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Breaking news and tips
For whom the bell tolls unpaid
You’ve probably seen it: a text that says something like, “You have an overdue toll balance. Click here to avoid late fees.” It looks official, urgent and believable enough to make you think maybe it’s legit.
That text is part of a very sophisticated scam run by Chinese criminal gangs, and they’ve already made over a billion dollars ripping people off across the U.S., per the WSJ (paywall link).
🕵️ How the scam works
Here’s the pipeline these gangs use to steal your information and your money.
1. U.S.-based devices
Scammers set up “SIM farms” here in the States. Picture a folding table stacked with dozens of phones and SIM cards blasting out 300,000 fake toll-payment texts a day.
One setup can impersonate 1,000 phone numbers. They spoof area codes to make these texts look like they’re from your state toll authority.
2. Fake sites
Click the link and you’re taken to a website that looks exactly like your real toll agency, down to the logo and colors. You’re asked to enter your credit card info, your name and one-time security code.
Do it and you’ve handed over everything they need to go shopping on your dime.
3. U.S. “mules”
It gets darker. U.S.-based gig workers, often recruited on Telegram, are paid 12 cents per $100 to take those stolen card numbers and buy iPhones, luxury purses and other high-ticket items, but mostly gift cards.
From stubble to sparkle
A few upgrades can take the edge off your morning routine (literally).
😁 Brighten that smile: Oral-B toothbrush (39% off)
Leave your manual brush in the dust. One charge lasts for days, and it even tells you when you’re brushing too hard.
💎 Shine on, you fancy thing: This ultrasonic cleaner (21% off) blasts away years of grime from jewelry, glasses or even your retainer.
Glow-getter: Olay’s face moisturizer (9% off) has the heavy hitters like hyaluronic acid, niacinamide and peptides. All work to hydrate and smooth.
🪒 Cut above the rest: Fellas, stock up on some Gillette razor refills (6% off, 12-pack). That’s enough cartridges to last almost a year.
Fuzz be gone: These gentle dermaplane razors (20% off) glide effortlessly to reveal smooth, glowing skin. Makeup goes on like silk afterward.
🛒 Running low? Click here to refill your stash and check if your daily drivers are marked down.
We may earn a commission from purchases, but our recommendations are always objective.
The day the cloud caught a cold
If Zoom wouldn’t connect, YouTube froze or your smart home went dumb yesterday morning, it wasn’t just you. Over 11 million people reported issues with more than 2,500 big name apps and services.
The reason? A huge outage at Amazon Web Services, better known as AWS. Let me explain what all this means in plain English.
💬 Comment anonymously on Facebook: Want to chime in without revealing your name? In the app, tap Menu > Groups and open the group you want. Find a post, tap Comment, then your profile icon. Switch it to Anonymous participant, type your comment. FYI: The group must have this feature enabled.
Hold the phone: Do you love talking to robots on the phone? Have I got good news for you! Yelp’s rolling out two talking bots. A Host AI for restaurant bookings and Receptionist for business calls. They’ll handle everything from wait lists to “do you take dogs?” for about $99 a month per restaurant. Next up, a suggested 25% tip.
The end of the browser as you know it
Google’s reign as the go-to search engine is slipping fast. OpenAI just launched its own web browser, ChatGPT Atlas, and it doesn’t just find answers. It explains them.
The Amazon outage that broke the internet
Amazon’s cloud crashed and took half the internet with it. Snapchat, Ring, Venmo, even banks went dark. I’ll break down what happens when the web’s backbone fails. Then I talk to one business owner who caught scammers stealing her online brand. Plus, the Louvre heist, a New Jersey “UFO” update, and a smart ChatGPT trick.
📺 Cast your PC to a smart TV: On Windows 11, you can connect your desktop to your TV wirelessly if both are on the same network. If your PC doesn’t have Wi-Fi, get an adapter. Press Windows key + K to open the Cast menu, select your TV and choose how to display it.
We may earn a commission from purchases, but our recommendations are always objective.
The used dryer sheet hack
Got a grimy screen, dusty vent, or smudged keyboard? Don’t stress it. Head to the laundry room for a trick that’ll make you say wow.
It’s a sign: A Kenyan engineer built what’s basically Google Translate for sign language. His app, Terp 360, listens to speech and uses AI-powered 3D avatars to sign in real time. It’s built with motion-capture tech (sensors track actual signers’ movements), and it already knows thousands of words. I’ve always wanted to learn ASL.
Get spooky for under $20
You’ve got seven days. These steals won’t haunt your wallet.
🕯️ Smells like sweater weather: Scented candle (35% off)
Burn this, and your place will feel like an autumn café, minus the wait in line for that latte. Choose from eight cozy scents.
Trick-or-treat comms: Walkie-talkies (30% off, two-pack) keep your kiddos connected while they roam the neighborhood.
💧 Ghost your makeup, not your skin: Face paint? Fake blood? This makeup remover (26% off) erases it all without a trace.
Cover your coffin (er, table): From snack tables to potion stations, black tablecloths (29% off) hide spills and look chic.
💡 Lights that slay: Purple and orange floodlights (41% off) are a quick and easy way to transform your porch.
🎃 Freaky-fast finds: Need candy or a last-minute costume? Grab ’em all here.
We may earn a commission from purchases, but our recommendations are always objective.
Your camera roll deserves a cleanse
I remember my parents saying, “Kim, stop wasting the film.” Oh, yes, this was back when we’d put film in a camera, take up to 36 pictures, then wait for the roll to get developed to see if any of the shots were good. Those days are long gone, fortunately.
🐶 Soothe your pup with tunes: Heading out and leaving your dog behind? Play soft music on your smart speaker before you go. It fills the silence, calms their nerves and helps block out street noise that might spook them. PSA: They like Snoop Dogg, not Cat Stevens.
🔫 Artificial unintelligence: After football practice, a Maryland teen got swarmed by armed police because an AI gun detector thought his Doritos bag was a pistol. In other words, a weapon of nacho destruction. Turns out, the system flagged the way he held the bag as “gun-like.” The teen was cuffed, searched and cleared. Put your hands up and the chips where I can see them!
Meta’s AI trains on your private photos
Facebook wants to scan your camera roll. Yes, the pics you never posted. Creepy? Plus, one caller wants to stop his kid from looking at naughty things on the internet. Then I get into Amazon’s robot army, why being mean to AI work, and how to pay less for subscriptions.
Geocaching turns 25
In this AI-powered podcast, go treasure hunting in the real world with geocaching, then get nostalgic for old school gadgets. Plus, some wild AI fails and helpful tech tips.
Ask ChatGPT to fact-check: You can have ChatGPT verify info by asking it to search the web. For example, prompt, “Is this factually correct as of today? Search the web to confirm.” It’ll pull recent sources, summarize what it finds and share links so you can compare answers from different sites.
AWS eats its own: Here’s the cloud tea, Amazon says this week’s massive AWS outage wasn’t a hack but a software glitch so bad it fought itself. That’s right, a mini-tech civil war. Two automation systems tried to update network records at once and triggered a global domino crash. A chunk of the internet went briefly offline, even some people’s smart beds.