmon: go ahead, Tony. And then Fred.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Yeah, because they're both saying the same thing. Senator Tuberville and the. Siggy Flicker said her name. They're both saying the same thing. It. The. The ends. End result of Islam anywhere. if you are a fundamental Practicing Muslim. Is that everyone around you, you've mentioned this must submit, submit, submit to Allah, submit to Islam. That is different than, for instance, Christians, a Christian population growing within your country where the end result of, if you are a, a follower of Jesus Christ, if you're a devoted Christian, the end result is that you, you proselytize, you preach to those around you, you share the gospel with those around you and whether they accept it or not is on them. You don't force it. There is no subjugation Islam. The end result is you either submit or die. So, yeah, I 100 agree. It's not compatible with.

>> Tim Wildmon: That's one of these, that's one of these Muslims, extremists, yell Allah Akbar before they begin shooting people.

>> Fred Jackson: Yes.

>> Tim Wildmon: because they're saying Allah Akbar means, something about God is something in Arabic having to do with God. Allah Akbar. God is great. God is great. Go ahead, Fred.

>> Fred Jackson: Well, and we have lots of examples right now of what Tommy Tupperville and this lady were talking about. Look at England. the mayor of London is not the only Islamic mayor. Muslim mayor. There are several now in England of communities. There are communities where Sharia law is practiced now in England. All right, so we're not exaggerating, we're not speculating anymore. The tragedy that just occurred in Australia. Many people are pointing out the reason it was allowed to happen is because Australia has been extremely light on anti Semitism. There have been synagogues, there have been firebombed. And the first reaction of the politician is now let's be gentle here.

>> Speaker A: let's not blame, don't be Islamophobic, right wing extremism.

>> Tim Wildmon: M. Also, you don't judge a whole bunch by the actions of a few.

>> Fred Jackson: You look at Dearborn, Michigan. All right, Dearborn, Michigan now basically is a heavily populated Muslim area. They have a, Muslim mayor. There was a Christian who was opposed to naming some streets after a terrorist. He went to the city council meeting. That video I'm sure is out there. And the mayor basically said, you're an Islamophobe. I'll be glad when you leave this city.

>> Speaker A: Yeah, right.

>> Fred Jackson: Where's the tolerance there?

>> Tim Wildmon: Well, here's another. When I said complicated earlier on how to handle this. When you are a, you grow up with American values or Western values. Same things taught in Canada. As I mentioned earlier, our way of life. It is true that you don't want to judge a, group of people by the actions of a few. That is a value that we treasure except white nationalism or white supremacists. Then we all get lumped into that. They don't say just supremacists.

The vast majority of terrorist actions around the world are done by Muslim extremists

They say whites. But any other group, you say Muslim terrorists, they go, wait a minute. No, there's just terrorists. It's not Muslim. You see how the double standard is? But I digress. So it is true that, you don't want to judge a group by the actions of a few, but when a few keep doing it over and over and over and over and over and over again, that is terrorist actions around the world, the vast majority of them are done by Muslim, I call them extremists. Then. Then you get you. Then you have to start saying, well, why are these people doing this all the time? What's their motivation? Well, their motivation is a strict understanding of Islam and. And Muslim, teaching. That's why, what we call terrorists, a strict vote, devoted Muslim would probably call heroes because they're taking down the infidel. The infidel being the Christian and the Jew. That's why in Iran, they call. The, American is called the Great Satan, and Israel is the little Satan. So we are to be destroyed. Why? Because in their eyes, we're Satan.

>> Fred Jackson: Yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: so anymore, and why do you think?

>> Fred Jackson: Within 48 hours after the massacre in Israel, October 7, 2023, we had hundreds of students on our university campuses, mostly up in the northeast, on our universities, blaming Israel for what Hamas had just done to Israel. Why do you think that happened? It's because of years of indoctrination in these schools to hate Israel.

>> Tim Wildmon: Well, also, if you look at Islam. we got to go to a break. If you look at where Islam is dominant around the world, this lady you heard quoted earlier. There's no freedom of speech.

>> Fred Jackson: No.

>> Chris Woodward: No.

>> Tim Wildmon: Okay. There's no freedom of religion. there's no freedom of, movement, things of that nature that we're accustomed to. there's no Bill of Rights in Saudi Arabia. Okay.

