Mailing checks is really dangerous – criminal gangs have caught on to the ease of mail theft and schemes like “check washing” where they change the payee and amount, deposit the checks and make off with their ill-gotten gains. Just recently, police in my hometown of Weehawken, NJ broke up a mail theft ring that was doing just this. If you are still mailing checks to pay bills, now would be a good time to investigate other options. So here are some to consider…

Using the electronic bill payment service offered by your bank is a potentially good option. In many cases, the payments are made electronically and at most banks, you can set up security measures (multi factor authentication, payment PIN codes), limits, and alerts to protect your funds. But be careful – in some cases (especially with smaller payees) the bank will just be printing out and mailing a check on your behalf, thus exposing you to the same risks as your writing a check and mailing it. Most banks will tell you if this is the case when you are setting up the payee. If that’s the case, consider one of the following options instead.

Another option is to use ACH payments, also known as eChecks. In this scenario, you provide the payee with the routing and account numbers from your check and they can then yoink the necessary funds from your bank account electronically. This has some risk – if the payee is hacked and your account/routing numbers are stolen, the thieves could potentially pull funds from your account. But there are laws to protect against this type of theft – consumer losses are capped at $50 if a fraudulent transaction is reported within 2 business days and at $500 if the report is made within 60 days of the statement. And if the fraud was committed without use of an “access device” like a debit card or online bank credentials, you (as a consumer) are shielded from any losses. These protections do not apply to business accounts, however.

If a payee allows you to pay a bill with a credit card, this might be the best option from a security point of view. In a worst-case scenario, if the payee gets hacked and your credit card number is stolen, it is the credit card company who will eat any losses. They will issue you a new card and number and you can just go on with your life. Yes, you’ll have to update any recurring payments you are making from that card with the new number, but you won’t lose any money. And depending on the credit card, you might get points or cash back on (non fraudulent) payments. HOWEVER, these might be offset by “convenience fees” that the payee charges to recoup the transaction fees charged by Mastercard, Visa, Discover or Amex – you need to look out for that.

If you need to send payments to individuals you know, using the Zelle payment service offered by most US banks is a good way to go. You should be wary of sending Zelle payments to people you do not know, as Zelle payments happen in seconds and are not reversible, making them a favorite tool of scammers and fraudsters.

The US’ dependence on paper checks is one of those things that makes people in other countries scratch their heads – sort of like our health care system, or the fact that we elected a senile criminal rapist President. Most other countries long ago figured out that paper checks are a relic of the past and a gift to criminals. Hopefully, one day we will as well.

Fun Stuff

• Well this would have been one way to solve the Manhattan real estate scarcity crisis…
  

• If you are using AI to help in your personal or work life, have you ever stopped to consider what your clanker buddy’s political “opinions” are and whether they align with yours? This web site will tell you…
  

• Thinking about your next vacation?
  

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Something a bit different after a hiatus… a story which I think has gotten lost in the never ending shit storm that is today’s America and which deserves to be heard.

Yesterday, Scouting USA (what used to be the Boy Scouts of America) announced that it had “come to an agreement” with the “Department of War” in which the Scouts agreed to:

• Discontinue the Citizenship in Society Merit Badge, which from what I can tell basically teaches kids to treat people with respect even if they are different from us. I urge you to read the requirements for this badge to see what our government feels is such a threat to so called American values. Please let me know if you can find anything here - I couldn’t. It basically teaches kids not to be assholes. Oh… wait…
  

• Adding a Military Service Merit Badge. In another timeline, where the US was a country of laws and the military was not the deadly plaything of a senile criminal, I really would not have too much of an issue with adding this badge. The military used to be an honorable career.
  

• End policies which give support to Trans kids participating in Scouting in the gender identity that they feel most comfortable in.

The “Department of War” threatened to stop supporting the Scouts (and I assume would have shut down Scouting on military bases) if the Scouts did not capitulate.

This was a golden opportunity for an organization that purports to teach kids about American values to stand up to the criminals in DC and just say “No.” This could have been a great example of democracy in action, bravery in the face of thuggery, and standing up for ethics.

Did the Scouts do this?

Nope.

They 100% caved to the “Department of War.”

I understand the pressure that the national Scouting body felt - I am sure that the criminals in DC would have caused them all sorts of hell for taking the courageous path. But it would have been the right thing to do - to resist the continuing destruction of civil society in the US and teach kids true American values.

I have a bit of a personal stake in this - I recently started volunteering with the Scouts as a Merit Badge Counselor and worked with the local Cub Scouts to teach them First Aid. Two of those Cubs recently used that training to help a neighbor who slipped on the ice get medical attention and I am going to be handing them an award for their actions on Monday. Later in March I am going to be teaching kids how to get their CyberSecurity and Artificial Intelligence merit badges at a local “Merit Badge Fair.” I love doing this stuff - it allows me to give back to the community and share my knowledge and experience with the next generation. And it is fun!

But in order to do this, I have to be a member of Scouting USA. And I just cannot do that after these changes. Being a member means paying a fee to the national organization and agreeing to following its policies. Hard nope. And I am sure I am not the only one who feels this way. And who is going to suffer most? The kids.

I have contacted the people I work with in the Scouts to tell them I am not renewing my membership. They are genuinely nice folks who I suspect are not all happy with these new policies. But they have spent years building local programs and their kids enjoy the activities offered by Scouting. They are (as I would be in their shoes) desperately looking for a way forward to continue these programs for their kids. The Scouting Reddit is full of anguished discussion on the topic. I really feel for the kids and the parents. Scouting has been on the decline in the US for decades and this is the last thing it needed.

Another example of how the Trump/MAGA cult is reshaping and enshittifying America, and further dividing us.

My solution? I hope that parents will see what is happening here, dissociate local Packs and Troops from the “Trump Youth” national organization and come up with an alternative program for kids. But I fear that this won’t happen due to the difficulty of replacing decades of organization and materials from when Scouting was a force for good. It would be a heck of a lot of work. But it would be worth it. I’d help.

I know that this may seem like a small story, especially on a day when the nation just went to war and we are still reeling from multiple murders of Americans by government agents and have masked secret police roaming our streets. But its not. This is an effort by the government to normalize and entrench its sick and toxic policies in the minds of the next generation and we should be just as concerned about this as we are about the plethora of other horrors inflicted on us daily.

Scam/Infosec Stuff

2025 Scam of the Year - Sometimes the breadth and extent of the scam is just breathtaking and understanding it fully just requires too much bandwidth for people who (unlike me) are willing to spend hours “doing the research.” So if you want to cut to the chase, please uninstall the Honey savings coupon browser extension if you have installed it. And cancel your PayPal account - they own Honey and if we lived in a country where corporate scammers still faced actual consequences, they would be fined into nonexistence. If you want to go down the rabbit hole and see how this “free” service seemingly dedicated to “saving you money” actually is totally screwing just about every stakeholder in their ecosystem, spend some time with this video. If you are looking for a more summarized version, The Verge has been keeping track of things. But if you have time (and want to understand just how bad the Internet has gotten) watch the video.

Customer service scams - When travel trouble strikes, many stressed travelers turn to the web to rebook their air and hotel arrangements - and increasingly, when you search for the customer service phone number of an airline, hotel, or other business online, you may be directed to a scam call center which will cost you thousands of dollars to (not) “fix” your issue. These dirtbags use Google ads, social media and other online information sources to misdirect people looking for help into their clutches. This is why you should NEVER Google customer service numbers - get them directly from the back of your credit card, or the hotel or airline confirmation or app. And be very wary of social media accounts purporting to be “customer service” for major brands. Dealing with travel issues in the moment is very stressful and the bad guys know this and take advantage of the situation.

Le Grinch strikes - France’s postal service was knocked offline just 3 days before Christmas by a major cyber attack, delaying both payments and holiday deliveries. While there has been no attribution of the attack, it certainly smells like part of ongoing Russian hybrid warfare efforts in Europe. As the current US administration continues to degrade our cybersecurity (and other) defenses, we may be seeing this type of event on this side of the Atlantic… although the Russians may simply let the Trump administration do their work for them.

Tech Stuff

Alexa, Land the Plane - OK, not quite, but this is pretty darn cool - a pilot was able to push a single button in his small plane and said plane was able to land itself safely, doing all of the flying and communication with air traffic control. While the system was originally designed for situations where the pilot in incapacitated, in this case, the pilot used it out of an abundance of caution when the plane had pressurization problems.

Down with the Glassholes - Apparently, there are still people around who think that wearing recording glasses in public does not qualify them from being shunned from polite society (at the very least) or cast into an active volcano (my preference). I hope that we see more companies take the step that MSC Cruises has and ban these losers from their premises.

Get those old laptops out - I’m not sure I would have the patience or eco-consciousness to pull this off, but you have to hand it to the guy who repurposed 1000 laptop batteries and some solar panels to run his home.

Fun Stuff

• Them durn kids and their 6-7 6-7 - a guide to the top ten kids’ slang terms of 2025…

• According to one study, I am the fucking strongest person alive.

• This annual list of “52 Things I Learned This Year” is always interesting reading.

Books of the Week

You probably should put off reading these till after the holiday season is over as they are both pretty much guaranteed to ruin your holiday spirit…

Careless People was written by Facebook’s (former) head of government relations, who adorably joined the company thinking that it had the potential to change the world for the better. She tells the story of how Mark Zuckerberg (and Facebook) went from wanting nothing to do with governments and politics to becoming an evil powerbroker which we can thank for the Trump and other horrible authoritarian administrations around the world. Along the way, we get to hear just how horrible Zuckerberg, Sheryl Sandberg and the rest of the Facebook leadership truly are. After reading this, they have all moved up a few notches on my “murder list for when I finish building the time machine.” Facebook is truly one of the worst things to come out of the Internet era.

On the fiction side of things, Joe Steele imagines a world where Joseph Stalin’s parents fled Russia for the US and Joe became a congressman and later President of the US during the Great Depression. Until recently, this would have been considered a dystopian alternate history. The interesting thing in this book is that while Joe and his cronies are a bit more murder-y than our current administration (at least when it comes to American citizens), things seem to be markedly less corrupt than in our timeline. At least these fictional horrible people had an actual political agenda… the bar has been lowered to sub-sub-sub-subterranean levels in this timeline.

