Millennials, watch out

March 11, 2024

Millennials, watch out: New data from the FBI shows folks ages 30 to 49 are most likely to lose money to investment fraud. Oops. Social media and ads are some of the biggest ways criminals pass this stuff along. No big surprise: Crypto scams are especially lucrative.

Paws crossed: Yale scientists have a new canine cancer vax that doubles sick pups’ survival rates. It’s adapted from human treatments that use polyclonal antibodies to tackle cancer. It’s helped over 300 dogs in a study, including adorbs golden retriever Hunter, who’s been doing great for two years after his osteosarcoma diagnosis. That boy deserves a treat!

Tags: advertisements (ads), millennials, scams, scientists, social media

Printer friendly

Don’t fall for these 5 new scams

Turns out, you can teach an old scammer new tricks. Lucky for you, I’ve got your back. Here are the top scams crooks are cooking up these days and how to avoid getting duped.

📱 Phoning it in: After a recent cell service outage, reports of bogus emails from AT&T to customers started pouring in. The emails said that, due to the outage, the customer didn’t have to pay their bill.

Continue reading →

10% of teens tried to lose weight using diet aids

Of course, they were pushed on social media. With names like “Nature’s Ozempic” and “Flat Tummy Tea,” these unregulated products are super risky, not to mention ineffective. Talk to the teens in your life!

Give your willpower a hand

Social media apps are designed to keep you scrolling. Do yourself a solid and tell your phone to limit your time on TikTok, Instagram or your weakness of choice.

On iPhone:

Go to Settings > Screen Time.
Tap App Limits > Add Limit.
To set limits for individual apps, tap the category name to see everything there, then select the ones you want to limit.
Tap Next at the top right, then set the amount of time allowed.
When you finish setting limits, tap Add.

On Android:

Open Settings > Digital Wellbeing & parental controls, then tap the chart.
Select the app you want to limit or tap the hourglass icon.
Choose how much time you can spend on that app. Then, tap OK or Set.
The app will switch to black and white when you have one minute. After that, you’re locked out.

⏱️ For the record, you can override it once time runs out, but don’t! You set that limit for a reason. Speaking of time, the past, present and future walked into a bar. It was tense.

70% jump in views for Reels

That’s Facebook’s TikTok-style content. The bite-sized vids comprise over 30% of all videos watched on Meta’s flagship site. Users now spend half their time on Facebook watching videos. This you? I shared a tip just this week on how to cut down your screen time!

$9,200 for a misclick

The cost of one woman’s accidental 70-night hotel reservation. She realized her mistake immediately and tried to get a refund just one minute later — but no dice. So far, the booking site, her bank and the hotel have all refused to help. Never save your credit card information on third-party websites. The convenience isn’t worth the cost!

90% of online content will be AI-generated or manipulated

That’s by 2026. It’s just one reason internet activists are calling for explicit labeling of human-made versus AI-made content online. I’m sensing a lot more six-fingered hands in our future.

9,000 steps per day keeps heart disease at bay

Get in about 9,000 steps and you lower your risk of cardiovascular disease by 21% and risk of death by 39%. If a pill had these stats, it’d be a miracle drug!

46% more nearsightedness in the last three decades

That’s from a U.K. report that blames increased screen time and decreased outside time. Next time you see a Gen Zer, remind them to touch grass (if they remember what it looks like).

$49 for Target Circle 360

The annual fee goes up to $99 on May 18. A membership will get you same-day delivery in as little as an hour with no extra charge. Eh, I’ll stick with Amazon Prime.

90% less manual work At J.P. Morgan

That’s thanks to its Cash Flow Intelligence AI tool. The biggest uses? Analyzing and forecasting cash flows. The bank expects AI to produce $1.5 billion in business value this year. Those summer interns are gonna have a lot more time for coffee runs.