>> Tony Vitagliano: No.

>> Tim Wildmon: or Afghanistan, where the Taliban rules supreme. And, where Islamic countries are, and they're dominant. That is that. That the movement that they control with their religion. That's in. Well, in Iran, it's the mullahs. Yeah, the mullahs are the,

>> Tony Vitagliano: They came in. They can't, you know.

>> Tim Wildmon: Iranian.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Yeah. Was. This secular nation came in and.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah. We'll be back momentarily, with today's issues on the American Family. Ra.

Preborn network clinics help women choose life through a free ultrasound

>> Ed Vitagliano: We're living in a time when truth is under attack. Lies are easy to tell, easy to spread and easy to believe. But truth. Truth is costly. And nowhere is the cost greater than for mothers in crisis. When a woman is told abortion is her only option, silence and lies surround her. But when she walks into a preborn network clinic, she's met with compassion, support, and the truth about the life growing inside her. That moment of truth happens through a free ultrasound, and it's a game changer. When a mother sees her baby and hears that heartbeat, it literally doubles the chance she'll choose life. Preborn network clinics are on the front lines, meeting women in their darkest hour, loving them and helping them choose life and sharing truth. Friend, this is not a time to be silent. It's a time for courage, for truth, for life. Just $28 provides one ultrasound and the opportunity for a mother to see her baby. To help her choose truth and life. Donate today. Call £250 and say baby. That's £250, baby. Or give [email protected] afr that's preborn.com afr.

>> Tim Wildmon: This is today's mail. Your comments to commentsfr.net past broadcast of today's issues are available for listening and viewing in the [email protected] now back to more of, Today's Issues.

Tim Ferriss hosts Today's Issues on American Family Radio

Hey, welcome back, everybody, to Today's Issues on American Family Radio. Thanks for listening to afr and we're. This is a live radio show you're listening to. So, we could mess up and end our careers by simply uttering something. no. Tim here with, my guest in studio, Tony. m not my guest. My colleagues, Tony, Fred and Chris. And again, we thank you for listening.

Spammers and scammers are everywhere today

Well, spammers and scammers are everywhere today and we've all seen it or experienced it or been a, some cases, sadly been victims of scams. And we're talk. We're going to talk to a gentleman today who's in studio with us, our friend Ed Holiday. Ed Doc. Yes, he's been called Doc his whole life. And he knows why I told Jonathan.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Trying to get his autograph.

>> Tim Wildmon: Well, and he doesn't know he's not going to be your huckleberry. Okay. Ed's a native of Tupelo. was. He was in even a dentist profession for a long time. You still are.

>> Speaker A: Still are.

>> Tim Wildmon: Still are. And friend of ours wrote a book about a terrible, experience that he had to go through. he went through. was that earlier this year? That was earlier this year.

>> Speaker A: Valentine's 2025. Earlier this year.

>> Tim Wildmon: Okay. By the way, if you're wondering, Ed talks like us. So, Except for Fred. Yeah.

>> Speaker A: Learn how to talk like Fre Fred.

>> Tim Wildmon: They'd be a little Nova Scotia accent coming your way. But, So anyway,

Ed Schultz was conned by scammers trying to get into his Google account

All right, Ed, your book is tied. Crypto cond. And, my 200k nightmare. And I talked to you about this, a couple weeks ago, and we talked about you coming on the radio to tell your story, to warn other people, maybe not necessarily about crypto theft, although that's what your experience was. Cryptocurrency threat, but also just how scammers work with social engineering and so forth and so on. So, start with this. How'd you get involved in the cryptocurrency world first?

>> Speaker A: Well, I've been involved for about eight years.

>> Tim Wildmon: Okay.

>> Speaker A: Wasn't anything new to me. And I thought I was very secure doing things. Had been doing things I, thought a very secure way for about eight years.

>> Tim Wildmon: Okay. we did pretty well at it.

>> Speaker A: I did okay.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah.

>> Speaker A: When I mentioned my book, a couple of things it helped out with. And, those have cryptocurrencies. You have different wallets. You put them in. I had things in different wallets.

>> Tim Wildmon: All right. What happened here, huh? How did you get conned? Tell us about this story. Yeah.