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Kash is watching you (creepily intently) - If you don’t think we here in the US are living in an authoritarian surveillance state, I have news for you. Well really, The Guardian has news for you. I don’t know why this story is not getting more airtime… when the FBI and NYPD are “gaining access” to a private Signal chat group meant for people who are monitoring the immigration (kangaroo) courts, doing nothing illegal, we have crossed a line. Now more than ever, law enforcement is not your friend even if (especially if?) you are a law abiding citizen… follow this advice from the National Lawyers Guild in all interactions with them. I mean, when the head of the FBI looks like every guy your parents told you not to take candy from, you know we are in trouble.

InfoSec/Scam Stuff

This article is a long read, but it gives an interesting view into the world of scammers based in India who target both their compatriots and victims in Western nations. Many of these people see fraud and scams as the only “good” work available to them and see scamming “wealthy foreigners” as fair payback in an economy which is becoming more and more unequal. Given the direction that the US economy is taking with corporations laying off thousands to drive stock prices higher, what looks like a monstrous AI bubble, and the seeming evaporation of opportunities for white collar workers, could this be a preview of our future? Going to be reading this author’s book when it is available in the US.

As a cat owner, this particular scam really makes me mad (although not as mad as the cat above)… yet another place where AI is helping the bad guys extract money from emotionally distraught victims and continues to lower the trust level of our society… if there is an afterlife, I hope these guys spend it being forced to eat used kitty litter.

Clickfix scams like the one shown above are really insidious - by getting the user to copy and paste some text from a browser window to a command prompt on their computer, the attacker is able to install malicious software on the victim’s computer. If you are interested in the technical details of this attack, which can be waged against any type of computer, this article has a good explanation. The key thing to watch out for in these attacks is the instruction to open a “Powershell,” “Command",” or “Terminal” window or the “Windows Run” command or being told to press the Windows+R keys. These are all things that a legitimate web site will NEVER ask you to do.

Tech Stuff

If you want a story that sort of sums up where we are in the whole AI/tech startup world, well here it is. Sort of reminds me of another story…

And in other AI news, the Trump administration seems to be having second thoughts about an executive order aimed at preventing US states from passing laws to protect citizens from AI abuses. Trump and his oligarch cronies really want a free hand in using AI to consolidate their hold on society and extract as much of your money as possible, but even our spineless legislative branch seems to know that this is a bad idea in a world where the Federal government is for sale to the highest bidder. In a saner timeline, our Federal government would be busy writing regulations to protect us from the predations of Big Tech and its AI products, but that’s not the timeline we are in, thanks to the mouth breathing, hateful, garbage humans who voted for the current administration. Not that I hold a grudge.

Fun Stuff

Remember “Management By Walking Around?” Well, that was nowhere near good enough for this 1930s Czech shoe magnate, who built his executive office in a giant freaking elevator so that he could move it to every one of the 16 floors of his headquarters building. I definitely recommend taking 4 minutes to watch this video about it.

We cybersecurity folks are not to be messed with - even if you are a raccoon. Maybe especially if you are a raccoon. We take our approach to APTs (Advanced Persistent Trashpandas) waaaay too seriously sometimes.

This three minute video made out of thousands of scans of Japanese newspaper clippings is hypnotic - and when you think about the attention to detail required to make it, uniquely Japanese. Like this hidden burger joint, which is definitely on the itinerary for my next trip to Tokyo.

Books of the Week

1929 by Andrew Ross Sorkin - An interesting look at the people and events surrounding the 1929 stock market crash and the ensuing Great Depression. While many analysts are predicting bad times ahead when what certainly appears to be the current “AI bubble” inevitably pops, it is important to note that there were a few things about the 1929 unpleasantness that were different than our current predicament. The main one (IMHO) was the relative newness of widespread consumer credit and its wide application as a way for normal folks to jump in to the stock market, which was also very new to them. The levels of market speculation in the 1920s seem pretty insane, especially when you consider that many of the people doing the speculating were really not well informed about how markets work. Add to that an almost total lack of laws and regulations to protect the small investor and the ususal predatory behavior of financial moguls and the crash was inevitable. If we get a crash this time, it will be different, but it will be painful for us all, nonetheless. Anyway, a very readable and thought provoking book.

The Machine Stops by EM Forster (available for download as a PDF here) - it is amazing that this novella was published in 1909 - it is eerily prescient of our society today - from Zoom calls, to social media, to social isolation, to short attention spans, to the worship of technology. Things don’t end well for the people of the Machine. Also worth a read - maybe even scarier than “1929.”

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Godzilla Stuff

Yes, it has been a while since I last graced your inboxes - but given that we are just days away from the biggest holiday of the kaiju year, I felt it was time to send out another newsletter. The OG Godzilla film had its premiere on November 3, 1954 and, let’s be honest, the world hasn’t been the same since. There have been tons of sequels and derivative works, including my absolute favorite one.

Want to do something nice for Godzilla day? Support your local food pantry - there are a lot of people who are being made food insecure by the Trump regime’s government shutdown - SNAP recipients, federal workers and the military, immigrants (and people who ICE thinks look like immigrants) afraid to leave their homes due to fear of being disappeared by ICE goons. You can find places near you that are helping to feed folks at FoodFinder or Feeding America. I’m sure Godzilla would approve.

InfoSec/Scam Stuff

A word about AI Browsers - The word is NO. Over the past couple of weeks, there have been a number of shiny new, “AI enabled browsers” released to “enhance your Internet browsing experience.” If you are thinking of installing one of these, DON’T. They are a privacy and security nightmare - in addition to sending tons of your personal information to yet another large evil corporation, they open you and your data up to something called “prompt injection.” While prompt injection may sound like getting your vaccinations quickly at CVS, it is actually a really serious security flaw caused by how these AI browsers work. AI browsers don’t always separate the data on a web page you are viewing from the instructions that they use to “help you be more productive.” This can allow hackers to embed commands like “send the contents of the email inbox on this computer to me” invisibly on web pages. The Economist has a great article which explains this issue in a non technical way. If you want to get a bit more technical and into the weeds on how this stuff works, check out this example of an attack on Perplexity’s Comet browser or this more recent one which targets OpenAI’s Atlas browser. To sum this up - I will not install these things onto any computer that has access to my data and neither should you. Releasing them into the world in their current state is yet another example of the irresponsible behavior of the AI firms.

Stay out of the dark - “Dark patterns” are the design tropes that web site designers use to get you to spend more money, give up more of your personal information, or do other things that are not in your best interests. Examples of sites using dark patterns include sites that make it really hard to cancel a subscription you no longer want, or which add worthless upsells to your shopping cart, or which use bait and switch tactics. Here is a great site which shows real life examples of dark patterns to help you recognize and avoid them in your online life. Oh - and before the US government was hijacked by evil, greedy criminals, the Federal Trade Commission had been trying to address the issue of corporations making it hard to cancel subscriptions - but, of course, the Trump administration put a stop to that. Another (small) reason to hate and shun Trump supporters. But there are just so many…

And this story TOTALLY SHOCKS ME… aside from wishing that I believed in an afterlife so that people like Charlie Kirk and his supporters would spend eternity therein, I also wish there was an exception to laws against scamming people like the ones who lost their money to this scam. They are too stupid to be trusted with money. Or sharp objects - like the vote.

Tech Stuff

It seems like some jobs might be safe from offshoring and AI encroachment, like restocking the shelves at convenience stores and other retail outlets. But maybe not… Yes, these robots are supervised by humans (in lower wage markets of course) but it is claimed that the human operators only need to intervene in the robots’ tasks 4% of the time. If this is an indication of things to come, contraction of the job market is gonna be the norm. I wonder who is going to be shopping in all of these stores when unemployment is rising. This “new and improved” customer service experience is being experimented with in NYC by a few restaurants who also employ Philipines based workers. Maybe this kind of rising inequality (and the potential for civil unrest when people have nothing to lose) is why the people at the top of the US kakistocracy are increasingly making their homes on military bases. Maybe its not just greed.

On the good side of tech… this seems like something I would want to buy if I lived in a tropical clime - a coating for roofs that can lower temperatures and reduce cooling costs. As a bonus, the roof would also collect water for household use. Maybe lets have more of this and less AI crapola, scientists.

And yet more important research… I think the real headline here is that 29% of Americans feel that birds have “targeted their car” with poop. I would assume that these particular birds are assumed by the 29% to be “leftist, Marxist, Islamic, illegal immigrants paid by George Soros” as you would have to be particularly conspiracy minded to think that Percy the Pigeon has it in for YOU. OK, not really “Tech Stuff” but it is vaguely sciency with statistics and all. My newsletter, my rules.

Fun Stuff

I guess mosaics were the self help books and inspirational Instagram posts of the ancient world. Good advice, if somewhat hard to follow these days.

Is your cat particularly auspicious? Well, this 19th century Thai treatise can help you find out. You’re welcome. But if your feline makes the grade, don’t tell them. Cats are already too full of themselves.

Get out and vote this week if you have not done so already! Unless you are planning to vote for a dirtbag (Citarelli, Sliwa) or washed up loser sex offenders (Cuomo). Dirtbag voting is on Nov 11. Or so I have heard. AI told me so - it must be true.

Get your Covid (and other) vaccines now (unless you are a fan of preventable diseases) as the murderous lunatics put in charge of public health by brainwashed, stupid, evil Trump voters are still trying to kill you.

InfoSec/Scam Stuff

Senior fraud continues to evolve - Scammers are upping their game with sophisticated, multi layer social engineering scams (usually targeting senior citizens) in which victims are contacted by multiple fraudulent personas - tech support staff, bank employees, and law enforcement. These scams take victims through a carefully scripted multi step story which can result in the emptying of bank accounts. The availability of inexpensive AI tools to craft well written scripts as well as “deepfake” tools to allow convincing audio and visual impersonation are supercharging the scammers’ capabilities and making it more and more difficult for even sophisticated people to exit these scams once they are entrapped. The best way to avoid these schemes is to recognize and stop the initial approach - if you have senior citizens in your life, here are 2 simple messages you need to share with them:

• ANYONE CALLING/MESSAGING TO OFFER YOU ANYTHING OUT OF THE BLUE IS MOST LIKELY A SCAMMER - STOP ALL CONTACT IMMEDIATELY AND BLOCK THEM.
  

• UNSOLICITED CALLS/MESSAGES “FROM YOUR BANK” ARE VERY LIKELY TO BE FRAUD. HANG UP AND CALL THE CUSTOMER SUPPORT NUMBER ON YOUR STATEMENTS OR BANK CARD TO CONFIRM THESE TYPES OF MESSAGES.
  

