Lurkers
Frank Battiston • PowerTale Podcasts
Outreach Signals
Publishing Details
Contact & Outreach
About This Podcast
Lurkers is a narrative true crime podcast about online moments that spiral into real-world danger. Each episode follows a verified case that begins on screens, dating apps, DMs, group chats, and social platforms and traces how it crosses into everyday life. Told scene by scene with immersive sound and human storytelling, Lurkers exposes catfishing, stalking, AI deepfakes, sextortion, and romance-investment scams hiding in plain sight.
New cases drop every two weeks.
Stay Aware · Stay Present · Stay Safe.
—
Follow LURKERS:
Instagram: @thelurkers_podcast
TikTok: @thelurkerspodcast
YouTube: @TheLurkersPodcast
Podcasting 2.0 Features
Social Media
Explore Statistics
Recent Episodes
S2E10 20. Austin Lee Edwards: Cross Country Catfishing Cop
A red Kia Soul runs out of road in the California desert. Patrol units close in. A helicopter circles overhead. Police believe a 15-year-old girl is inside the car—along with an armed driver.Then the…
S2E9 19. Morata's Triple Murder (Spain): The Spell and the Debt
Morata de Tajuña sits just outside Madrid, Spain, a small town where routines are a heartbeat. And when that heartbeat stops… everyone feels it.Three elderly siblings, known around town and always…
S2E8 18. Ryan Last & Eli Heacock: 45-Minute Sextortion
Two teenagers. Two different states: California and Kentucky. One crime that spreads faster than shame can be spoken out loud: sextortion.It starts with a message that feels private, a quick…
S2E7 17. Sydney Loofe: The Tinder Mask
Sydney Loofe goes missing in Lincoln, Nebraska after a night connected to Tinder... and within hours, the search isn’t just happening in the streets. It’s happening online.A video appears. A calm…
S2E6 16. Laura Kowal: The Mysterious Disappearance
Kelly Gowe gets a voicemail from a federal agent: “I’m calling in regards to your mother, Laura Kowal, who may have been involved in a fraud scam.” She calls her mom. Laura answers. She is alive. But…
S2E5 15. Ashley Wadsworth: When Love Turned into a Trap
She was 19. He was charming from a distance.Ashley Wadsworth meets Jack Sepple online, and what starts as attention quickly becomes a relationship built on messages, calls, and promises that feel…
S2E4 14. Voices That Aren’t Real: AI Kidnapping Scams
The call comes out of nowhere.Your teenage daughter is sobbing, gasping for air, and begging for you. It sounds surgically real. The same breaks in the voice. The same breath between words. The same…
S2E3 13. Kacie Woody: The Origin of Grooming
It’s late 2002. Dial-up internet. A shared family computer in the living room. And a 13-year-old girl in rural Arkansas who just wants more people to talk to after school.Kacie Woody meets “Scott”…
S2E2 12. Sydney Sutherland (Part 2): The App That Told the Truth
PART 2 OF 2A dot on a map doesn’t cry. It doesn’t panic. It just… stops.In Part 2, investigators pull location history from a family safety app, Life360, and the case pivots. A route becomes a…
S2E1 11. Sydney Sutherland (Part 1): The Road She Trusted
PART 1 OF 2A quiet farm road. A familiar running route. Then she disappears.In northeast Arkansas, 24-year-old nurse Sydney Sutherland leaves for an afternoon run and vanishes within minutes. Her…
S1E10 10. Huione Romance Crypto Scam: Get Coached into a Zero Balance
Four people on three continents are coached from chat apps into fake exchanges and “profits” in USDT they can never withdraw. A grandfather in North Carolina, a professional in Los Angeles, a single…
S1E9 9. The Instagram Ticket Scam: When Your Profile Sells Without You
Her followers trusted her name. Then her page started selling tickets she never posted. Overnight the grid fills with urgent drops and countdowns; DMs flood with “is this you?” and “where are my…
S1E8 8. Patricia Alatorre: When Social Media Masks the Devil
Patricia Alatorre was a Bakersfield teenager who wanted to be seen. It began with compliments in DMs and shifted to secrecy, urgency, and late-night plans. When Patricia went missing, her family and…
S1E7 7. The Deepfake Deception: When Love Is Not Real
A video call feels right. A voice sounds right. A profile pulls pieces from real people to make something that never existed. We follow how a deepfake relationship forms, how pressure normalizes, and…
S1E6 6. Cari Farver (Part 2): The Truth Behind the Messages
The messages would not stop. In Part 2, investigators test accounts and devices and read the data behind years of activity. Logins, IPs, Wi-Fi associations, EXIF timestamps, and deleted files begin…
S1E5 5. Cari Farver (Part 1): Messages from a Stalker Who Wasn’t There
A relationship ends and an avalanche of messages begins. This first part follows the disappearance of Cari Farver, the early theories, and the widening trail across accounts, devices, and locations…
S1E4 4. The BM Boys: Inside a Sextortion Pipeline
A friendly DM becomes pressure, then demands, then threats. This episode shows how a sextortion ring builds leverage from a single message, multiplies fear with screenshots and deadlines, and uses…
S1E3 3. Bianca Devins: When a tragedy turned into content
Bianca Devins’ name became a headline after images of her violent murder spread online. This episode focuses on the person behind the posts, the escalation that led to tragedy, and how platforms,…
S1E2 2. Mackenzie Lueck: The Meeting That Never Reached Daylight
A late flight, a Lyft to Hatch Park, an online meetup... then silence.After a late flight into Salt Lake City, Mackenzie Lueck messages that she has landed and takes a Lyft to Hatch Park in North…
S1E1 1. The Tagged Serial Killer: How a social feed helped catch a predator
A survivor speaks, and the friends of a missing woman refuse to let the trail go cold.This episode follows a verified New Jersey case where posts, check ins, and dating-app activity form a pattern.…
Frequently Asked Questions
Lurkers has published 21 episodes since November 2025, covering topics in Documentary, Society & Culture.
Lurkers is currently highly active with new episodes every 2 weeks. Average episode length is 25m.
Sign up on Grep.FM to access contact details for Lurkers, including email and social media links.