>> Speaker A: Very important for people to understand. And that's why I'm here, because I want to help people, because I don't want what happened to me happen anywhere else. It was one of the most devastating things that happened in my life. But it started just a normal day. I, I wasn't at work.

>> Tim Wildmon: This is back in February.

>> Speaker A: It's back in February on Valentine's Day. Okay. And. And, I was actually getting taxes ready for 2024 taxes to get it ready to get to my accountant. And I got a phone call, and, you know, I looked at my cell phone, said, Google.

>> Tim Wildmon: And, it said Google.

>> Speaker A: It did. Said Google was calling me. And I looked at that, and I thought, I know it's not Google. And I. But I answered, and that was number one mistake. I answered it. I shouldn't have. But, they said they were Google, and they said they had frozen my account and because some of them was trying to get into my Google account, and they just want to make sure I safe. And I told I didn't believe they were Google, and they try to explain the word. And they sent me emails, and I spent about 30.

>> Tim Wildmon: You mean to prove that they were.

>> Speaker A: Yeah, they're trying to prove.

>> Tim Wildmon: To convince you.

>> Speaker A: Trying to convince me.

>> Tim Wildmon: And.

>> Speaker A: And I spent about 30 minutes back and forth, emails, and. And then they finally said, look, if we sent you, you know, you got your phone, if we sent you a message on the YouTube app, you know, would that make you feel better? I said, well, I knew Google owns YouTube, and I had gotten messages. You know, sometimes Google will tell you, hey, you know, check your YouTube app. I mean, that's happened in work with Google. Get something. So I thought, yeah, that make me feel better. And sure enough, they. A message came in on YouTube app saying, is this you? And. And then having three numbers. You had to pick a number. And they told me what number to pick, but they were just scammers. But. But they just wanted to get in.

>> Tim Wildmon: But you didn't know it at the time.

>> Speaker A: No, I didn't know it. You know, I mean, everything,

>> Tim Wildmon: What were they. What were they, supposedly trying to help you?

>> Speaker A: Well, they said someone was prevent you from doing. Well, they were. Said someone was attacking my account.

>> Tim Wildmon: They're there to help you keep that from happening.

>> Speaker A: Yeah, and they were trying. They said someone's trying to get into my Google account. They wanted just to make sure that I was safe, get you a temporary password.

Tim Holiday says scammers posed as Coinbase to trick him into answering phone

>> Tim Wildmon: Okay, so, so, so, so to review. And you guys jump in here when you want to. So to review. You shouldn't have ever answered the phone.

>> Speaker A: Call in the first, right? I didn't know who it was.

>> Tim Wildmon: I'm not trying to make you relive your.

>> Speaker A: You're gonna give me trauma, Tim.

>> Tim Wildmon: I know, I know, I know.

>> Speaker A: But you should have been.

>> Tim Wildmon: Rule number one, don't answer a phone from somebody you don't know. and then. But number two, they, they pulled you along here. Yes, it's pretty sophisticated. they call this social engineering, don't they?

>> Speaker A: That's what they call it.

>> Tim Wildmon: And you're alone. By that, I mean you're not consulting with anybody as you go through this process. This all happening in a matter of hours.

>> Speaker A: This happened in about 30 minutes. And then finally, when. When, I agreed to say, let's get a temporary password, and that's all they want to do, they said, you're safe now. I said, that's all I need to do. I said, yeah, you know, you hang up. So I hung up. And that was all. You know, when I thought,

>> Tim Wildmon: And so you thought the problem was taken care of?

>> Speaker A: That problem was taken care of.

>> Tim Wildmon: All right, what happened then?

>> Speaker A: About an hour later, I get a phone call from. Because I have cryptocurrency, and it's on what to call a crypto exchange. Coinbase is one of the biggest ones.

>> Tim Wildmon: I've heard of that. Yeah.

>> Speaker A: And Coinbase, one of their mottos is we will never call you.

>> Tim Wildmon: Right.