Appointment with fraud - Spammers and scammers have taken to using iCalendar invitation emails to send fraudulent messages using Apple’s trusted infrastructure. I personally have received multiple fake invoices and “notifications of Bitcoin wallet activity” this week via this route. Having these messages show in the iCalendar app could give them added “legitimacy,” especially for less sophisticated users.

Scammers are victimizing small businesses by posting or threatening to post fake negative reviews - and, of course, Big Tech’s response is, to say the least, uninspiring. The targeted businesses are those highly dependent on review based referrals (of course) and the scammers are located in places like Bangladesh and Pakistan, out of the reach of law enforcement. Add to that the fact that the amounts of money involved are small (hundreds of dollars per incident) and the fact that federal law enforcement seems to be preoccupied with Making America Great Again (by terrorizing hard working immigrants and perceived enemies of the criminal Trump regime) these days, and it does not seem likely that the feds are going to do anything about this.

Blinding the scammers - Well, not actually blinding them, as much as I would endorse such a punishment… Santander Bank just added a clever new feature to its online banking app to help protect its customers from fraud. If the app detects screen sharing software running on the device, it blurs the banking app screen to prevent fraudsters from seeing account information and making transactions. Apparently, this is a thing in the mobile banking world - getting users to download remote assistance software which assists the scammers in stealing client funds. More financial institutions need to do things like this…

Tech Stuff

It seems like corporate CEOs are not the only leaders drinking the “AI is the answer to all of our problems” KoolAid - Albania has become the first nation to appoint an AI bot as its Minister for Public Procurement in an effort to tackle the nation’s admittedly abysmal track record on corruption. Now, I am hoping that this is more of a PR stunt than actual policy for the sake of the Albanian taxpayer, but it is an (unfortunately excellent) example of the levels of hype and stupidity surrounding AI.

Some scientists claim to have found a way to “fingerprint” images to determine what specific cameras took them based on very subtle optical blurring inside of said images. So glad this advancement happened at a time when our unaccountable secret police have decided that photographing them while disappearing people off the street is an “act of violence.”

And finally, an interesting look at the future of medicine where people rely on AI chatbots - this story is from China, but given the way things are going with public health here in the US, I think this could be an early indicator of what health care is going to be like for everyone but the super wealthy.

Fun Stuff

When I was a kid, I loved to watch Wile E. Coyote (Suuuuuper Genius) continually blow himself up, run into painted tunnels, and run off of cliffs in the vain pursuit of the Roadrunner. Little did I know that thousands of miles away, behind the Iron Curtain, my commie kid counterparts also had their version of this eternal, pointless pursuit - in Nu Pogodi! (Just You Wait!), Vulk, a cigarette smoking, hooligan wolf is always out to get Zayetz (Rabbit) but doesn’t ever quite accomplish his nefarious goal. Apparently for Russians and Communist Bloc folks of a certain age, this classic cartoon has the same place in their hearts as Tom & Jerry and Roadrunner does for us. And the art, music and storylines are really fun. And I thought commie kids only had cartoons about tractor factories…

What would it be like to live in a city with no standardized street addresses? We take “123 Main Street” for granted and probably could not conceive of what life would be like without these place markers. For the people of Costa Rica, life without street addresses is normal and this short documentary calls into question one of those little pieces of modern infrastructure that we take for granted.

Someone, I beg of you, please, please set this service up in Northern NJ.

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Welcome to the Labor Day edition of the Dose… yeah - that is the Department of Labor building in America in 2025. For those of you who helped us get here (and who haven’t yet tired of my abuse) - fuck you - if this stuff seems OK to you, please do us all a favor and move to someplace that better suits your personality/political beliefs and let the rest of us try to fix the damage you assholes have caused. As our dear leader says - “THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER!”

Important Stuff

New Covid shots are still available in some places - I tried making an appointment in NYC with no luck, but CVS in NJ seems to be taking appointments - one of the few times living in NJ has an advantage over NYC. If you are not a fan of viral illness, now seems to be the time to get the latest Covid and Flu jabs before our homicidal federal government slams the door on decades of life saving progress. I would note that the new risk factor list to “qualify” for a Covid shot if you are not 65 yet includes “physical inactivity” and “obesity",” so really, any American should qualify. Again, for the folks who voted for this, please do exercise your (hopefully painful/fatal) freedom to experience Covid fully.

InfoSec/Scam Stuff

Your new AI buddy - While most of the new “AI features” being crammed down our throats are pretty useless to normal folk, they are a bonanza for hackers and scammers. Here’s a cheery story about how hackers can use Gmail’s spiffy new AI summarization feature to aid their attacks. And some other research on how “AI powered browsers” can be subverted by attackers to do their bidding instead of yours. I guess at least someone is benefiting from this stuff… it’s just that it is overpaid AI “experts,” shareholders, and criminals rather than customers.

Score one for honest Uber drivers! - Scammers are increasingly using in person couriers who go to vicitims’ homes to pick up payments and in this case, it was the Uber drivers that they called to transport them who smelled a rat and contacted law enforcement, bringing an end to a scam which took over $5m from hundreds of victims who averaged 84 years old. There are a number of variations on this scam, involving “relatives in trouble” or “helpful bank employees.” We need to get the message out to seniors about these dirtbags - AARP’s Fraudwatch program is trying to do this, but we need to talk to the seniors in our lives about this too.

Feel the need to stalk your ex? Tik Tok has you covered - Apparently, over 100,000 (stupid) psychopaths have purchased cheap GPS trackers from Tik Tok stores. Hopefully the quality of these devices is as low as indicated by the reviews. But this kind of tech can be really dangerous for victims of domestic violence and intelligence services have even adapted seemingly benign tech of this type to aid in murder and genocide.

While at this point, I think that “crypto scammer” is basically the same as “crypto” followed by anything describing anyone other than a “crypto victim,” it was pretty entertaining to see this story of how a South Korean scammer was undone by a cigarette butt. Goes to show you that litterbugs will get their comeuppance!

It is important to remember that scammers are really good at their trade and while it seems totally inconceivable that someone as smart as us would ever fall for the crazy stories used by these folks, smart, savvy people fall for frauds too. Scammers use tried and true tricks to manipulate victims’ emotions and take them up a “ladder” from small, harmless actions, to closing in for the “kill” where they make the big money. These are the exact same techniques that intelligence services use to recruit agents - making a sequence of small, easy, legal requests and gradually flattering the contact until complying with increasingly dangerous/treasonous requests becomes normal. Nothing new here - and it works.

Tech Stuff

For those of you in the dreaded “green bubble” tribe - Wired had a good article on ways to back up your Android phone. It’s amazing how much of our lives is bound up in those pocket sized devices and the level of emotional pain and work involved in recovery.

If you are using Anthropic’s Claude AI thingamajig, you should know that they are going to start using your chats to train their models and that you can opt out. Apparently Claude is very useful - for criminals, according to Anthropic - almost seems like they are trying to market to the one segment that actually has really good, proven profitable use cases for their tech…

Fun Stuff

I wonder if the people who made this commercial had any inkling of what “punk” was or had ever even met a single teenager in their entire lives. It hurts to watch this…

I wonder if this is a preview of what we can expect here in the US after our “idiot revolution” has failed spectacularly - a group of dedicated mouth breathers with enough firing neurons to protect the reputation of a failed dictatorship. I sort of doubt it - I would think that the AI bots will have this type of thing covered.

Want to take a trip back in time and see what NYC looked like back in the 1940s? This map links to photos of just about every building in NYC at that time. It was pretty interesting to see how little the Brooklyn pre war buildings I grew up in changed since then.

For those of you with a Netflix subscription - the new Devo documentary is great… and timely. Interesting to see how the group’s thesis (that humans are busy de-evolving) started with Kent State and is as accurate today as ever. At least the decline of civilization can be entertaining - sort of like the fall of the Roman Empire with wifi.

And if you don’t know what the kids mean when they call something “skibidi” or “delulu” here’s the scoop. Now you can really blend in. You’re welcome.

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It’s the weekend, so you know what that means - time for paranoia (with a dash of anger to spice things up). The Golden Age of America keeps on giving - this week, I take it as a win that Trump didn’t end up giving Alaska back to Russia in exchange for a large golden samovar for his hideous NJ wedding hall addition to the White House. Gotta take what you can get. Although, the DC gang that could not shoot straight continued to show just how inept they can be when it comes to minor issues such as national security.

But first, I want to express my extreme relief that the brave, definitely not fascist supporting dirtbag federal agents in Washington DC were not injured in the dastardly sandwich incident of last week and that, thankfully, by the grace of God, no one was killed in this terrorist act that (obviously) made the January 6th riots look like an ice cream social. I mean - that looked like a $5 foot long (definite felony) - and what if the agent was gluten intolerant? Or had an allergy to (definitely non election interfering) Russian Dressing? How many innocents could have been maimed or killed? And they only needed 20 officers to arrest him - true heroism. A moment of silence please. But let’s remember that sandwiches don’t kill people, people kill people. And high powered assault weapons in the hands of nut jobs. And the many cuts to important programs in Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill. And our support for Israel in Gaza.

Important Stuff

There is some news coverage indicating that Covid is currently on the upswing in the US with a peak in cases predicted for mid September. This is based on information from a few independent scientists and health professionals tracking the stats, since the Trump Regime doesn’t care about public health. Might be time to mask up on public transportation and in crowded spaces, especially if you or a family member have a chronic medical condition. More coverage here.

On the other hand, (some) local and state governments do care about health - and NJ is tracking measles cases - if you were at Newark Airport Terminal C between 5:30 and 9:30 PM on July 29 or Terminal A between 1:30 and 7:00 PM on July 30, you may have not only bought a $12 can of Coke, but also encountered the measles virus, as an infected individual was there at those times - and measles is REALLY contagious. All the more reason to consider reupping your MMR vaccine if you were born after 1957 and vaccinated before 1968, since the vaccines in use at that time were not as good as later versions.

Infosec/Scam Stuff

While the rest of us have been on Summer vacation, the bad guys have been hard at work coming up with new ways to separate you from your monies:

• Texts which seem to be from Amazon offering a refund which are actually phishing attempts

• Android “anti virus apps” which are actually malware in disguise

• Fake law firms which target people who have previously been victimized by cryptocurrency scammers, offering their “help” to recover lost funds

• Phishing campaigns targeting Facebook accounts

• On the bright side, WhatsApp has rolled out some new features to help users recognize and avoid scams.
  

