⌨️ Where in the world? Remember Mavis Beacon? She was the woman on the cover of a popular typing game. Turns out “Mavis” was a Haitian model named Renee L’Esperance who returned to the Caribbean and vanished. Now there’s a documentary about trying to track her down.
A penny for your trucks: In Memphis, a tracker led police to the second chop shop in less than a week. The owners of a stolen pickup followed the GPS device to an industrial area. Days later, police came back with a warrant and found five cars. The suspect is in jail. I use an AirTag or get one of these car trackers for $15.
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Gen Z is losing more money to online scams than boomers: Constant internet use makes them comfortable doing business online. For fraudsters, it’s the perfect opportunity to lure them into fake employment opportunities, sketchy online purchases, or investment or crypto scams. Last year, Gen Z lost an average of $155 per person to online scams (paywall link).
10 happiest U.S. states
Are Hawaii, Maryland, New Jersey, Utah, Delaware, Minnesota, Connecticut, Idaho, Nebraska and Massachusetts. WalletHub analyzed states on a 100-point scale. Totally agree with Hawaii! Sorry, but here are the 10 least happy states.
I’m so itchy: Kids at Riverside High School in North Carolina took home Chromebooks for school work. Unfortunately, no one realized they were crawling with bedbugs. The insects infested the media center over the summer and were hiding in the laptops. Check your kiddos’ computers.
💔 So very sad: A 73-year-old New Jersey woman lost over $50,000 in a romance scam. A man named “Henry” on Facebook wooed her. All she had to do was send him money and gift cards for travel, which he promised to give back and more. When her son found out, the money was gone. A detective confirmed the transfers went to Nigeria.
Buying a house or wiring money? A former Mastercard exec nearly lost $100,000 after scammers got into her real estate agent’s email account. They posed as a title company, requesting an “accelerated” payment (paywall link). The wire instructions had the same letterhead and typography, but the phone number and email were off. Luckily, she called the original number and dodged the scam. Always double-check the details.
🚨 Driving away with your data: Car rental company Avis says 299,006 people had their personal info stolen in an August data breach. We’re talking names, addresses, credit card numbers and driver’s license numbers. No word yet on how hackers got in. FYI, Texas was hit hardest, with 34,592 folks there exposed. Stay alert for phishing scams!
5,780 miles
Distance from Hong Kong to Switzerland, where surgeons remotely operated on a pig. In Hong Kong, they set up a robotic system with a magnetic endoscope. In Zurich, a doctor watching a real-time video feed controlled the entire process with a video game controller. Imagine getting a procedure from a world-class surgeon from halfway across the world!