>> Speaker A: But about an hour later, I got a phone call. They said, we're from, And it said Coinbase on it, and it said, the phone, my cell phone said coinbase. And it said, we are, we are the Coinbase, Asset Security Protection. And they said, someone is trying to remove 1999 chainlink tokens. That's a. That's a cryptocurrency, a token. And I knew that was like. Is worth $38,000. And that scared me. M. And this is how they do the social engineering, Tim, for people, they. And you look back at most scams, they put fear in your life.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Yeah.

>> Speaker A: And they know it works. Now, I'm a dentist, and I know sometimes I deal with epinephrine. And we put in anesthetics to keep it lasting longer and. But when you get fear is what they call the fight or flight mechanism. Everybody's heard of that. That's where God made our bodies fight or flat. You got to do something. And when you do, the epinephrine kicks in.

>> Tim Wildmon: A chemical in your body, your brain.

>> Speaker A: Your body makes the epinephrine naturally so that you can run if you got to outrun a lion or a bear or a tiger or something. Or you fight. but you know, for us now, when that hits us, it does minimize your ability to do rational thinking, it shuts down. Cause you go in that fight or flight mechanism, your brain shuts down. The rational thinking on the frontal cortex, especially when you're isolated and you're isolated, not talking anybody. And, you know, you. You know, I'm sitting there on the phone and they said someone was trying to remove my. And they knew. This is what got me, is that they knew the exact number. Now, looking back for people, when Google called me, they got into my account, the scammers got in. They knew exactly how many tokens I had. I didn't think anybody would know that but Coinbase. But when they told me they knew exactly. But even then, I still didn't believe them. I said, I don't really believe you are. And I spent an, again, about 30 to 45 minutes getting Coinbase to convince me that these scammers, right, who.

>> Tim Wildmon: Were posing as Coinbase, they were posing.

>> Speaker A: You know, I won't say that, you know, now I know they were scammers, but they. Again, they sent Me emails. And they told me, you go to any email that you ever, that you have sent to Coinbase and just, you know, use that email. And, and, and, and do a reply to that.

>> Tim Wildmon: And, and, and step by step by step, you're giving them everything they want.

>> Speaker A: Everything. And then.

>> Tim Wildmon: Aren't you.

>> Speaker A: And then that's why they tell.

>> Tim Wildmon: Aren't you, Mr. Holiday?

>> Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yes. Like a prosecutor.

>> Speaker A: I'm sweating. Okay.

Ed Holiday wrote a book about losing $200,000 to crypto con

>> Tim Wildmon: Hey, what's, Pause right here. We'll get back into the story in just a minute. Tell us about your book. And it's really a short book. You read it in an hour. But how can people.

>> Speaker A: This is tomato. It's got so much wisdom packed in there because it's up to date. It's about social, engineering, like we talked about. It tells that detailed story. I go deep into detail, just exactly what happened. You go to cryptocondbook.com cryptocond book.com and I got more information there on it.

>> Tim Wildmon: I got PTSD just reading it.

>> Speaker A: Yeah, well, and, and, and that's where it's, You know, it's a shocker because people says in the title, we didn't pick it up. My 200k nightmare before it was over with. I lost $200,000. And, and the reason I wrote the book. Cause the, I had to bring in guy to help clean up computers. And he said, ed, I know you're a good writer. You need to write a book. Because he said, I know. So many people get scammed. They're full of guilt and full of shame. They don't want anybody to know. And he said, if you'll just write what happened to you, you'll help a lot of people.

>> Tim Wildmon: And, and what's the name of it? Where to get it?

>> Speaker A: Crypto con. My 200k nightmare and 10 key steps to safeguard your future. You go to cryptocon book.com. it's on Amazon, Barnes and Noble. You can get the E versions there. Or, you know, you can go to the website at cryptocon. Yeah, we're talking.

>> Tim Wildmon: Talking Ed Holiday. H O L L I D A Y. Tony, Go ahead.

Ed: The scammers were using me to rob myself

>> Tony Vitagliano: So, Ed, at this point, are they trying to get you to transfer crypto from one wallet to another? Is that what this ended?