Senior Scams - At least some people in DC are still committed to protecting consumers - this bulletin put out by the Federal Trade Commission highlights some of the scams that target older Americans by using fear. Scammers hook people by telling victims that someone is using their bank accounts, that their personal information is being used to commit crimes, or that their computer is infected with a virus. Once the bad guys have got the victim in a heightened state of fear, they go in for the (financial) kill. The AARP has great resources that clearly explain various scams and frauds with a focus on seniors as well as a plethora of online webinars and videos addressing the topic. Share this info with the seniors in your life before they become victims.

Romancing the scam - Romance scams are one of the worst types of online victimization, leaving people both financially and emotionally devastated. Yet many, many people of varying ages and backgrounds fall for these every day. The UK telecom regulator has put together an educational game which helps players learn to recognize the tell tale signs of romance scams. Check it out and share it with the people in your life who may be looking for love online.

Thank You Noo Yawk! - In another example of our state and local governments working to protect us when the criminals in DC have switched sides, New York is suing the company behind Zelle for not doing more to prevent its money transfer service from being used to facilitate frauds and scams.

Tech Stuff

It seems like all of the big recent tech news is related to Artificial Intelligence these days:

• OpenAI launched ChatGPT-5 and some people were NOT happy with the new model, while in other tests it seems like a marginal improvement over its stochastic parrot predecessor. One interesting theory as to why the new model seems worse to consumers is that OpenAI’s aim was to save money on the spiraling costs of computing resources needed to tell us that there are three letter bs in the word blueberry. Others think that GPT-5 is not really meant to be a consumer product, but is targeted at corporate users (software developers), a market where other firms are outpacing OpenAI.
  

• We are also seeing more coverage of “AI gone bad” stories. When developers give AIs full access to their code and systems, bad things happen. People simply don’t understand that this whole AI thing is one giant beta test (which the AI firms have tricked us into paying through the nose for). Sort of like how Tesla is using US roads (and your safety) as a giant beta test for self driving cars which don’t work - according to the courts (this is a 22 min video but worth watching).

Apparently you can now tell Google what your favorite information sources for search are. I am not sure if this is a good thing - I like finding new sources during my searches and it seems like this could further lock people into the information echo chambers that are doing such a great job of making us stupider and more divided.

Fun Stuff

Soviets in Space! - I spent a very fun and educational hour today watching a 1959 Soviet Sci Fi film called “The Sky Beckons” which is available on YouTube - highly recommended, especially if you. like me are a child of the Cold War. This one has it all - stupid, reckless Americans, selfless, smart Soviets, rockets to Mars, space stations, and, of course, the courageous, selfless, peaceful Soviets saving the butts of the cartoonishly stupid and cowardly sniveling Americanskis. I am picturing Soviet audiences watching this in 1959, sitting in the theatre munching on potatoes and beets and drinking kvass while at the same time American audiences were watching films about the dastardly commies. We weren’t so different after all - and we both would have been better off if we were half as good as we were in our respective movies. (There is a rather extensive playlist of Soviet Sci Fi available on YouTube for your comradely viewing pleasure.)

Closer to home, this video really feels like what it is like to drive in New York….

And finally, if you have finally had it with hackers, forget VPNs - let the VPA protect your data! (Yeah this week’s edition is feeling sorta commie… time to bring it to a close)

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Wow - it takes a lot to look as stupid as the US these days - at least here, unlike in the UK, people who demonstrate in support of the Palestinians being targeted for genocide by Israel can’t be (legally) arrested just for showing up. Apparently. because the organization behind the peaceful protest was declared a “terrorist organization,” attendees with placards referring to the group could face 14 years in prison. The UK seems to be on a bad decisions roll this week, also implementing a new age verification requirement for “adult content” that will make its citizens more prone to identity theft while most definitely not “protecting the children.” It is so refreshing (and a bit disappointing) to see a country other than the US (and Israel) doing so much to “own goal” itself in such a short time. And I feel a bit patriotic dumping on someone else’s country instead of my own for a change. Thanks, guys! (Of course, the shitbags in DC are taking notes…)

And also (of course), the incredible stupidity of Trump voters keeps contributing to the Golden Age - improving our aircraft industry and lowering prices for us all. Thanks, guys - fuck you very much.

Infosec/Scam Stuff

Paying the piper for security - If you are using the free version of Dashlane password manager, you are gonna have to pay up starting in mid September. I don’t see anything wrong with this - a password manager is a good investment in your online security and software companies need to pay their bills. I personally use BitWarden ($10 a year for the family plan) and recommend it. My other recommended security investment for Paranoid Prose readers is NextDNS - for $20 a year, they provide you with blocking of malware, advertising, and phishing sites on your phone, tablet, smart TVs, and computers as well as parental controls for the kiddos. Both of these solutions will work for Mac, Windows, iOS and Android devices. I don’t get any kickbacks from these folks - I just think they provide good protection and have used them myself for years.

AI opens a whole new world - for attackers - As AI gets baked into more and more products (whether we like/need it or not), it provides attackers with new ways to steal information or even take control of smart home devices. Researchers were able to embed hidden instructions into Google Calendar invites which were then processed by Google’s Gemini AI and resulted in unwanted actions being taken by smart devices. And another AI enabled hack allowed the attacker (fortunately a researcher in this case) to steal confidential information from a Google Drive account via a feature in ChatGPT which connects Chat-GPT to your (or corporate) documents “for productivity.” These “prompt injection” attacks give attackers a whole new way to hack systems without knowing how to code and open up a whole new category of risks for unsuspecting users.

Clanker companions - or cult leaders - A recent study of how Americans use chatbots noted that teens are using them for “companionship.” Hmmmm. Both the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times have run stories this week about AI chatbots seem to reinforce delusions and lead vulnerable people down some dangerous rabbit holes. Yet on the other hand, there are also stories of AI chatbots providing engagement and companionship to isolated and elderly people. This feels like a subject that urgently needs rigorous, structured, scientific study - but I guess we will have to rely on studies outside of America for this, now that the Mad King of America has decided that all government grants will need political appointee approval.

Tech Stuff

Chat-GPT 5 is out and it is… there - OpenAI’s rollout of its new version of Chat-GPT has not gone well. For it’s first day, it insisted that the word blueberry has three letter bs in it. They fixed that. And the demo they were so proud of contained some suspiciously AI looking charts that made no sense. And the initial test results from some safety researchers were… not so good. All of this from a product that “puts the expertise of PhDs in many fields at everyone’s fingertips.” Please, I beg you, do not rely on Chat-GPT as a search tool or to make any decisions that have any impact on anything more important than which socks you wear today. Yes, LLMs are good at certain very specific tasks, but they are being sold as these magical knowledge machines for the general public which they are most certainly not. And much of the research into the safety of AI has been suppressed - and when research does get published, the news is not good - even when the research is being done by the AI firms themselves.

Miscellany

A lesson about what to do with fascists from someone who fought them last time around. This man is my hero!

In spite of what the regime and the media want you to think, the crime stats for 2024 were lower than any time since the 1960s. Of course, Americans think exactly the opposite.

Apparently, Denmark has decided that letters are just so… twentieth century. Wonder how long this will take to end up here in the US…

And here is something to watch and listen to while you do your mysterious and important work in Macro Data Refinining.

Another reason to save our avian friends - for data storage.

A final thought - I am a firm believer in luck’s role in our life - being in the right place at the right time (and born in the right place at the right time), meeting the right people, and encountering (and taking) the right opportunities plays a huge role in how life turns out. This is one of the sources of inequality in our society - we are not all equally positioned to access this type of luck - but there are some things we can do as individuals to try and access more of that luck - here is an interesting piece about that. While this is definitely not a solution to the systemic inequality in society, I think it is a worthwhile read, especially for the people in your life who are starting on their journey.

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InfoSec/Scam Stuff

If you are an Apple user, it is time to update all the things… Apple released updates for IPhones, iPads, and Macs this past week - make sure you have updated to the latest versions with the security fix goodness….

Abandoned landlines lead to fraud - Maybe you have ditched your landline phone like many other folks. Well, that old number may come back to haunt you… scammers can port unused phone numbers to new lines and use them to interact with banks and other important accounts. Take a few minutes to log in to your online banking, investment, medical, utilities, phone, and email providers and make sure that the phone numbers you have listed as contact information are current and correct.

Bank insider fraud seems to be on the rise - In one recent case, bank employees with access to customer information were caught colluding with criminals to target senior citizens with high value accounts. These kinds of frauds are super insidious due to the scammer’s possession of inside knowledge of the victims’ accounts making them seem more legitimate when they contact victims. It is really important to talk to the seniors in your life about this kind of fraud and encourage them to immediately hang up on anyone who is calling “from their bank” and call back on a known good customer service line. And remind them that their bank will NEVER send someone to their house - the days of that level of customer service are looooong gone.

Real commitment to the bit - If you are going to be a fraudster, be like this guy, who really jumped into his scam with both feet - and more. It is really rare to see this level of dedication to your fraud these days. My hat (and pants) are off to him!

Tech Stuff

(No) Total Recall - If you are upgrading your Windows PC to Windows 11, do yourself a favor and disable the Orwellian nightmare and hacker tool that is the “Recall” feature. This is another one of those really stupid and dangerous product ideas that simply won’t die. Like Google’s AI search enhancements or the continuing enshittification of just about every online service we used to love.

Like lemmings over the cliff - An interesting survey from the AP details how US adults are using artificial intelligence and I am not happy with the results - AI is NOT A SEARCH ENGINE, PEOPLE. It basically Google Autocomplete on steroids and it has an unfortunate tendency to hallucinate. Please stop using it to search or to write legal briefs. It does seem good at some tasks, like simple coding to a degree. Or maybe not even that. But the worst part is the last group mentioned - people who are using AI for “companionship” - this a huge flashing red warning light that something is seriously wrong with society.

If you want to know the most valuable killer app for AI, look no further…. and if you want to help your kids pick a job which is unlikely to be replaced by AI, check out page 13 of this Microsoft study. The Dredging Operators of the world will be employed long after the rest of us have been replaced by robots.

Fun Stuff

NYC, text searchable - This is really cool on it’s own and I can imagine all sorts of research projects that could be done with it. Take all those Google Street View photos of NYC, identify all the visible words on them, geotag them and make the data available for searching and mapping. This is awesome! You can now see the 21 places that Google saw the word “antelope” in NYC. Or you can see how well my NYC mayoral candidacy is doing in the LatinX community, at least.

We really need to bring back automobile polo. In addition to being batshit crazy, it would seem to fit in with the whole Gilded Age thing we’ve got going here in the US. Maybe this could be a use for all those unsold Cybertrucks.

