A friend was a recent victim of a financial scam by a company he thought was in Beverly Hills, CA. I tried geolocating them through photo EXIF data but they'd been careful to stay on Telegram which scrubs GPS coordinates.

But a few photos were outdoors and I tossed them into the ChatGBT thresher. Chat identified a region in Vietnam from terrain and foilage and then a golf club near Hanoi which matched a building in the background. Incredible. Total time invested... about ten minutes.

Exact location.
Exact date and time.
Billing records.
Facial photo.

Busted!

Using cutting-edge technology to catch a criminal on the other side of the planet felt a bit like hacking the planet in 1988.

Hacking The Planet - 1988
This image was for my DEFCON 13 opening but I used a funny experience from my flight instead. I discovered hacking as an electronic technician at Teradyne in Agoura Hills, CA. They had dozens of Microvax II systems overseas and I realized I could hack from Agoura Hills into Boston