>> Speaker A: Basically what it is what they did, again, to make me feel better, you know, again, after they email me all this stuff and convince me that they were who they said they were, which they were scammers, they were liars, and again, my mind's not thinking rationally, because I'm thinking going back to Proverbs, you know, Pride, coming for a fall I knew had $38,000, and they telling me somebody was trying to take it. But then, of course, I had more than that in there. And what you just asked, Tony, was the fact that, they said, we don't want you to move it off Coinbase. We want you to move it from the exchange to a Coinbase wallet. You know, and of course, my bright mind, I just said, hey, I don't have one, so we'll have to set one. That's why we. As a bag. They said, that's what we're here for, is to help.

>> Fred Jackson: Yeah.

>> Speaker A: Why we're guard. You know, we got to secure those assets.

>> Tim Wildmon: Let me ask you this. so how long did all this take, take to do?

>> Speaker A: Well, but when. When the fake people calling, saying, you know, Coinbase, it was about an hour by the time I went through everything.

>> Tim Wildmon: And so you lost that whole amount in an hour?

>> Speaker A: About an hour and a half by time.

>> Tim Wildmon: And you realized. And then you realized what had happened.

>> Speaker A: Well, what was happening was when I was transferring again, they. The scammers were using me to rob myself. You know, I mean, I was just giving them everything they wanted. And this is the sad part. And I put it in a book for, you know, I won't. You know, people need to read a book because, it goes in detail what to be aware of. But one of the things. And if it's a horror movie and you say, oh, don't go in that room. Well, I went in the room where the monster was, and, you know, they said, we're having trouble, you know, getting this transferred. And, you know, if you want us to help you quicker, you know, if we need, you know, if you'll just put in this, you know, app, you know, download this, then. Then we can see your screen. and that was the thing I didn't know was going on, because I just thought they were helping when they. But when I allowed them to see my screen, they were in my computer. And these wallets I thought were secure when they were talking to me. And I figured it had to be a team. I don't know how it all works, but as they were talking to me about moving my coins off the exchange to this other place, which was about, you know, maybe 50, $60,000, I had seven or eight wallets in this computer. I used this computer. I thought it was secure. I wouldn't use it for anything. But my cryptocurrency I only pulled it out for cryptocurrency. And, but they had a. What they call a turbo, app. It sucked out all my information in my computer, spit everything out, and kept the passwords and my wallets, and they were going in my wallets and wiping my wallets out. I had no clue what they were doing that when they were talking to me about this one thing. And by the time I started figuring it out, you know, I didn't see some assets. So when I said, hey, where's this, bitcoin? I don't see it now, and they said, oh, it takes 24 hours show up. But I knew it wasn't right.

>> Tim Wildmon: Right.

>> Speaker A: And then that's when I realized. And they knew. They knew I knew. They hung up.

>> Tim Wildmon: Did you. How'd you deal with this? Because this has all happened. Did you. Do you call the FBI at this point? Do you, Well, when. How do you deal with something like that?

>> Speaker A: It happens. Of course. It's devastating. And I mean, I've just. I felt about as bad as I've ever felt my life. Because, you know, I mean, you know, $200,000, you know, how that. How much got to give the American Family Association? How much I can give the roots and things that, you know, I wanted to be able to do. And. And so, I mean, you feel of guilt, you know, because, I mean, I did it. I mean, I did it. I mean, I was scammed. And they, you know, the scammer stole it from me, but I didn't know what to do, and I had to go out. And I knew my wife said, well, you need to call and had. Tell her first. That was not easy, but she took it very well. I got a great Christian wife, and, and so. But said we got to call somebody. But my mind could not think. And she didn't know anything about cryptocurrencies, but. But I knew she. I knew I need to talk to somebody. And then, But I did get a hold of some people, help me figure out, you know, hey, you know, shut your computer down. You know, get off WI Fi. Once they're in the computer. She said, you know, you got to get. Get off the Internet, right? You know, you know, any computer use, just get it out, get off the Internet. And then, And then they get it got a hold of, and they tell me, you know, the. Basically what I had to do the next day. Computer guy here in town that I knew of, he. He helped me get My computers cleaned up, got everything get off the Internet.

Scammers use a tornado app to split Bitcoin into thousands

Basically, I went, bought a little cheap computer, a new computer, a whole new computer so I could work on the Internet.

>> Tim Wildmon: But you knew at that time that that was gone.