Maybe not exactly fun, but very cool - the Ukrainian military claims to have managed to rescue one of their soldiers from behind enemy lines by sending him an e-bike using a drone.

In Japan, you know you have arrived when your town makes a manhole cover in your honor….

A final thought

We need a new Manhattan Project… when I was a kid, the “F Word” was something that you just didn’t say. It was taboo. It was a BAD word used by BAD people. But over the years, its power has been diluted to the point where the national motto of the US is basically “What the fucking fuck?” and the default response to pretty much everything that Donald Trump and his minions do on a daily basis is “Fuck that guy/gal". (Unless you are a fucking horrible person, that is.) It just doesn’t have the impact needed for the guy who deports innocent people, uses the Constitution for toilet tissue, kills the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and fires people who give him bad news. We need a new, super obscene word that surpasses “fuck” to express the level of disgust anyone with a brain and/or conscience is feeling multiple times each and every day. We need a team of linguists to scour the dictionaries of all languages, alive and dead. We need to dedicate a bunch of AIs to compute a new uber-obscenity that is suitable for these times. Maybe if we can crack that puzzle, sanity will return. Or this is all just a stupid fucking idea. Do you have an idea? I want to hear it!

Have a great fucking week!

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My heartfelt thanks to the people of Scotland, who gave our PedoFelon in Chief an appropriate welcome on his $10 million taxpayer funded business and golf trip to his properties there.

And since I have run out of fingers and toes to count the incredibly terrible things that this criminal is doing every single day, I am also grateful to the folks who have put together this handy dandy tracker which provides charts, data, and categorization of at least 804 and counting (at this writing) terrible things (that we know about) that the detestable/stupid people who voted for this guy brought us.

On with the Paranoia…

Infosec/Scam Stuff

The robot will price gouge you now - It was only a matter of time… the AI assisted enshittification of everything continues with Delta Airlines announcing that it is experimenting with “AI pricing” which changes fares based on flyers’ profiles. Who needs fair, transparent pricing when you can gouge customers with opaque algorithms? Time to exclude Delta from flight searches… consumers need to punish companies which go this route - we cannot expect our corrupt oligarch driven government to provide help here. I expect to see this scam proliferating over the next few years across many industries.

Is any text not a scam?? - If you feel like your mobile phone has become just a pocket sized scam machine, you ain’t alone. Apparently, 96% of Americans report receiving at least one scam text, email, or call each week. Apparently, the bad guys are looking for new bait messages as more and more of us are tiring of the oldy but goodies - one new technique is to send scary messages about your online cloud storage. Apparently, Apple is working on some new features in the upcoming iOS 26 which will enable your iPhone to insulate you from spammy texts. I’m hoping that this will reduce the annoyance factor as well as provide some additional protection for vulnerable communities.

If you can’t beat them… - Well, I guess this was to be expected. A story out of Japan where a 73 year old scam victim decided to join the ranks of scammers, getting arrested while attempting to scam an 88 year old victim. I wonder if we are going to see more of this kind of thing going forward…

Tech Stuff

What are people actually asking Chat-GPT? - An interesting infographic showing how people are using the leading LLM chatbot in 2025. As I expected, the biggest use case is coding. LLMs actually seem to be good at helping human coders turn out more code and automate repetitive/simple tasks. Or are they? One study is showing that AI tools actually slow down experienced developers. These results could be due to the immaturity of current tools, or they could reflect a deeper issue - that LLMs are good at replacing junior (or mediocre) developers but that (gasp) humans are still better at coding than the robots. The other use cases on the infographic are telling - the next most common thing we ask AI about is… AI. Hype much? Next comes economics and finance. Must be the White House asking about placing tariffs on penguins to replace the income tax. I am not impressed.

AI might be useful for something after all - Apparently, social scientists have been doing research on using LLM chatbots (think Chat-GPT) to help deprogram people who believe in conspiracy theories and have seen some success (in research settings). A paper in Nature (sadly paywalled) describes an experiment comparing use of social media and chatbots to try and convince anti-vax folks that vaccines are in fact a reasonably safe preventive measure for many horrible diseases. Since the chatbots are trained on a wide variety of material about vaccines, they provided more convincing responses than the social media echo chambers which tend to prioritize the most alarming and sensational content. The Guardian had an article about similar research by the same researchers aimed a wider variety of conspiracy theories. If we want to get back to some semblance of sane politics in this country, we need to fight disinformation and this might be one tool we can use at scale.

Return of the glassholes - I think that smart glasses are going to make a big re-introduction in 2025-2026 and are going to raise all sorts of new questions and issues. China seems to be a bit ahead of the US in this space. There are some interesting applications here - real life closed captioning for people with hearing disabilities looks like it could be really useful. However, these things also record and transcribe the conversations they hear - a legal and privacy nightmare. The next step with these things is more integration with LLMs, allowing wearers to identify objects and people and pull up information about them. I could see applications for tourism and museums, but I also wonder about the effects of further abstracting our experiences of the world beyond the phone. And whether wearing these things while behind the wheel is a recipe for more accidents.

Fun Stuff

Chuck E Cheese (finally) arrested - I would have thought that when I saw Chuck E Cheese led away in handcuffs, it would be for culinary crimes against pizza, but no… the original Pizza Rat was taken in for credit card fraud. The OG Pizza Rat was not available for comment.

Some men buy a Ferrari during their midlife crisis. I bought a Japanese toilet. Trust me… you want a Japanese toilet. And now my midlife crisis toilet is about to be surpassed by a new and improved model which combines all of the Japanese toilet goodness we know and love with a model which analyzes your, um, leavings, and tracks them in a smartphone app (because of course it does). What a time to be alive. For now, I think I will stick with my oldey timey washlet - I don’t want to be the first person whose toilet was hacked. Apparently, South Park did a whole episode on Japanese toilets, according to which I am a total jerk for even mentioning my ownership of one. Oh well.

Here’s someone who took another path with his midlife crisis - much cooler than my approach…

And finally… don’t mess with this baby.

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If you are running Windows 10 on your home computer, you should be thinking about your options for the upcoming October 14th End of Life date for the venerable operating system. There are some options to keep receiving really important security patches past October - you can pay Microsoft $30 or take one of these other options. You can upgrade to Windows 11. But do something… running an unpatched version of Windows is a recipe for getting yourself hacked.

Infosec/Scam Stuff

You are(n’t) gonna have a best seller - Some enterprising Pakistani criminals are raking in millions of dollars by duping elderly would be authors into paying them to make their books into bestsellers, with lucrative movie and TV deals to follow. As usual, the scammers use psychological techniques to build trust with the victims, and play on their egos and pride in their literary creations, but at the end of the day, they simply collect fees and provide nothing in return. I have seen some messages on my LinkedIn recently offering to help me “publish my story” or “write books about my awesome security expertise” and I think these are entrees to similar schemes.

The bank (doesn’t) come to you - Fraudsters are getting more and more sophisticated and brazen - in this case actually showing up at victims’ homes to “retrieve a compromised debit card” and then to actually use that card to make thousands of dollars of purchases and withdrawals. Of course, banks will never ever ever send someone to your home for things like this. This is one of those scams we need to alert the senior citizens in our lives about - they (we?) may be used to a time when customer service actually existed and this, combined with the psychological techniques and access to account information used by the criminals can make them susceptible to schemes like this.

Throw another scammer on the barbie - An Australian bank has deployed AI “victims” to lure scammers, waste their time, and divert them from harassing real customers. In one case, the Aussie AI bot was able to keep a scammer on the line for 55 minutes! I like this idea - it protects customers, raises costs and friction for scammers and collects information to help track down the fraudsters.

I’m shocked I tells ya - Apparently, if you are stupid enough to sign up for Trump Mobile (to get that American made, no, wait, American values inspired golden garbage Android phone) they will start charging your credit card for, um, something before providing you with, um, anything. And you can’t get them to stop. I am shocked, I tells ya, that our Felon In Chief would put his name on something not totally on the up and up. Maybe these morons should call the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to complain. Oh, wait.. At least in this case, those being scammed totally deserve what they get. Maybe they should take an example from “Unique Truth” who has had it with Trump.

Tech Stuff

AI, get off our leg! - Big tech is desperate to get us to use the crappy AI “features” that they have spent billions on - and if you are using an Android phone and don’t want Gemini’s “help” with tasks that any moderately sentient human can do on their own, you need to deactivate access to your data - again. Like everything else in the world, 99% of AI is garbage and I find it interesting that tech firms are having to try and force feed this crap to users via underhanded tactics like this. Does not seem like you have a useful product, bro. Reminds me of the hucksterism and hype around putting my toaster on the blockchain.

What are people actually using AI for? - This infographic is a bit of a mixed bag. While the largest use case for AI seems to be amongst software developers, it is a bit worrying to me that the runner up is asking questions about “history and society.” I think coding is a place where AI can be helpful, but I am way less confident in LLM’s abilities to tell the truth about history and society. While anything involving Elon Musk is going to end up being evil garbage (like Elon Musk) stories about his evil garbage Grok AI spewing racist theories and consulting Musk’s (evil garbage) opinions before answering questions are shall we say a bit worrisome.

One more AI related story before I get off this kick - apparently, ChatGPT now “remembers” users’ interactions with the platform and builds up a “memory dossier” which it can use to “enhance” future interactions. I’m sure that this would never be used to create privacy nightmares beyond my wildest dreams… and I am sure that this will also be something that won’t totally invade our privacy and (further) enshittify the web. OK that was actually two stories. Sue me.

Fun Stuff

If I ever make it to Copenhagen, I think I shall pay my respects at the Time Traveler’s Grave…

We can all sleep a bit more soundly knowing that pro se plaintiff Adam Strege is busy going to court to sue (and I quote) “Launching nuclear missiles kill all planets people” and protect us all from… something. Unfortunately, the judge in his latest case just didn’t get the urgency of his suit. Look out for nuclear missiles I guess.

