Keep this in mind

December 31, 2024

Keep this in mind: The 2025 predictions from the nonprofit Identity Theft Resource Center aren’t pretty. The cybercrime job market is booming, with postings for “software testers” all over the Dark Web. Get this: 12% of identity theft victims who contacted the nonprofit for help in 2024 shared thoughts about ending their lives because the impacts of the theft were so devastating. If this is ever you, do me a favor and call 988 or go here.

Tags: identity theft, software

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The crypto investment scam that’s all over social media

I’m all about using AI to get stuff done. No kidding, I use ChatGPT every day to shortcut planning and organize my work and my life.

You know who else loves AI? Cybercriminals. A new scam powered by deepfakes is all over social media. Too many people have fallen for it and lost millions of dollars in the process. I’ve got the dirty details so you don’t become a victim, too.

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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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“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 minutes

Of life gone for every cigarette smoked. Yikes! I still cannot believe there were ads in the 1940s that said, basically, cigarettes were good for you. A new study out of University College London found a pack of 20 cigarettes knocks 7 hours off a person’s life. Say you smoke 10 a day and quit on Jan. 1. By the end of the year, you’ve “earned back” 50 extra days. Now, that’s incredible motivation.

37% of Gen Z

Plan to skip the gym and use Ozempic instead to lose weight in the coming year. This is so sad. They think the medication is more effective than diet and exercise, but there are scary potential side effects, like nausea, stomach pain and even vision loss.

$200 million

The listing price for the 1.84-acre empty lot next to Jeff Bezos’ house in Miami. It’s in the “Billionaire Bunker” area of the Indian Creek neighborhood. The price is over seven times what the last owner paid in 2018 ($27.5 million). Hey, Jeff, how’d you like an amazing house in Phoenix?

10 to 20 years

Until AI drives humanity to extinction, according to a “godfather of AI,” Geoffrey Hinton. He’s the winner of this year’s Nobel Prize for Physics and previously put the odds of AI taking over at only 10%. I know many people are thinking, “Great! I won’t have to pay off my student loans!”

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!)

$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.