>> Speaker A: Yeah, because, and he told me. And I know because they got something called a tornado app. And when the scammers use it, like if you have $1,000 of Bitcoin and put it through that tornado app, and it divides it up in a thousand little pieces. So it's hard, you know, if go. You know, if the government really wanted to, they're not going to worry about $200,000.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Yeah. Because if they transferred the whole amount from a large amount from one wallet to the other, the way cryptocurrency works is you would be able to see what wallet that it was transferred to, and then you may be able to derive some information as to where it's at.

>> Speaker A: But, yeah, they sometimes go back and get that, and then you get all the information they put in that tornado.

>> Tony Vitagliano: App, it splits it up, and you'll never get it back.

>> Fred Jackson: Yeah.

Tony Bennett: Ed Holiday wrote a book about being scammed

>> Tim Wildmon: All right. You're listening to today's issues. Our guest in studio, is Ed Holiday. Ed is talking about a nightmare that he went through last, February, where he was conned out of two, hundred thousand dollars. And, he wrote a book about it to warn other people. just about. It's more than just about crypto. It's about warning how to avoid being scammed.

>> Speaker A: If you have an online banking account, you got any assets, whatever they're coming after, scammers want it.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: Well, you know what, Tony, I know you. This is your field of study for a lot of times, that is Internet technology, which is not exactly the same as cyber security.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Right.

>> Tim Wildmon: But at the same time, every day you read about data, breaches that are taking place, here and all over the world, where the information for all people is out there on the Internet. phone numbers, email, Social Security numbers now are out there.

>> Speaker A: Yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: I mean, what are we. What do people. What do you suggest you do?

>> Tony Vitagliano: Yeah, you just, you have to be, very protective. So almost to. When you're dealing with anything online, you almost need to be paranoid. So you just. If you don't, I mean, seriously, if you don't recognize a phone number, you just don't answer it. If it is someone who, a company or your bank or whatever who really needs to get in touch with you, they will. You. They'll get to you. So you need to be paranoid and not answer. Just don't answer numbers you don't recognize.

>> Tim Wildmon: Period.

>> Tony Vitagliano: period. And because they can also mask themselves. So what they did, to Ed is they, they spoof themselves as Google.

>> Tim Wildmon: What does spoof mean for those?

>> Tony Vitagliano: Well, so pretend you're somebody else. You mask your phone number, okay. And the identity of your phone number. Basically the information you're sending when you call someone will, they'll mask it so that when, when it pops up on your phone it says Google or when it pops up on your phone it says Coinbase. so the, the philosophy I have and, and that I recommend to most people is just don't answer the phone if you, get a call from a number you don't recognize. second of all, you just. Data breaches are going to happen. So everybody's information here, and listening, I hate to say it, at some point your information is going to get breached. Your email address is going to get breached, maybe not your password, which is what I'm guessing is. if I had to guess and I don't know Ed, you may have had someone do some more digging on how this started. But if I had to guess, Ed's information was out there from a previous data breach. An email address and a phone number. They didn't have your password, so what they needed to do was try and contact you directly and gain access to more of that information. so your data is going to get breached. You just need to make sure that you secure, your accounts to the recommended levels. So two factor authentication, can be annoying. I know folks, that's that code that you'll get to your phone, texted to your phone, or you have a second, you know, a separate authentication app. I know it's annoying trying to log into your account. You put your password in your super secure password and then you got to do something else. I know it's annoying, but it's there to protect you as an added level because that really does ensure that if your password was to get hacked or if you did divulge it, you know, by, by accident or, or you were, you know, tricked into doing it, then there's an extra level there that the bad actor couldn't get into your account without that secondary code. So taking those precautions, you just got to be, you know, nowadays, you.

You have to physically secure your phone or whatever, a computer

>> Tim Wildmon: Nowadays too, you have to physically secure your phone or whatever, a computer. But most people, I know a person, a relative of mine, recently they were in NewSong Orleans for a convention and had their phone, stolen. And the. Okay I don't know exactly how it happened without that.

>> Fred Jackson: 4.

>> Tim Wildmon: You know how you have to have a code? Most of us use codes to get into our phone.

>> Fred Jackson: Yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah. But some way or another they were able to get into the phone. while, while, while the code was not he did, this person did have a code, but it was like.

>> Tony Vitagliano: He maybe grabbed the phone before.