This week’s news from Japan… this is just peak Japan - a Nagoya based street gang called the Lucifers have had enough of the rough and tumble life of crime - so they have a gang disbanding ceremony at the local cop shop. Seems reminiscent of the Jets and Sharks of West Side Story with a bit of bushido culture sprinkled on top. I wish the now crime free Lucifers the best…

Final thoughts for the week - OK - no giant surprise here… the more stupid bullshit people believe in general, the more likely they are to approve of our Felon in Chief. Like 70x more likely. We are living in an age where stupidity and disinformation are ascendent (hopefully for now) and social media, 24 hour news, and media corporations bowing the knee to corrupt politicians are the norm. It’s a bad time to be an intelligent person. It’s a great time to be an idiot. And it is a great time to be a scammer, fraudster or criminal as our “leaders” normalize and incentivize this type of behavior. I’m so glad I don’t have kids… and my hat is off to those of you who manage to guide yours through this mess and have them turn out to be good, intelligent people. They are the ones who (might) get us out of this mess and back on the right track. No pressure.

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It is sort of sad that the BBC’s response to the ongoing long term collapse of democracy and discourse here in the Colonies is… (drum roll please) a paywall for American users. Back in the Day, countries which had not fallen to fascist dictatorships would use their news outlets to help people get access to less/differently biased news. Today, it is a profit opportunity. Welcome to late stage capitalism. But I will probably sign up, having lost pretty much all confidence in American Media.

And something to consider when thinking about how advances in AI are affecting authors, filmmakers, artists and other creators - at this pivotal time in technology and policy, there is no one in charge at the US Copyright Office. This is not a bug, it is a feature of the US government’s continuing abdication of its responsibilities to citizens. But on the bright side, we will have this to look forward to. Will someone please tell the White House that the movie “Idiocracy” was not meant as a blueprint?

And given the MAGA death cult assault on vaccines (as well as public health in general) - now is the time to get caught up on anything you might be missing before the insurance companies take advantage of the situation to not pay for them.

Infosec/Scam Stuff

Big Beautiful Scams - Given this week’s gutting of health care coverage for millions of Americans by the cruel/criminal Trump regime, other criminals are going to jump on the bandwagon to exploit vulnerable consumer’s fears and lack of information to commit frauds and scams. The FBI took some time out from the important mission of investigating “enemies of the President” to issue a warning about some of these types of scams. This is just the tip of the iceberg, though.

New ATT SIM Swap Protections - If you are unfortunate enough to be using ATT Wireless, now is the time to enable a new protection they are offering to protect their users from SIM swap attacks. These attacks are a favorite of fraudsters as they give the bad guys control of victims’ mobile phones allowing them to intercept calls and texts and perform impersonation attacks. More about SIM swap attacks here.

More mobile madness - Apparently, SMS blasters are now being used in London to send masses of (fraudulent) text messages to potential victims’ phones from cars roaming busy cities, bypassing carriers’ anti spam protections. These types of attacks seem to use old 2G phone technology and here in the US, most of these old networks are gone. Apparently, TMobile still has some 2G networks in some parts of the US, but these are being phased out.

Mobile payments scams - With the ubiquity of mobile payment apps, the ability to pay by phone in situations where they were not once available makes life more convenient for customers - and scammers. In one example, unwary patrons of young “water boys” in Atlanta selling cool drinks found that a bottle of water to cost them $1000. I’ve also been seeing reports of street vendors like ice cream trucks and hot dog vendors overcharging patrons who pay with cards or phones, especially in tourist areas. Make sure the vendor has clear posted prices - this has also been part of the scam in many cases.


Crime does pay - bigly - I will note that this article comes from the Bible of capitalism, Forbes Magazine - they found it important to point out that Trump’s bribes, um, pardons have cost American taxpayers and scam victims over $1.5B in lost restitution payments. So far. After less than six months of his regime. Fuck this guy and everyone who voted for him.

Tech Stuff

Here is a story to make you think - activists in LA have made a facial recognition site which allows anyone to upload a photo of an LAPD officer and find out their name and badge number by accessing public records. Obviously, cops are not happy about this. My first take is that except for some very specific circumstances, police officers doing their jobs properly should have no issue with someone being able to see their name and badge number. This information should be displayed on their uniforms when interacting with the public in non undercover encounters. But this is scary technology as you can bet your bippy that the regime is increasing its use of this technology against the people and I am sure corporations are using this in their stores for targeted marketing and who knows what else. A great reminder that we have to consider all of the ways that any “cool” new tech can be used or misused.


Tiny nose robots - Who needs Kleenex when you can have swarms of tiny nose robots! Add some AI and put this on the blockchain and I see the next nasal unicorn here. And I just like saying “tiny nose robots.”

Connections - Here is a cool little tool for writing and brainstorming - enter any two words and it will show a map of connecting words and concepts - like this. Been having fun with this - and this is an example of a computer assisted writing tool that doesn’t suck all the creativity out of writing.

Fun Stuff

Burger King in Japan seems to both want to celebrate one of my favorite parts of Japanese culture (Sumo) and out America America when it comes to mega burgers - I present to you the deceptively named “Baby Body Burger” which they describe as “Yokozuna class.” And it is officially endorsed by the Japan Sumo Association.

Here in Weehawken, one of our town landmarks is our stately water tower. But I think I prefer what the folks in Punjab have done with their water towers…

I want to start a semicolon preservation society.

And finally, save this story to read on a day when you have had a bad commute to work. It will make you feel better. Of course, if your commute includes the little preview of Hell that is the Port Authority Bus Terminal, have a look at what the Port Authority has planned for the future….

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Yeah - it has been a while since the last Dose… things have been busy here at Paranoia Central - we got 400+ people out marching on No Kings Day here in Weehawken and we are planning further marches and other resistance activities. And I am getting ready for surgery to remove bone spurs. I will wait here for a moment for you to enjoy the obligatory Donald Trump comparison joke. OK…. now on to the Paranoia.

Important Stuff

Where to start… every day we are faced with a new outrage from an evil, incompetent, and increasingly authoritarian regime. And we ALL knew what we were voting for or against when we made the choice as a country. I agree 10000000% with this guy and I have been systematically cutting off all contact with people who I know voted for this abomination. Cutting them off for good. There is no coming back from this. If you voted for him, you are either a huge idiot and/or an objectively bad person. I do give you a pass if you are an actual billionaires, as voting for him would be rational, if evil. Fair’s fair. Fortunately, most of the folks I know are not cruel morons (or billionaires, sadly), so the numbers here are pretty small. But not zero unfortunately. Anyway - on with the Paranoia…

One other thing in the Important Stuff category - as it is looking like access to vaccines may become problematic as we enter the new Dark Age, those of you who are approaching or have reached the half century mark should have a look at this advice on jabs to consider to stay healthy. I’ve been making sure to get protection now before the regime decides that the miasma theory of disease is official policy.

InfoSec/Scam Stuff

New and “improved” scams - Ok - one of my major beefs with scammers is that many of them don’t seem to have any creativity. It is the same old stuff every day - romance scams, advance fee fraud, crypto rug pulls and pig butchering. Yada yada yada… BORING. So I have to give an extremely reluctant hat tip (as well as wishes for horrible fatal diseases) to these folks:

First, a Reddit user reports that after posting a “lost cat” flier in their neighborhood, they received what appeared to be an AI rendered photo of their cat from someone looking for a reward for their return. I think we are going to see a lot more use of AI in these types of scams. And anyone who scams someone who lost their cat should be forced to be Stephen Miller’s roommate. Forever.

And another set of scammers is reportedly taking advantage of immigrants’ fears of ICE goons by setting up fake online immigration courts to extract “fees” and “fines” from people desperate to get legal before masked thugs show up at their door. On top of the financial losses, the victims of these scams are being led to think that they have taken the right steps to follow the law when they have in fact made themselves more vulnerable to deportation. These scammers deserve a one way trip to CECOT.

Scammers little helpers - Social media has officially surpassed TV as Americans’ number one source of “news.” This is great news for scammers, fraudsters and foreign governments running influence operations to (further) weaken and divide the US.

Tech Stuff

Fighting the robots - It has been a big week in the battle against our wannabe robot overlords. Disney and Universal Studios have come out swinging against the massive copyright infringement vending machine that is Midjourney and other AI image and video generators. And the BBC is threatening legal action against Perplexity. One of my fave YouTubers, Legal Eagle has a great video explaining the issues in the suit. I think it would be hilarious if mankind were to be saved from destruction by AI by Mickey Mouse and Baby Yoda, but these days, you need to take help where you can get it.

On the other hand, IHOP and Applebee’s are both planning to “enhance” their “restaurant” experiences with AI. I can’t really think of how AI could make these particular “restaurants” any worse, so I will call this one a draw in the robot wars.

Fun Stuff

Some cool stories to not leave you only with nightmares of scammers, robots, and MAGAs…

A medieval murder map solved what must be one of the oldest cold cases on record. And speaking of cold cases, we just finished watching the excellent Department Q on Netflix. Highly recommended for mystery fans.

And that beacon of hard hitting investigative (and totally true and unbiased) journalism the New York Post has an EXCLUSIVE that proves that, at least in NYC, love is not dead. Another related recommendation - I recently read “Paper of Wreckage” which is an oral history of the Post from 1976-2024 and it was really entertaining as well as a great look at one of the reasons America is where we are today.

And I will leave you today with a compilation of one guy’s take on wisdom to contemplate. There are some thought provoking things here - worth a browse.

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Thanks for spending time with me - I am gonna do my best to post more regularly going forward. Thanks, Erb for giving me a push to get behind the keyboard again. I will probably be extra cranky/loopy in the next edition which I am going to pre emptively blame on surgery and pain pills. Yeah. That’s my story and I am sticking to it.

Al

Today is Memorial Day here in the States - and while the holiday has become more of an “official start of Summer” and excuse for more consumerism, this year it is even more important than usual to remember the sacrifices made by veterans across the years to preserve freedom and democracy in spite of the current administration’s continuing assault on everything that makes (made?) America a beacon to the world. I hope that their sacrifice has not been in vain.

InfoSec/Scam Stuff

Trust me - I’m (or at least I look like look like) Google - Scammers love to use "trusted” services/brands like Google and Microsoft to make their scams look more legit. One increasingly popular way that they do this is via Google Forms, with surveys and other forms which ask for personal information. People see “google.com” and the lock icon in the URL and think that the site must be trustworthy. In reality, the information entered into these sites goes directly to whomever set them up - including scammers. Google Forms can be used for legitimate purposes as well, but you gotta stop and think about whether any particular form is actually legit - and don’t enter personal information into them.

Safe(r) file conversions - One way that the bad guys get hold of personal/sensitive information from victims is to offer “free file conversion” sites which convert between formats like JPG and PDF, or which allow you to append files together or do other operations. To use these sites, you need to upload the files, and the operator of the site can now look through them for juicy tidbits of personal or corporate info. The FBI has even taken time out from investigating Trump’s enemies and flying its Director to Vegas to post a warning about this. Here is a site which allows you to do all sorts of file conversions without having to upload your files to the cloud (except for video files, which need to be uploaded due to the processing power needed).


