Scam in the skies
I am hearing more and more reports about a certain travel scam that is not making the tech sites or mainstream news.
A “travel agent” or travel site selling fake plane tickets. You pay real cash for a flight that doesn’t actually exist, like booking a table at a restaurant that burned down in 2006.
🧬 Theranos 2: Elizabeth Holmes’ boyfriend wants $50M for, you guessed it, the same Theranos blood diagnostics idea that sent her to the slammer. Billy Evans, hotel heir and now aspiring blood mogul, just launched the startup. Holmes is advising from prison. Rumor has it the pitch deck just reads: “But this time, it works. Promise. Pinky swear.”
130 million
U.S. viewers now watch Prime Video, with ads. Amazon’s ad-supported Prime Video tier has more than a third of the country tuning in, commercials and all. 88% of them also shop on Amazon, so those pause-screen ads? Basically product placement with a buy button. Wow.
Hungry, thin and expensive: Samsung’s new featherlight S25 Edge is 30% thinner, ditching the telephoto lens and battery capacity. It’s $1,099, which buys a titanium frame and crippling battery anxiety. Apple’s upcoming iPhone 17 is also trimming down, ditching a second camera in the process. Looks like the Ozempic craze has hit smartphones, too.
🏠 Hackers are stealing home titles: They can take your deed and borrow big money in your name. Home Title Lock monitors your title 24/7. Use code KIM for a free title history report and a 14-day trial of Million Dollar Triple Lock Protection when you sign up.
Deepfake dumpster fire: Jamie Lee Curtis went full Final Girl on Meta after a sketchy AI ad used her image in a fake endorsement. She posted to Insta, tagged Zuck directly and got the ad pulled. Lesson here: Don’t mess with someone who’s survived multiple maniac attacks in Halloween and nonstop sequels and reboots.
🗺️ Map wars begin: Google renamed the “Gulf of Mexico” to “Gulf of America” for U.S. users, and Mexico’s not having it. President Claudia Sheinbaum is suing, saying the U.S. can’t rename an international body of water just because it passed a House bill. Rumor is the line is drawn at renaming tacos “Lettuce Pray Wraps.”
$64 billion
And growing as Coinbase’s market cap crashes the S&P 500 party. After nearly 13 years of crypto chaos, Coinbase is officially joining the S&P 500, replacing Discover Financial. Shares jumped 8% on the news, because apparently, being the cool new kid at Wall Street’s lunch table has its perks. Bitcoin hitting $104K probably didn’t hurt either.
Fake AI video generators: Hackers have a new trick: websites that promise to turn your images into videos. But once you upload a file, they send back a ZIP named something like “VideoDreamMachineAI.mp4.exe.” The twist? It’s actually malware that steals your personal info. Watch out for them in Facebook groups especially.
22%
That’s how much of its workforce Chegg is laying off because of AI. Students are skipping the homework-help site and heading straight to tools like ChatGPT. With traffic and subscriptions tanking, cutting costs will save up to $110 million by 2026. Study guides couldn’t prep them for this.