>> Tim Wildmon: Well, I think he left it in his backpack, went to the restroom which was 10 steps away at a restaurant in a nice part of town. But somebody was watching. And it's probably a team, couple people watching. So when he went to the restroom, of course he shouldn't have left the phone, but he did because he didn't think anything of it. You know when you're, when you're 10.

>> Speaker A: We all do that.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah. When you're 10ft away from some, from the restroom in a nice part of town and just boom. The rip phones gone. lost several thousand dollars through a bank account. So these, what I'm saying I hate, I mean I hate to bring up another thing to be worried about, but you better keep, you better keep your phone secured at all time. Don't, don't. Just especially when you're leaving it where you're out, in crowds and things of that nature. Just like pickpockets.

>> Speaker A: Yeah. You know, go ahead and Tim, what Tony said and one of the things I found out and it's so easy, what's prevalent is the spoof emails and people have to really if AI now look, just like I said, they made their emails look just like the.

>> Chris Woodward: Real One thing I've noticed in the last couple of days and other people have mentioned this as well perhaps on the show now I'm getting text messages from people and it's like the scammer is trying to pass themselves as somebody. You know, it's like hey, how's Howard, how's your day going? Or yeah, I forgot to tell you something last night and they want you.

>> Tim Wildmon: To be, they want you to say what are you talking about?

>> Tim Wildmon: And then they know they have a live phone number. Right.

>> Chris Woodward: Yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: It's a scary world out there.

>> Chris Woodward: I get, I got things this week from Canada. I googled the number and found out it's somebody in, you know, some part of Canada.

>> Tim Wildmon: M. I've had people tell me they got texts from me. I didn't see in that. That's spoofing you're talking.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

>> Speaker A: But, but I guess the one of the safe practices I found out is you get. We get so many emails, but if somebody asks you for money or saying.

>> Tim Wildmon: You owe, click on this link.

>> Speaker A: Yeah, you click on it, but you don't ever click on links. You can go to your bank and go in. Yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: Get something about your credit card. Yeah. Go to the company directly. If you get an email from your bank or text from your bank.

>> Tony Vitagliano: That's right.

>> Tim Wildmon: Call.

>> Speaker A: Do not click a link.

>> Tony Vitagliano: That's what we tell our employees here. Even, yeah, at AFA is if you get an email or a text message from somebody and something about it just doesn't seem right, you know, just call them. Just pick up the phone and say, hey, did you send. Did you. Did you send me this?

>> Tim Wildmon: I've done that several times.

>> Tony Vitagliano: So it's just.

>> Tim Wildmon: So we, We've had. In people. Businesses have this every day, all day, all over the. The country, all around the world, really. We've had people try to give us fake invoices.

>> Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, I know. My dentist office, you know, they'll get calls or we get emails saying, oh, you owe this, you know, you know this phone company, you know this. And, and it's, it's all scams. So much. Have to be looking out.

>> Tim Wildmon: Well, they can make them with A.I. they can make them look so real. Like.

>> Speaker A: Absolutely.

>> Tim Wildmon: We've had at least a couple, not many, but we've had a couple of attempts at fake invoices, but that's a big deal around the world.

>> Speaker A: Yeah.

Tim Ferriss: Crypto conned my 200k nightmare

>> Tim Wildmon: so the book is named what and where do you get it?

>> Speaker A: Ed? Crypto conned my 200k nightmare. You go to crypto con to book.

>> Tim Wildmon: C O N C O N N E D. Yes, I'm translating your Southern English for people in Oregon.

>> Speaker A: Thank you, Tim.

>> Tim Wildmon: Crypto con C O n n e d.book.com book com by our guest, Dr. Ed Holliday. H O L L I D A Y. We're sorry you went through this, brother, but the Lord saw you through it.

>> Speaker A: And, I'm alive and well. All those have been scammed. Life is good afterwards when you put your faith in the Lord.

>> Tim Wildmon: Amen. We'll be back in a minute. Stay with us. The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of.

>> Tony Vitagliano: The American Family association or American Family Radio.

Tim, Tony and Fred talk with Chris on top news headlines of the day. Also, Dr. Ed Holliday joins the program to discuss his unfortunate ordeal with scammers and how you can take steps to help protect yourself.