It's time to update your Social Security login
My inbox is flooded with folks asking about an email they got from the Social Security Administration. I mentioned it earlier this week, and, nope, it’s not a scam — it’s legit. But this change is big enough that we need to spend more time talking about it.
TikTok double-take: YouTube Shorts has copied yet another TikTok feature: AI voice-overs. Now, when you write video captions, you’ll see an option to add a voice. And if TikTok gets banned in the U.S. because of its ties to Communist China? YouTube’s ready to capitalize.
🍔 Manipulation marketing: A study shows junk food is promoted online and in video games to appeal specifically to parents, children and young men. Fast-food chains tell moms they’ll save time spent cooking and keep kids quiet. Kids like the commercial’s characters. As for young guys? Special app-only deals with free delivery.
$150,000 richer
A Kentucky man after opening a promo email from Powerball. On a whim, the guy decided to buy a Powerball ticket and paid an extra dollar for the 3x Power Play multiplier. “It was my first time,” he said, adding, “I wasn’t even sure how it worked.” It definitely worked — that dollar tripled his winnings.
An 82-year-old woman almost lost $3 million in a gold bar scam: First, she was swindled out of nearly $1 million of her life savings. A pop-up ad on her PC scared her into calling a fake federal agent. The “agent” said her money was in danger and would only be safe if she converted it to gold. Good news: Just as she was ready to hand over another $2 million in gold bars, they caught the 19-year-old scum behind this.
🚨 Hide and C:/Seek: Hackers grabbed the personal info of more than 400,000 Life360 users, including names, phone numbers, emails and more. Life360’s location-sharing app is used primarily to help parents keep an eye on their kids. More bad news: Life360 owns tracker company Tile, which hackers also breached, nabbing not only personal info, but also device IDs. Don’t wait to change your passwords, and be on alert for phishing, phone and texting scams.
🪐 Space jam: NASA sent the first ever hip-hop song into deep space. Missy Elliott’s “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)” is now on Venus, which just so happens to be Missy’s favorite planet. Interesting fact: Even though it traveled at the speed of light, the song took nearly 14 minutes to reach the planet.
Parenthood is the scariest “-hood” of all: A new study shows that kids who are glued to TVs, phones, computers and tablets are more likely to have emotional and social issues later in life. Early warning signs include brattiness, possessiveness and addictive behavior around screen time. Share this fact with parents of young kiddos.
🚘 Side hustle black market: A woman was busted renting out Uber, Lyft and DoorDash accounts to immigrants. She gamed the system by using stolen licenses and editing in her “customer’s” faces to bypass security checks. She was pulling in $10,000 a month until the FBI came knocking. Read the whole crazy story here.
💩 Poop ruined a family business: A customer returned a kid’s stink pickle swim diaper to Amazon, and it was then resold as “new.” The unlucky recipient wrote a one-star review, which over 100 buyers flagged as helpful. The mom-and-pop shop went from a million-dollar business to $600,000 in debt. I know firsthand running a business means paying attention to all the crap-tivating details.