Ingenious till it wasn’t: A guy in Idaho got caught using a homemade barcode ring to scam Walmart’s self-checkout. He ripped off the store a few times without getting caught, then made a total bonehead move: He tried to ring up a $300 grill for the price of a 70-cent can of tomato soup. I wonder how the tomato soup is in jail.
⚡ Pulling the plug, literally: Wow, this is a wild one. Thailand just cut electricity to parts of Myanmar that house billion-dollar scam operations. There are shady compounds where people are forced to run schemes like romance and pig-butchering scams for little or no money. It won’t do much to lower the number of scammers, sadly. Crime bosses are already switching to diesel generators for power and Elon Musk’s Starlink for the internet.
50 cents
Extra for an egg at Waffle House. No word yet on when they’ll drop the bird flu surcharge. Better than a price hike on the whole menu. Oh, be careful what you say around egg whites. They can’t take a yolk.
This makes cents: If you’re looking to make some extra cash, this might be for you. Instacart is rolling out a new side gig where you can make money by just taking photos of products on store shelves. This way, brands see what’s selling and how their products look to customers. The pay? Around $12 for 10 minutes of work (paywall link). I made $15 taking pics of store shelves at Costco while writing about the TaskRabbit app years ago. Too bad I walked out with 50 boxes of animal crackers and a kayak.
A real-life nightmare: Imagine random people showing up at your door, primed and ready for a good time. That’s what happened to a university professor who was stalked for seven years. The creep behind it fed her info into an AI chat site where people hang out, looking for sex. The first line of his ad? “[Victim] Is University’s Hottest Professor. How Will You Seduce Her?” She wasn’t his only victim, and the 36-year-old guy could spend up to 20 years in prison.
🐾 I’m a dog person: My Abby makes life better. It turns out that’s true even if the pet isn’t real. Ageless Innovation makes meowing cats, wagging dogs and chirping birds that respond like the real thing, minus the walking, feeding or litter box duty. Now they’re all over assisted-living facilities and even hospice care centers. Some 93% of folks say they feel more joy after getting one. They’re for sale on Amazon.
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25 years later
EA is re-releasing the original Sims and Sims 2 games digitally. The first game was only available on disk, but now both come bundled in the 25th Birthday Bundle for $39.99. Grab your copy on Steam, the Epic Games Store or the EA app for Windows.
They only care about money: Searching “undress app” on Google brings up paid-search promoted results for AI tools that create nonconsensual naked pictures. All you need is a photo of someone’s face to make a very lifelike fake. Google’s ad policies prohibit deepfakes, but these links keep showing up. When there’s money to be made, enforcement gets blurry.
😱 Apple, we have a problem: For the first time ever, crypto-stealing apps made it into Apple’s App Store. (Yes, they’re on Google Play, too.) The infected apps snoop through your images, looking for crypto wallet recovery phrases. One of them, ChatAi, has 50,000 downloads on Google Play. I sure hope you’re using malware protection on your phone.
This is why I don’t change at the gym: A 68-year-old creep in Kaysville, Utah, planted a camera in a gym’s private tanning room. He connected it to the gym’s Wi-Fi for remote access to the footage. It was there two whole days before anyone noticed. Before you tan, change clothes or go to the bathroom in public, look around for a camera first. There are so many creeps in the world.
🚨 DeepSeek gets all your deep secrets: I said this when DeepSeek first came out, but maybe you weren’t paying close attention. If you use DeepSeek AI, your login information to various sites, documents, pics, searches, videos and more goes straight to China. They’re not even trying to hide it. PSA: Only use DeepSeek the secure way if you have to at all. Steps here on my site.
0.5%
Of your brain is plastic. The most common microplastic researchers found in brain tissue samples is polyethylene, the stuff used in single-use bottles and cups. I use mostly glass and metal containers. Scary, dementia patients had 10 times the levels of plastic of a healthy brain.
$1,320,000
Auction price for a super-rare motorcycle. The bright yellow 1915 Cyclone V-Twin is one of only 14 still around today. I bet it’d be fun to ride, but the new owner can’t; it’s for display only, since the Cyclone isn’t cleared for us on roads or highways.
🔑 Know the secret Amazon code: A woman bought a $600 coat on Amazon. In the pocket, she found house keys and a car fob with an Apple AirTag attached. The AirTag wasn’t in Lost mode, but she tracked down the owner days later. Turns out, that new coat was a return. Prepare to be amazed by this insider tip: You can tell if an item you bought on Amazon was returned if it has a label that starts with “LPN.” Seriously, where else can you get this intel?
480
People have died trying to capture the perfect selfie. The most common ways people meet a tragic end? Drowning or falling off a cliff. But sometimes, it’s just not paying attention. A woman just died in Japan because she was so focused on getting the perfect picture, she didn’t see a train coming. No photo is worth your life.
🍏 Party on! I don’t think I need to use Evite anymore. Apple rolled out Invites for iCloud+ subscribers. This all-in-one event planner is the place where you can track RSVPs, set up shared albums, and send everything by text or email. It’s in every plan, from 50GB (99 cents per month) to 12TB ($59.99), plus the Apple One bundle. Sweet.
Corporate speaks a ton: Google, the same company that once had the slogan “Do no evil,” is at it again. In its publicly posted AI principles from 2018 comes this recent change. Google just removed language that said it would not pursue AI applications “likely to cause overall harm,” such as for weapons and surveillance. In other words, Google’s AI is free to do that and more now. Sleep well.