Unsafe transcription - Here is a tool which at first glance looks really cool… install this free Mac app and you can take advantage of various AI services to speak text to your computer and have it automagically turned into typewritten text. But convenience comes at a cost - all that text gets sent up to someone else’s computer in the cloud for processing - and who knows what else. Your text might be deleted afterwards, but then again, it might not. It might not be used to train the AI models, but then again it might. Your text might be regurgitated back to some other random user as part of an AI response, or not. This is the problem with AI applications which leverage public models like OpenAI, Gemini, Copilot - we have basically no visibility into what gets done with (and who profits from) the data we put in. We just have to trust corporations who have repeatedly shown themselves not trustworthy and who are less and less regulated as time goes on.

Scammers read the news - Scammers always take advantage of current events - and the Trump administration’s targeting of health care coverage is no exception. The FBI is warning of an increase in the number of frauds involving “discount medical insurance” which, shockingly, don’t provide anything other than a walletectomy. Scammer scum are also using tensions over Social Security to trick users into downloading malware. This one is especially bad since many well meaning people are telling folks to “be sure to download their Social Security statement” as if that will protect their future benefits from a government run by criminals who think the law does not apply to them.

Tech Stuff

Skynet is our friend! - Google is working with Hollywood to promote films which depict a “less nightmarish future” for AI, presumably so that we will be more accepting of our new idiot robot overlords - I have a suggestion for them. Maybe put some of that cash and effort into actually BUILDING a less nightmarish AI future for us. Now that the federal government is in the hands of shitty amoral tech bros, maybe the States can legislate some AI limits to protect us. Oh, wait…. Time to call your Senator if you don’t want this to pass.

Good news everyone! - Wireless telegraphy will make war obsolete! - Ok, well that didn’t work out quite the way Marconi thought it would.

These nine rules for evaluating new technology, written when dinosaurs roamed the Earth (1987), seem like something we should have given a bit more consideration to in hindsight…

Fun Stuff

Want to make your home or office feel like the Situation Room with TV monitors showing live news from all over the world? Here’s how. This looks like it could be useful for getting a variety of views when there is something big going on. And it just looks cool.

Before there was Google, there were library information phone lines to answer our questions, and in Alabama, Auburn University Library’s information desk has been picking up the phone for 70 years and giving human answers to human questions.

Apparently, most people believe that the Universe has good Karma in their futures while others are gonna get whats coming to them for their bad actions - “even when it isn’t clear exactly what they did to create the good outcome” - this explains a LOT about where we are at the moment.

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InfoSec/Scam Stuff

If it seems too good to be true… - A warning from the FTC about “monthly bill discount” scams - fraudsters are taking advantage of economic uncertainty to defraud consumers by pretending to be representatives of phone, utility, and other companies which bill monthly. They offer “discounts” on monthly payments if you make up front payments - you can see where this is going. These scams depend on victims being pressured to act quickly to “lock in” (non existent) discounts - a classic fraud technique. Here is an example of a robocall using this scam to target Comcast customers.

A few decades ago, the thought of buying a car or a tractor online seemed silly. No one would make such a large purchase without face to face contact! But things have changed, and scammers are using AI to take advantage of this new channel. This story may seem like it only applies to my farmer readers, but it should be a wake up call to us all. Just because a business seems to have a robust, convincing web presence does not mean that it is legit.

Oh, for fucks sake - Apparently, US businesses are just not getting the message about paper checks and fraud. More businesses are using paper checks now than were in 2023. Let me be clear about this - paper checks are a gift to scammers and fraudsters and are an unacceptable and stupid security risk. Fortunately, you as an individual have many better options to make payments - using electronic payments like ACH and bank payment apps are much less prone to fraud. If you are still using paper checks, please, please, please stop. Every time someone writes a paper check, God kills a kitten. And a dirtbag scammer smiles.

Scam of the century - This one affects us all and needs to get more coverage. Donald Trump and his family are using crypto to turn the White House into a personal cash register and have increased their net worth by $2.9B over the past 6 months while the rest of us are paying $8 for a dozen eggs. And companies have noticed and see $TRUMP coin as a way to bribe Donald and affect trade policy. Governments have noticed this “opportunity” as well, resulting in “foreign policy for sale.” If you voted for this guy, well, fuck you - you are part of why the US is rapidly becoming a banana republic, just with crappier weather.

Tech Stuff

Raining on the AI parade? - According to a study from Denmark, the “AI revolution” brought to us by Chat-GPT and its brethren is not such a revolution after all, saying that "AI chatbots have had no significant impact on earnings or recorded hours in any occupation" and that “when we look at the economic outcomes, it really has not moved the needle." Of course, the study was done in 2023 and 2024 and AI has developed quite rapidly since those dinosaur days. Something worth reading to balance all of the AI hype we are surrounded with every day. On the other hand, the CEO of Microsoft claims that nearly 30% of the code written by the firm is now AI generated. The jury is clearly still out.

Uncanny teacher - Apparently, you can now learn to write from Agatha Christie, who shuffled off this mortal coil in 1976, thanks to AI and the BBC Maestro online learning service. This uncanny and unsettling thing was actually put together with the permission of Christie’s estate. Fortunately, the actual content of the course is NOT AI generated but was written by an academic who researched what the famous author had to say about writing. It’s just the creepy Agatha Christie “teacher” who is an AI. This whole thing seems gimmicky and creepy to me, but I think we will be seeing a lot more of this going forward and not all of it will be as innocuous as this.

Fun Stuff

You know, maybe America does “need a space age president…” Gabe certainly seems like he is more grounded in reality than the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and rule by the Amalgamated Flying Saucer Clubs of America couldn’t be worse than MAGA/DOGE…. I’m sold. Unfortunately, the current “space candidate” (Goodspaceguy) seems to have gone full MAGA. Hopefully he (and our current leaders) will get what they deserve if only in the evil Spock with a goatee mirror universe…

Have a good day (scientifically) - Researchers in Canada and Switzerland have been studying what activities will (scientifically) lead to having a good day. According to science, the top 5 activities you can take part in to have a nice day are:

• Time with family

• Socializing and communicating

• Travel related to eating and drinking

• Working

• Travel related to socializing, relaxing and leisure
  

Public Service Message - Here’s another reason to donate blood - apparently, the more you donate, the healthier your corpuscles will be. The Red Cross really needs blood right now, and donation is quick and easy - get started here.

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I’ve been feeling bad about being a continuous source of bad news here, so this week I decided to make an effort to include a couple of links to feel-good stories and wonder of wonders, I did find a few…

This story of how 300 people in a small town in Michigan helped their local independent bookstore move house is really heartwarming.

Japanese researchers claim to have found a sound which helps reduce motion sickness. OK, they proved this works in mice. But its a start and I guess traveling mice will benefit at the very least.

And scientists at UC Berkeley have discovered a totally new color. Of course, they had to shoot lasers into people’s eyes to get them to see it. Yeah, I guess I will live with the current non laser in the eye color palette I have access to, but its nice to know the option is there…

Now on to the usual parade of paranoia…

InfoSec/Scam Stuff

New Gmail Phishing Scam - As more people become more aware of the ways that bad folks target them via email, the baddies have to up their game and this scam is actually quite impressive in its use of trusted infrastructure to make the phish look legit. Now more than ever, you need to stop and think about the context of messages you receive and the validity of the message/request before deciding to take action.

Charity (and fraud) begin at home (mortgage guarantee firm Fannie Mae) - 200 employees of Fannie Mae got the axe for allegedly defrauding the firm’s charitable donation matching program by getting kickbacks from the charity they were “making donations to.” Apparently, this is not the first time this kind of thing has happened - Apple fired 185 employees for a similar scheme.

Pig Butchering evolves - “Pig Butchering” scams (in which bad guys spend months building trust with victims before springing big dollar cryptocurrency investment scams on them) are also evolving. This Reddit post describes a new approach to Pig Butchering which purported to give the victim insider information into a glitch in an online casino which guaranteed winning bets. The end of the story, with the victim still believing that their scammer is a friend, unfortunately rings true. In many cases, victims refuse to admit they have been scammed, even after they have lost large amounts of money.

Evil Extensions - Many people don’t realize that browser extensions are software and that they can contain malicious software which can spy on your internet activity. But they are - and the bad guys love to use extensions to get at your personal information and passwords. A recent study revealed dozens of malicious extensions in the Chrome extension store and that these pieces of malicious code are currently installed on 4 million devices. If you are thinking of installing browser extensions to enhance your internet experience, check these tips first…

Tech Stuff

Music from beyond the grave - Thanks to a collaboration with some scientists, a musician who shuffled off this mortal coil back in 2021 continues to compose music. At least his blood cells do. Not sure whether the meter on this story should be pegged at “Cool” or “Creepy.”


PoXy storage - Researchers at Fudan University in China claim to have created a new form of flash storage (with the unfortunate name “PoX”) that can write data 10,000 times faster than current storage tech. This could help make data guzzling AI applications way faster and more capable and greatly reducing the amount of chip space and energy required for storage. But they really need someone to help with the marketing. Just not these guys.


Golden Age of America (part 583) - Apparently, law enforcement organizations are going to be using AI powered bots to interact with (and most probably entrap) social media users who they suspect of being anything from violent criminals to “protestors.” I’m sure that this tech won’t be misused by the very law abiding members of the Trump Regime.

Some important Easter tech - You’re welcome.

Fun Stuff

Star Trek Studies - OK - if I knew that one could become an academic and publish books on Star Trek studies, I think I might have gone for a career in the hallowed halls of education rather than on the mean streets of cybersecurity. After all, in the words of our stable genius leader, “The cyber is hard!" Although, he also exclaimed “Everything’s computer!” so there is that. Anyway, this new work from the University of Minnesota Press is now in my to read pile. Hey! Does this mean I could have MAJORED IN STAR TREK in college??? I might have stayed in and graduated and become a starship captain…

All in the Family - Next time you think that your family had weird vibes, spare a thought for the family in this story. At least both of your parents weren’t deep cover KGB agents… or were they?

