Ever wonder who’s behind scam rings

December 28, 2024

Ever wonder who’s behind scam rings? The Wall Street Journal just published a great story about a giant pig-butchering scam operation (paywall link) in the Philippines run by the former mayor of a town 60 miles north of Manila. Alice Guo had thousands of workers scamming people, including Americans. She swindled millions from mostly retirees to pay for fancy cars, designer goods and a helicopter. Now, the 34-year-old is facing human trafficking and corruption charges. I hope she rots in jail.

Tags: cars/autos, scams/scammers, workers

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Retailers have so many ways to track you – Here’s how to fight back

If you have a pulse and an internet connection, companies want all the details they can get about what you’re willing to buy. Now that your holiday shopping is done, it’s time to take back control.

There’s a bit of work you can do and then to reclaim your privacy, but if you’re looking for a longer-term solution, I’ll share my secret weapon in the fight against tracking.

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How to take the perfect profile pic for social media sites

Your profile picture is more important than you might think. It’s your chance to make a good first impression on the world. That’s why you must know how to take the perfect profile picture for all your accounts.

Say you’re applying for a new job. Potential employers will run background checks on your social media presence. You need to have good pictures that show you at your best.

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“The biggest influencer scam of all time"

That’s what YouTuber MegaLad calls the coupon browser extension Honey, which PayPal bought for $4 billion in 2020. He says they’ve been deceiving shoppers and influencers for years by ignoring coupon options and hijacking links through sneaky pop-ups. While I am researching to see if this is true, I uninstalled Honey and you should, too. I’ll let you know what I find out.

20 years ago

Yelp launched. Over 300 million reviews later, it’s still one of the first places most of us go to check out a restaurant or bar. They just rolled out an AI assistant that gives recommendations and weeds out phony reviews. A restaurant owner offered me a free calamari appetizer if I gave him a good review on Yelp. It was squid pro quo. (I saw you smile!)

About to see Waymo Waymos

Google’s Waymo took the lead in the self-driving robotaxi race with over 3 million driverless rides across three cities this year. We could see autonomous Teslas in 2025 and Amazon’s Zoox is opening up to customers in early 2025. OK, this made me laugh: A confused cop trying to pull over a car with no one in the driver’s seat.

$1.3 million

Prince Harry’s salary at BetterUp. The U.S. company is the app equivalent of a life coach, yet ex-employees describe it as “a toxic trainwreck” where “everyone is living in fear.” Didn’t he use those words to describe the royal family?

60% reduced risk

Of Alzheimer’s disease for regular caffeine drinkers. The sweet spot for most is no more than four cups a day (around 400mg of caffeine), but cut that to two cups if you have high blood pressure. Fascinating read here.

75% of Facebook sharesHappen without clicking the article

75% of Facebook sharesHappen without clicking the article. Between 2017 and 2020, researchers checked 35 million URLs. Surprise, many people fell for clickbait headlines and short blurbs instead of actually reading the stories. Extreme political posts on both sides got the most shares. No shocker there.

She wasn’t dating Keanu Reeves

67-year-old Katherine Goodson from Vista, California, fell for a romance scam. She thought it was the real thing with the Keanu Reeves. She sent “him” tens of thousands of dollars for “emergency expenses,” only to get ghosted when her money ran out. Now, she’s living in her car. Seriously, where’s John Wick to hunt these criminals down?

Slice of tech history

A YouTuber just saved a 440-pound retro CRT TV from demolition in Osaka, Japan. What’s the big deal? The 45-inch TV is the largest CRT ever made and sold in the 80s for an equivalent of $100,000. It’s the stuff of legends. Here’s a video of the rescue mission.