In July of last year, Rep. Brandon Guffey experienced a heartbreaking tragedy that no parent should have to endure. His 17-year-old son, Gavin Guffey, fell victim to a cruel sextortion scheme and tragically took his own life shortly thereafter. Now, as a South Carolina congressman, Guffey is advocating passionately to prevent such incidents from happening again. He is proposing a bill in the State House that would make sextortion a punishable offense with a maximum penalty of 30 years imprisonment.
Can your phone be rigged to explode?
This past week, a frenzy of small explosions rocked Lebanon, causing thousands of injuries and killing at least 25 people. The cause? Thousands of Apollo AR924 pagers and ICOM walkie-talkies blew up in the hands of members of Hezbollah leaders and their families.
The attacks were coordinated and calculated, and they spooked the world. They left us wondering, “Could my smartphone [or another device] blow up in my pocket, too?”
Old-school tech, weaponized
Although what happened in Lebanon is still under investigation, it appears the devices that blew up were packed with explosives before they reached their intended Hezbollah targets. That makes a lot of sense since messing with devices during the manufacturing process would be easier than trying to manipulate them after they’ve been handed out.
Word on the street is that Israel manufactured these devices through shell companies, but that hasn’t been confirmed.
Original theories about a cyberattack causing the device batteries to overheat and explode have also been ruled out. Looking at the footage of the blasts, they’re inconsistent with battery fires or battery explosions.
Why were they using pagers and walkie-talkies in the first place? Israeli hackers have stepped up their game, and Hezbollah took their digital communications old-school to avoid detection.
One smart smartphone
In a modern smartphone, there’s not much space to pack in explosives. Making room would mean removing enough functionality to tip off the person using it. There’s much more room inside a pager, though. The outdated ICOM walkie-talkies that blew up had plenty of space for explosives, too.
Another reason your phone is safer: Smartphone production lines at companies like Apple and Google run under super-strict security measures. They want to ensure what you get works the way it should — and, of course, protect their valuable trade secrets.
Tampering is possible, sure, but it’d have to be an elaborate scheme to pull off undetected for millions and millions of devices.
Listen: I have a few more details about this in my “Daily Tech Update” podcast.
The fresh face of payday loans: Cash-advance apps
You get paid next week, but your credit card bill is due this week, and, oops, so is that new car payment. You’re only a few hundred bucks short — you just need a way to bridge the gap.
Unfortunately for you, there’s an app for that. Actually, there are dozens. They’re called cash-advance apps. And most things about them tick me off.
Son's suicide spurs Congressman's campaign against child sextortion | The Kim Komando Show
🐽 Can the spam: You can set up rules in your inbox so your uncle’s rants or high school friend’s pyramid scheme emails are automatically filed away in a folder of your choosing. In Outlook, Gmail or Apple Mail, go to your filters and look for an option like “Skip the inbox.”
He fell for an online Ponzi scheme
YouTuber Antenna Man is opening up about being a victim of the Agridime Ponzi scheme. He hopes others don’t fall into the same trap. Plus, a woman tracks down a thief with an AirTag, and someone hacks a guy’s Bluetooth headphones — creepy stuff!
🐷 Beware the pig butchers: I’ve been warning you about pig-butchering scams for years, and now they’re finally mainstream news. A random message leads to a friendly chat, and before you know it, you’re pouring your money into a get-rich-quick scheme. The scams play with your emotions, whether that’s love, fear or panic. Your critical thinking goes out the window. Remember this — and share this (paywall link).
4 colors
Mosquitoes love most: Red, orange, black and cyan (a bright green-blue). Researchers found the pesky bugs are most likely to ignore green, purple, blue and white. Summer color scheme: Check! ✅
Pig-butchering scams cost Americans $4B a year – Don’t be a victim
Looking for love online? Keep your head on a swivel for pig-butchering scams.
Cybercrooks play the long game in this one. They “fatten you up” with lovey-dovey texts over months, and then, once they have your trust, they send you to slaughter with a crypto scam.
Tech life upgrades smarter than the stuff on TikTok
Listen, I know there are folks on TikTok sharing good advice — but there’s a heck of a lot of bad advice there, too. Financial tips and tricks? Yeah, look elsewhere; 63% of it is misleading.
It’s not surprising why. On a platform with just seconds to grab someone’s attention, creators have to make big promises to get views. Following that advice can bite you in significant ways — looking at you, get rich quick scheme.
Get rich quick … never: The FTC is handing out $12 million in refunds to over 25,000 people who fell for a house-flipping scheme. The Zurixx scam lured victims with promises of quick cash and endorsements from HGTV stars like Tarek El Moussa, Hilary Farr and Christina Hall. Basic three-day training courses started at $1,997 and ranged all the way up to $41,297. Oof.
🐷 He got butchered: A 75-year-old Midwestern man is broke after giving $715,000 to a sly romance scammer. It started with a LinkedIn message but quickly turned into a classic “pig-butchering” scheme. The crook promised huge returns on investments. Hit this link to read the texts between the man and his fraudster. So very sad and so very avoidable.
No beating the Bezos: The FTC is going after Amazon for a price-fixing scheme that generated more than $1 billion in profits. But a lot of the evidence is gone. Shocker, Amazon’s top brass (including Jeff Bezos) used the messaging app Signal to make their texts automatically disappear — forever.
Good riddance: An evil 28-year-old woman from Delaware will hopefully spend a long time in prison for her role in a massive sextortion scheme. She and a group of accomplices pretended to be “young, attractive females” and lured young males (including many minors) into video chats. They then recorded the chats and threatened to leak the footage unless they were paid. Talk to your kids and any other guy in your circle.
You can set up rules in your inbox so your uncle’s rants or high school friend’s pyramid scheme emails are automatically filed away in a folder of your choosing. In Outlook, Gmail or Apple Mail, go to your filters and look for an option like “Skip the inbox.”
👻 Juicy deets: A class-action lawsuit against Meta reveals the company used secret tech to get a leg up on Snapchat back in 2016. The scheme, dubbed “Project Ghostbusters,” sidestepped Snap’s encryption to track everything people did on the app. Who ya gonna call? The Feds.
Massive fraud campaign: Over 8,000 domains, including big names like MSN and eBay, fell victim to a spam scheme. “SubdoMailing” sends millions of deceptive emails daily, bypassing spam filters, duping folks into clicking and then raking in ad bucks. FYI: Domain owners, use this “checker” to make sure you’re safe. Everyone else, double-check any email that asks for money or account updates.
6 signs your vacation rental is a scam
Booking a rental property for your next vacation? There’s a scam for that!
Seriously, vacation rental scams are everywhere. Last year alone, Airbnb banned 59,000 fake listings — and stopped 157,000 listings from making it to the site in the first place.
55% of Americans have been scammed - Keep yourself safe online and offline
It’s my job to help people with their digital problems, and it’s sad how often that means assisting folks to sort out a scam. Or even being the one to break the news to them.
Sorry, that new girlfriend isn’t into you. She just wants your money. It happens more often than you’d think — to men and women alike.
Canceling your Amazon Prime membership is a total maze
If trying to cancel your Amazon Prime membership feels like taking the SATs, it’s not just you. According to new leaked internal documents, they set it up like that on purpose.
Because of the confusing maze of instructions, Amazon reduced cancellations by 14%. So, what did they do? And is Prime even really worth it?
Why you need to change your voicemail setting right now
Stop saying hello when you answer the phone. That might seem silly, but that’s the advice the Federal Trade Commission is giving. Why? Phone scammers are now using artificial intelligence (AI) to sound just like you or your loved ones.