Uber completes a million trips an hour: Wow, right? To keep up with demand, their next move is integrating autonomous vehicles into the app. But get this: Instead of building their own robotaxis, they’re partnering with the likes of Waymo. What does that mean for us? Most likely higher ride prices since revenue will be split, and fewer jobs for human drivers.
Gold grifters: The people behind a massive new scam operation
Jingming Pan on Unsplash
Yash Shah never thought he’d end up in jail. By his own account, he was just a “normal person” trying to make ends meet. Pick up a package, drop it off. Easy money.
But that “easy money” landed him in a detention center, facing charges for his alleged role in one of the fastest-growing criminal operations in America, which racked up $126 million in losses last year alone. I’m talking about gold bar scams.
How it works
Like most high-dollar fraud operations, the gold grifter scam preys on fear and urgency.
- The setup: It starts with a phony tech support inquiry, pop-up warning or government agent. Victims (often older adults) are told their money is at risk.
- The manipulation: The scammer insists that traditional banking systems are compromised. To keep their money “safe,” victims must convert their savings into gold bars.
- The transfer: Once the gold is purchased, victims are told to hand it off to a “government agent” or a “bank representative” for “protection.” That agent? A courier like Yash Shah.
This isn’t some back-alley con
It’s a global crime ring with layers of players keeping the operation running. Call centers in India are the first line, with scammers posing as government agents.
Then come the couriers, like Yash Shah, hired to pick up and transport stolen wealth for a quick payday. And the real ringleaders? Sitting overseas (again, mostly in India), untouchable and raking in millions.
Fighting back
After losing $80,000 to this playbook, Vietnam veteran Kris Owen teamed up with Indiana police for payback — staging a sting operation with fake cash, a wired-up car drop and a front-row seat for law enforcement.
After identifying the suspect as Abdul Mohammed, the police hauled him in for questioning. Facing federal charges for wire fraud, Mohammed fled the country. The feds may be cracking down on couriers, but the overseas kingpins remain hard to pin down (pun intended).
Recognizing red flags
Up to 48%
Seniors are struggling with insomnia. Building muscle might help. Researchers looked at 24 trials with 2,045 folks 60 and over. They found strength and resistance training worked almost twice as well as just doing aerobic exercises. Turns out, mixing the two helped even less. Fun fact: People with insomnia are pretty cool. They’re up for anything.
🥼 When you get a bladder infection, urine trouble: Fake AI doctors are taking over TikTok, pushing sketchy medical advice, from using lemon balm instead of Ozempic to selling health gummies through Amazon storefronts. The red flags? Decades of experience, weird mouth movements and names like the “coochie” or “booty” doctor.
Too cool for school: A Columbia University student built an AI program to ace his Amazon technical interview. He got the offer, turned it down, then someone snitched. Now he’s facing a disciplinary hearing. Plot twist: He’s dropping out anyway, saying LLMs will replace programmer jobs in two years. He’s right. ChatGPT can now directly edit code. Nuts.
After 35 years, Microsoft is ditching Publisher: It’s getting the boot in Oct. 2026. Other changes: Look for Microsoft to start bugging you to back up your files to OneDrive if you use Microsoft 365 apps for Windows. And they’re also testing free Office desktop apps that have ads baked in that only let you save docs to OneDrive.
⚠️ One of the biggest DDoS attacks: Yep, it’s happening right now. A massive botnet appeared overnight, with hackers hijacking thousands of video recorders. The impact? Multiple online services are getting flooded with so much traffic that they’re crashing. Folks, this is why you should keep your devices updated with the latest firmware and use strong passwords.
🎶 DJ King Charles III: Yes, you read that right. Chucky’s hosting a show from Buckingham Palace called The King’s Music Room on Apple Music. It’s all about the tunes and artists he loves. In the premiere dropping Monday, he’ll call out Bob Marley, Kylie Minogue and Davido. You can bet there’s no royalty-free music on his playlist. (I groaned when I wrote that!)
$150 million
That’s what it’ll cost to live next door to Jeff Bezos on Indian Creek Island near Miami Beach, Florida. Sound ridiculous? The lot was actually listed for $200 million in December, so technically, it’s a discount.
I like big bots and I cannot lie: Your HR department can’t write you up for saying that. Your new coworker could be an AI bot. OpenAI is about to create special “agents” for jobs like sales and software development. They’ll start at $2,000 and go up to $20,000 a month for PhD-level research. Upside: The bots never call in sick.
Move over Kia Boys, the Nissan Boys are here: Steps outlining how to steal a Nissan are all over social media. Thieves use special hardware to intercept a Nissan’s key signal, which lets them unlock the doors and start the engine. To stop your key’s signal from transmitting, wrap it in tinfoil (Yup, that trick again!) when you’re at home or place it in a metal box. Expect an upgrade from Nissan soon.
🗣️ You got to hear this: I called a networking gear company and got “Heather.” I could barely understand her. Those days may be over. Teleperformance, the world’s largest call center company, is using AI to change Indian accents into American or British ones in real time. You need to take a sec, click here and select Demo. Pick a person, hit Play and toggle the button on and off. Amazing.
$21 million
Stolen from victims of a grandparent scam ring. Good news: Police caught the bad guys. Scammers called, pretending to be a teenager or adult grandkid who was in a car crash, arrested and needed money for bail.
Found after 7 years: Watch “Unsolved Mysteries” on Netflix? You might remember Abdul Aziz Khan. He went missing from Atlanta after his mom, who didn’t have custody, allegedly kidnapped him. Police found her and her husband, who isn’t Abdul’s dad, in an empty house in Colorado and charged them. Now Abdul is 14 and finally coming home.
Got an old Apple Watch? You might get paid. If you had an original Apple Watch or a Series 1, 2 or 3, you could be entitled to a cut of the $20 million Apple Watch settlement. Act fast: Payouts range from $20 to $50, and the deadline is April 10. File your claim here.
🔍 Google’s testing AI-only search results: The new AI Mode ditches the usual 10 blue links and instead lets Gemini 2.0 take over with web summaries, graphs and shopping data. Think of it as a bigger version of AI Overview, and yes, we all know how spot-on that is. It’s opt-in only for now through Google’s Search Labs, so you can ignore it … for now.
Hate YouTube ads? There’s a cheaper fix. YouTube is rolling out Premium Lite for $7.99/month, cutting down on “most” ads. News, fashion and gaming videos will be ad-free, but if you want music without ads, you’ll still need the $13.99/month standard Premium plan. That one also includes offline downloads.
📬 Ransomware by snail mail? It’s happening. Cybercriminals are now sending ransom demands through postal mail. The letters warn folks that their networks have been compromised and sensitive info stolen. The price to keep it private? $250,000 to $350,000 in bitcoin, due in 10 days. And because they’re oh-so-considerate, they include a QR code so you can send the crypto right to their wallet.
1 million+ infected with malware: You know those cheap Android-based streaming boxes, tablets or used car infotainment systems? Bad news. They’re being used as a botnet by the Badbox 2.0 hacking group. The top targets are TV boxes with the generic names “TV98” and “X96.” Don’t risk it to save a few bucks.