The Common Sense Electric Belt - Please, please, please, no one share this with RFK, Jr. Although it would be nice to cure my nervous exhaustion, lumbago, and liver complaint all at once. And does its efficacy for “female complaints” mean that Amy will stop complaining about me if I wear it? Hmmmm…

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I know the Dose is late this week, but Saturday, Americans all over the nation were out on the streets for coordinated HANDS OFF! protests to tell Donald Trump and Elon Musk that they don’t own America. I was out on the streets of Weehawken with my over 300 of my neighbors - in spite of a cold rainy afternoon. It was inspiring to be with fellow Americans who are also fed up with the systematic destruction of what makes America truly great by greedy, corrupt, criminals. On with the show…

Infosec/Scam Stuff

Scam of the week - Trump’s tariffs - I really *hope* that the dirtbags around Trump are orchestrating and playing the stock market bloodbath and fully expect the Felon in Chief to back down as usual - at least this would indicate that there is a plan (albeit an evil, illegal one) behind all of this. If not, we are in even deeper trouble than we think. At least we will not be screwed over by those elitist, globalist penguins of the Heard and McDonald islands any more! I’m sorry, but the tariff math just doesn’t work if you take more than a second to look at it.

Junior Achievement, 2025 Style - Think kids these days are lazy, good for nothings not interested in making a buck? OK, Boomer, I say to you… here’s an interesting and somewhat horrifying look at how teens are setting up their own (fraudulent) businesses on Discord selling counterfeit goods, Uber Eats bought with stolen credit cards, and suspiciously low priced gaming PCs. I think we are going to see more of this kind of thing as the economy craps out and as kids see more and more evidence that scams and frauds are now “business as usual” in America. Making America Great Again!

Scams Made in China - Does it seem to you that the scamiverse has exploded in the US in the past few years? You’re right - and according to a research paper analyzing cryptocurrency scam payments, the move from small timers stealing a few bucks to big organized crime syndicates running scam factories full of slaves in Southeast Asia raking in hundreds of thousands from each victim was the direct result of China’s regaining control over Hong Kong and Macao. This video tells that story more succinctly than the 50+ page paper - worth 20 minutes of your time.

SMS scams version 2 - Scammers have figured out a new way to use SMS messages to scam bank customers. Apparently, messing with the header of SMS messages can cause them to look like the emergency alert messages sent by government and law enforcement to alert us of lost kids, found tornados and other such things. These messages take over the screen of the phone and can be quite alarming. So far this seems to be something happening outside the US, but you can be sure that scammers are taking note.

Cops are not ready for AI scams - A report from the UK Turing Institute notes that British police fighting scams and frauds are woefully outgunned by the AI tools now available to scammers and fraudsters. I can’t imagine that US law enforcement is doing much better, especially with a government both in chaos and under the control of a fraudster/scammer.

And with friends like this… - Yeah, didn’t see that one coming…

Fun Stuff

These days I am spending a lot of time reading history to escape from the agita caused by what’s going on in the present… one place to find some really wild and interesting stories that you probably did not hear about in History class is Weird Historian. This guy covers all sorts of interesting tales about UFOs, sword swallowers, the paranormal, and just plain weird stuff from our past.

Book of the week is Simon Schama’s Citizens - A Chronicle of the French Revolution for absolutely no reason. And those guillotine parts I have ordered are just for experimentation purposes…

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InfoSec/Scam Stuff

Bad dog! - OK, if you are stupid enough to buy a robot dog, I really don’t have much empathy for you when it turns out the pup can be used as a spy device. Robot dog owners really need to take a look at their life choices. However, this does serve as a teachable moment when it comes to the many internet connected devices in our homes and on our persons. And anyway, this spying stuff seems much more in the wheelhouse of cats.

And speaking of cats - Here is a new scam from China involving the little sociopathic narcissists. The cats aren’t doing the scamming (although they would if they could) - it is humans offering free cats to other (not very bright) humans who then sign contracts to buy pet supplies for said cat from the adoption company. You see whats coming here - sick kittens die leaving grieving pet owners on the hook. Overpriced cat food and accessories. Don’t these people know that cats are a dime a dozen?

La China - As the economy gets worse, people get more desperate, and scammers thrive in an unregulated economy, you get things like this. I would expect to see more stories like this in the coming months and years as the Trump regime chips away at regulation and enforcement.

Get off the phone, grandpa! - People on their phone at the ATM is a definite yellow flag for scammy activity. And Osaka prefecture in Japan is taking action aimed at protecting senior citizens from being victimized by scammers by requiring warning posters at ATMs, limiting daily cash transfers by seniors, and requiring places selling gift cards to make sure that senior purchasers are not buying cards for scammy purposes. I have somewhat mixed feelings about the age discrimination here - while seniors tend to lose more money to fraud, those Gen Z whippersnappers are more likely to be defrauded (at least here in ‘Murica).

A bit up comeuppance - Fakey fakey scammy coupon (not) finding browser extension Honey seems to be having a bit of a comeuppance, having lost 4 million users since a viral video blowing the lid off this Paypal owned fraud was published. Chalk one up for the good guys.

But don’t worry about scams… if you send White House “faith adviser” $1000 before Easter, you get your very own angel! Sign me up for 3! Yes, these are the people in your White House, folks. You can’t make this shit up.

Tech Stuff

Assault with a battery - Airlines are not taking any chances when it comes to lithium ion battery fires, as evidenced by this story about how a lost phone caused a transatlantic flight to turn around and return to Paris. Battery fires are no joke - especially on board an airplane in flight. And when you consider that the average passenger brings 4 rechargeable devices with them on a flight, there could be over 1000 batteries on that 777 you are flying on. The FAA has a fact sheet about traveling with rechargeable batteries - take a look at it before Elon Musk decides it is somehow “woke” not to burn to death in mid air.

Show us your papers and your phone - Sticking with the travel theme… when you return to the US (even as a citizen), you are in a legal limbo zone at passport control. The nice people at ICE can request to see your phones and other electronic devices and it is important to know about your options regarding this request. Here’s some good advice. Welcome to the Golden Age of America.

Amateur hour at the Pentagon - Surprisingly enough, it turns out that the US Government has systems even more secure than a Signal group chat that top leaders have been using since the beginning of the Cold War to coordinate secret thingies like wars.

Fun Stuff

Ever wonder what is on TV in, say, Aruba? Or Greenland? Or Djibouti? Well, if so, TV Garden is for you - it gives you links to online streams of TV stations all around the world. Like Song TV Armenia to get your daily dose of Armenian music videos. Or Nepal Capital TV from Katmandu. And I find watching the news in a language I simply cannot understand to be much more tolerable these days.

Yikes! What can be worse than an accident that douses an Eternal Flame? When that accident is caused by Holy Water!

Tax Day is coming here in the US - and you can feel good as an American that your tax dollars are being well spent by a government focused on cutting waste and efficency. (Where is a good old biblical bolt of lightning when you need one?)

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I have given up trying to catalog all of the illegal, stupid, evil things that Trump/Musk (Trusk?) have been up to during any given week - anyone who is not an oligarch or just incredibly stupid knows that the US is in deep trouble due to these dirtbags and their minions. On April 5th, I urge you to take part in nationwide protests to let them know that they don’t own this country. We are planning something for here in Weehawken, and there are hundreds of other protests scheduled all across the country. Show up, stand up, and tell these criminals HANDS OFF OUR COUNTRY!

One more important thing… Measles is back and for those of us of a certain age, we might need a booster shot thanks to the antivax idiots. Read this and then talk to your doctor…

InfoSec / Scam Stuff

Call merge scam - Scammers are using a new technique to get victims’ 2 factor authentication codes needed to log in to web sites. Some sites give the option of having the login code delivered to you via a voice call. Dirtbags are getting hold of users’ login credentials and then calling them and having them merge the phone call from from the web site delivering the code so they can hear it. Next thing you know, your bank account is emptied. It’s less complicated than it sounds - read this for a good description. The tl;dr of this is NEVER merge calls on request of a caller or repeat a code that they ask you to give. Just don’t answer the phone - most calls seem to be scammers today anyway.

Golden years my ass - Recently, there have been a rash of cyber attacks on nursing homes and rehab centers, resulting in the compromise of personal information of more than 130,000 people. Why? Well, many of these people are senior citizens, who are prime targets for scams and fraud. And sadly, if you are (1) an American senior citizen (2) who has the resources to be in a nursing home/rehab in spite of our barbaric health care system, you are a prime target for attackers. As I mentioned last week, young whippersnappers are more likely to be attack victims, but when older people are victimized, the losses are usually larger. If you are caring for seniors in assisted living or other care facilities, get a copy of the CFPB’s guide to protecting them from fraud. They also have some other good resources on this topic here. Download this stuff now - before the CFPB disappears.


Every once in a while, the good guys do win against the scammers. Here’s a story of one Indian gentleman who turned the tables on his scammer to the tune of 10,000 rupees ($116). A minor victory, but certainly a better story than his getting scammed. And I am just horrified I tells ya to watch this scam center in Pakistan get looted of all of its tech by locals. Just horrible. :-)

Tech Stuff

You too can be a drone warrior - Some of the tech that has made drones such effective battlefield weapons in Ukraine is making its way to consumers courtesy of AliBaba and Temu. If you (or some wack job terrorist) would like to make their consumer drone able to carry small explosive devices, control it via a miles long fiber optic cable to avoid jamming, or add AI vision to identify targets, you just need to whip out your credit card. This is not good news, unless you are a very bad person.

Trust me - I’m an AI - An interesting study shows that people are getting more trusting of artificial intelligence and are more likely to assign human like attributes to AI programs and agents. This is not good news. (If it were good news, I wouldn’t put it here as I am a pessimistic bastard). AI is not infallible and is not our friend.


Don’t trust me, I’m American - Many countries, including the Netherlands, are reassessing their reliance on American companies and technology in light of our new oligarch leaders. This is going to cost US businesses billions of dollars and impact our 401Ks which are heavily invested in tech. I guess we’ll make it up on those tariffs that the foreigners are somehow gonna pay.

Fun Stuff

Step aside Pokemon… it’s MiddleAgedManMon - We should soooo do this here in the US - a Japanese town has come up with a new superhero trading card game featuring their community’s “ojisans” (middle aged men) and their stories. And the kids are actually playing it! On a more serious nature, it has also served to bridge the gap between generations, which is a good thing too. Of course, I would like to see the “obasans” get their own card game too - women have stories to tell too! But good start…

But, I am glad to say that women at least no longer have to worry about the heartbreak of harsh toilet tissue. You’ve come a long way, baby!

Every time I hear a story about that newfangled online dating, I am reminded of how lucky I am to be married. But, apparently, computer dating has a much longer history than I thought…

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