AI is scraping billions of selfies from social media to train facial recognition. Bots target unmarked photos, but a simple watermark can protect your images. Here’s what you need to know.
Scams are an underground industry
Midjourney
You already know the usual scams. Romance, crypto, tech support, job offers, fake investments, and the list goes on. But what you might not realize is that a growing number of people behind these scams aren’t evil masterminds.
They’re victims, too.
Across Southeast Asia, scam compounds have become a massive underground industry. These operations run out of hotels and warehouses and are worth up to $19 billion a year in Cambodia alone. That’s more than half the country’s entire GDP.
People are being lured in by fake job ads, kidnapped and forced into these human trafficking compounds where they’re made to scam people all day long. They are beaten, locked up and told to meet daily scam quotas.
If they don’t, they’re punished. Some have even died trying to escape.
🎯 Now they’re after kids
This isn’t just about fake emails and text messages anymore. Scam networks are using AI and deepfake tech to create fake explicit content of tweens and teens. They use it to blackmail families in sextortion scams, threatening to release real and fake explicit images unless they get paid.
Kids are committing suicide when faced with the reality they shared an intimate photo with a scammer threatening to send it to friends and family, as well as post it on social media. This is getting darker by the day.
🛡️ Protect yourself and family
The next time you get a sketchy message from someone you don’t know, it might not be a criminal in a hoodie. It could be someone who was tricked, trafficked and forced to work inside one of these scam mills.
- Stop and think. Scammers target emotion, desperation, loneliness, fear, even love. If it feels off, walk away.
- Don’t click links in messages. If it’s legit, you’ll be able to find it from the source.
- Talk to your family. Especially your tweens and teens. They need to know that they are being targeted. Often, it’s a swap of a nudie pic that leads to sextortion.
Scams are only profitable if people fall for them. If less money flows into these organizations, maybe the scales will tip against such hostile industries.
AI meets true crime
ChatGPT
In late November 1987, Nashville police got a call about a revolting stench on Charlotte Avenue. What they found under a dirt-floor crawl space shocked even the most hardened crime scene veterans: two decomposing bodies, buried and forgotten beneath a broken-down home.
📖 Bible goes cinematic: Pray.com is cranking out AI-generated Bible videos (think seven-headed dragons, collapsing cities and angels that look like superheroes). Millions are watching, mostly guys under 30. Theologians say it cheapens Scripture into a “Don’t forget to like and pray!” social media plea, but Pray’s team calls it “the Marvel Universe of faith.”
Getting a phone before 13
Puts kids at a much higher risk of developing suicidal thoughts. A massive study of 100,000+ people found girls often take the biggest hit to self-worth and emotional control, while boys struggle more with calmness and empathy. The common culprit? No shocker here, social media.
🔍 Track down contact info: Type “Jane Doe” with keywords like “email, phone or profile” into Google. If you know where they work, narrow it down with “Jane Doe” site:company.com. For social media, try site:linkedin.com Jane Doe, site:facebook.com Jane Doe or site:instagram.com Jane Doe. Still nothing? Reverse image search.
Scroll-stopping swag
Kim Komando
Yup, that’s me during my ’90s big hair infomercial days as the Komputer Tutor, teaching America how to conquer their computers one VHS tape at a time.
Before TikTok and Instagram, there were late-night infomercials, and wow, we bought it all. Remember the ThighMaster? The Flowbee? The Clapper? “Set it and forget it!”
Your children’s minds trapped by these apps
What sounds like the plot of a horror novel is already real life. Social media apps like Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram are designed to hook children in minutes, sparking mood swings, depression, and full-blown addiction. Here’s what every parent and grandparent needs to know.
📶 Don’t trust public Wi-Fi: Scammers can set up “evil twin” networks that look like your coffee shop’s or airport’s Wi-Fi. Once you connect, they can intercept everything you type, from social media logins to credit card info. Always ask staff for the exact network name, and use a VPN to encrypt your internet traffic. My pick is ExpressVPN.
🤳🏼 Oops, she did it again: Britney Spears posted a nude photo on Instagram, just boots and a strategically placed rose emoji, and yep, social media exploded. The next day, she followed it with a raw post about her kids, past trauma and trying to heal. Some are whispering a comeback, others say it screams therapy. I think it’s just so sad.
TikTok’s new craze: A 9-year-old camera. Yep, the social media gods have crowned the Canon PowerShot ELPH 360 HS as the best point-and-shoot camera for that “perfectly imperfect” vibe. It was $360 new in 2016. Now it’s out of stock on Canon’s site, and used ones are selling for up to $600. Nostalgia always cashes in.
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🎨 Need stunning photos? I’ve used Dreamstime for years, and for good reason. Whether you’re building a website, designing a presentation or just need the perfect pic for social media, Dreamstime has millions of royalty-free images that won’t break the bank.
Stay groovy, Old Faithful: Social media’s latest doomsday fantasy? That Yellowstone’s wildlife is fleeing an imminent volcanic eruption. The panic started with a fake post claiming “hundreds” of the park’s ~40 mountain lions were fleeing. Bears “escaping” turned out to be filmed in a drive-thru zoo in South Dakota. Someone posted a herd of wildebeests in Africa. Speaking of… What did the dad say after dropping his son off at Yellowstone National Park? Bison! (lol)
10 hours a day
That’s the amount of screen time Americans are averaging. Apparently, “Netflix and chill” now runs concurrently with “Slack and panic.” Multitasking is also at an all-time-high. Whether they’re streaming the latest hit show or doomscrolling on social media, folks are plugged in like never before. Thank goodness for Wi-Fi. Without it, America might have to rediscover the outdoors.
❗ Is it just you? Use Downdetector to check if a service is down, like your internet provider, Netflix or social media apps. Just type the name in the search box.
🚨 Prime Day scams to watch for: The big sale’s here, and so are the scammers! Common tricks? Fake order confirmations, account issue alerts, fishy social media deals and “package delayed” warnings. These land in your inbox or texts to push you into clicking shady links. Here’s a link to the best deals under $50.
We may earn a commission from purchases, but our recommendations are always objective.
About 80%
The amount of time teen drivers are actually watching the road. The rest? Spent on their phones. Most of that screen time isn’t for directions. It’s music, texting and social media. Terrifying when you realize that looking down for 5 seconds at 55 mph is like driving a football field with your eyes shut.
16th century
That’s when the word “bro” first popped up, short for “brother.” Fast-forward to today, mix in a little social media brain rot, and Gen Alpha has taken it further with “bruh.” It now means just about anything: a greeting, joy, frustration, you name it. Versatile? Absolutely. Clear? Not even close.
Free images: Need clean, professional photos for your website or social media posts? Try Unsplash. It has a huge library of high-res, royalty-free images. Just search a topic like “office” or “game” and download what you need. PSA: Watch out, they’re gonna try to upsell paid photos.