Jimmy Durchslag with Martha Mendoza on the Threat and Impact of International Scams on Both the Victims and the perpetrators

On this podcast of Global Stuff, host Jimmy Durchslag talks with Martha Mendoza, distinguished investigative journalist and PBS “Frontline” reporter. Ms. Mendoza, was the moderator of the “Scams and Scammers” session during the 14th Global Investigative Journalism Conference held in Geneva on November 20-24, 2025. Martha discusses the pervasive proliferation of International Scams, their devastating impact on victims, and how many of the people making the scam calls are also victims, held in virtual captivity by various an international crime syndicates.  This is a multi-billion dollar annual industry. Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Philippines, Laos and other countries are frequently manipulated by Chinese and other international criminals with the collaboration of local law enforcement. Jimmy and Martha also talk about some of the most common scams and how to avoid them.

Martha Mendoza: A two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, Martha Mendoza’s reports have prompted Congressional hearings and new legislation, Pentagon investigations and White House responses. She was part of a team whose investigations into slavery in the Thai seafood business led to the freedom of more than 2,000 men. And she was part of a team that uncovered a US Army massacre of hundreds of civilians during the Korean War.

Currently a FRONTLINE correspondent, Mendoza won a 2020 Emmy for “Kids Caught In The Crackdown,” about the detention of migrant children. A year later she won an Investigative Editors and Reporters award for “America’s Medical Supply Crisis,” a documentary holding those responsible for deadly shortages during the pandemic.

During her Associated Press career, Mendoza covered the war on drugs while based in Mexico City, and focused on human trafficking while working in Bangkok. She spent years covering tech inequality, booms and busts in the Silicon Valley.

Mendoza earned her second Pulitzer Prize in 2016 as part of the AP reporting team, along with Esther Htusan, Margie Mason, and Robin McDowell, that exposed the use of forced labor in the fishing industry in Southeast Asia and its connections to seafood sales in the United States. This was the AP's first Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in its history. Their work also earned them the 2016 Gerald Loeb Award for Investigative business journalism.[

Jimmy Durchslag has been the host of “Global Stuff”, a monthly guest driven talk show for over 25 years. He has a long experience as a manager of several for profit and non-profit organizations. He is one of the founders of Redwood Community Radio, the parent organization for KMUD. He recently served as the Director of the Mainstream Media Project, a nonprofit organization that scheduled expert guests for interviews on talk shows both nationally and internationally.