This week, we sit down with Al Pascual, CEO and founder of Scamnetic, to talk about fraud from the inside out. Al didn’t come up through product or engineering. He started his career chasing real fraud cases, shaped early on by parents who were cops and a first job in a bank fraud department. That hands-on experience is what pushed him from treating fraud as “just a job” to seeing it as his lane.

We get into the scam patterns that worry him most right now, including pig butchering and sextortion schemes that still aren’t getting enough mainstream attention. Al makes a clear case that fraud isn’t primarily a data or tooling problem. It’s a human one. Psychology, pressure, shame, and timing matter more than most defenses want to admit. When a big fraud story hits the news, he explains how coverage often misses the point by focusing on the tech and ignoring the manipulation. Al shares one of the strangest cases he’s worked, and what it taught him about how creative and absurd fraudsters can be. We also tackle the reality of AI-enabled scams, including voice cloning. How common is it really, and who’s actually at risk? Kevin is skeptical he’d fall for it, while Laura shares a story about a friend losing $500 to a gift card scam, a reminder that real people get caught all the time. This one is a grounded, sometimes funny, and occasionally unsettling look at how fraud really works, and why understanding people matters as much as understanding systems.

A recognized expert on cybercrime, Al Pascual is the CEO and Founder of Scamnetic. Scamnetic is a software solution for scam detection and protection that uses AI to analyze incoming communications in real time and flag or score risk before someone falls for a scam. A successful technology entrepreneur and a former managing executive of Javelin Strategy & Research, Al has spent his career laser-focused on protecting consumers and organizations from financially motivated crimes. His past research on consumer identity theft has been cited by hundreds of media outlets and presented at conferences around the world. Al cut his teeth fighting fraudsters at HSBC, Goldman Sachs, and FIS, where during his time as an investigator, his work resulted in the arrest of more than four hundred suspects.

This week on That Tech Pod, Laura and Kevin chat with Richa Kaul, founder and CEO of Complyance, for a blunt conversation about what governance, risk, and compliance actually are, and why so many companies pretend it’s something else.

Richa walks us through how she really landed in GRC, including the moment she realized compliance isn’t about forms or frameworks. It’s about power, incentives, and who takes the fall when systems fail. Drawing on her time in legal tech, enterprise systems, and AI, she makes the case that much of today’s compliance model is quietly broken, and that organizations know it, even if they won’t admit it. We dig into why GRC has such a credibility problem, the comforting lies companies tell themselves about being “compliant,” and whether compliance should be about control or trust, and why so many leaders default to the wrong one. Richa also weighs in on whether “move fast and break things” is actually gone, or just better disguised in the age of AI. We close with a forward-looking conversation on AI risk, including the uncomfortable questions boards avoid, why training alone won’t fix reckless AI use, and what organizations should be paying attention to next if they want governance that actually works.

Richa Kaul is the founder and CEO of Complyance, an AI-powered GRC platform helping enterprises navigate governance, risk, and compliance with ease. She previously held leadership roles in legal and compliance technology, including helping scale global solutions at ContractPodAI. Richa focuses on how companies can move beyond checkbox compliance to build systems that actually support better decisions, accountability, and trust as AI becomes more embedded in the enterprise. She is passionate about the future of compliance, the role of AI in governance, and the challenges of scaling a company in enterprise tech. Her innovative approach combines deep technical expertise with strategic business acumen, making her a sought-after thought leader in the GRC space.

As we announced last week, this month on That Tech Pod, we’re changing things up a bit. Instead of our usual deep dives into eDiscovery, data privacy, and cyber security, this December, we're spotlighting people and organizations using technology to close real gaps in opportunity.

In this episode, we sit down with Savita Raj, the CEO of Techbridge Girls, to talk about what it really takes to help girls from underrepresented communities see themselves in STEM. Savita cuts through the buzzwords to explain why the pipeline problem is still very real in 2025, even as AI races ahead, and why access is about far more than programs. It’s transportation, time, family expectations, early exposure, and a sense of belonging.

The conversation gets candid about the gap between industry rhetoric on diversity and who actually makes it through. Savita shares what funders and tech leaders often miss about hidden barriers, and why the rise of AI and automation makes sustained investment in programs like Techbridge Girls more urgent than ever.

If you want to support Techbridge Girls, you can donate directly at https://www.techbridgegirls.org/donate to help bring high-quality STEM experiences to girls from underrepresented communities, or explore ways to get involved like volunteering, mentoring, or partnering at https://www.techbridgegirls.org/get-involved to make a more hands-on impact.

Savita Raj, is the CEO of Techbridge Girls. Techbridge Girls is a nonprofit focused on opening doors to STEM for girls from underrepresented communities through hands-on learning, mentorship, and exposure to real-world careers. The organization works closely with schools and industry partners to help girls build confidence, skills, and a lasting sense that they belong in science and technology. Savita has decades-long experience in leadership, strategy, and fundraising focused on creating equitable STEM programs in underserved communities. An engineer by training, Savita has served as the Chief Program Officer for Girl Scouts of the USA and as the Executive Director for the Texas Alliance for Minorities in Engineering. She lives in Austin and enjoys traveling, reading, sewing, and baking.