🍗 This week in deadly social media trends: “Mukbangs,” aka when an influencer livestreams themselves eating an obscene amount of food. A 24-year-old woman just died in front of her fans after eating 22 pounds of food in a 10-hour binge. The autopsy found a deformed stomach full of undigested food. Awful.
Virtual cards vs. digital wallets: Which should you use and when?
Your nephew’s birthday is coming up, so you go online and find a $300 Little Tikes playground set on sale for $60. But when the party rolls around, your money’s gone and that gift never showed up. So you head to the grocery store to buy some birthday treats instead … only to get caught by a card skimmer at checkout. Ouch.
I’m not making those up; I told you about that “Little Tokes” scam site and grocery store skimmers earlier this year.
Outsmarting crooks can be exhausting, but I have two simple tips to help you shop safer online and in person: Virtual cards and digital wallets.
A credit card with an ‘off’ switch
I’ve written about these recently and got a slew of questions. Let’s start here — If you still aren’t using a virtual card, you should be.
Virtual cards use a randomized 16-digit number, a three-digit CVV code and an expiration date you enter for online purchases. They connect to your real accounts, but retailers can’t see your actual card details.
That means an extra layer of protection against data breaches, hackers and fraudsters. Plus, you can easily turn off cards for subscriptions without canceling through the merchant (who wants you to keep paying).
As for when to use them, if it’s your first time shopping on a website or you’re signing up for an online subscription, virtual cards are your friend. Oh, and I recommend using one any time you buy something from social media.
💳 Some credit cards have virtual options with your account:
- For Citi, you’ll need to enroll your existing card.
- Amex requires you to enroll and shop online using a Google Chrome browser.
- Similarly, with Capital One, you’ll have to add a separate browser extension to use your virtual card.
- Mastercard and Visa? Your best bet is a separate virtual card service. I reviewed some here on my site.
Pocket protectors
You might already have a mobile wallet set up on your phone, but I bet you don’t know how they actually work. Fun fact: When you make a purchase with Google or Apple Pay, they use a virtual card number, too. That means it’s safer than a physical card against skimmers.
What caused the Windows outage?
Here’s the full story as to what caused airlines, emergency services, and banks to shutdown.
2 pounds
The weight of a hairball pulled from a woman’s stomach. By the time doctors got to it, the hairball was so big that it could be felt from the outside. She was probably suffering from a hair-eating disorder called trichophagia. If you’re feeling brave, take a peek. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Paging Dr. Mario: This is something. EndeavorRx is the first FDA-approved prescription video game for ADHD. It challenges kids to multitask and ignore distractions while navigating levels. Some 73% of kids who used it said their attention spans improved. Def worth sharing to (maybe) get the kids off pharmaceuticals.
2 pizzas
Can feed any team at Amazon. And that’s just how Bezos likes it. In the early days, he enacted the “two-pizza team rule” to keep Amazon efficient. The rule says any team should be small enough to be fed by — you guessed it — two pizzas. Oh, you’re a real pizza work!
⚠️ Should’ve been life: An evil, vile Nevada man was sentenced to 65 years in prison for employing sextortion with over 100 children on social media. After the kids sent him explicit pictures, he shared them around the deep web. Parents, this is your reminder to spot-check your kid’s phone and get them to sign my tech safety contract.
Was your PC hit by the CrowdStrike fiasco? Microsoft just released a recovery tool to help. You’ll need admin privileges and a $7 USB stick to run it (steps here). The tool will walk you through creating a bootable USB drive. FYI: It’ll wipe anything already saved on the USB, so make sure it’s empty first!
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Chatbots aren’t reporters: Don’t get your news from them. When folks asked ChatGPT about the Trump shooting five hours after it happened, it was completely oblivious. Same thing happened up to an hour after Biden dropped out of the race. Stick to trusted outlets — like me and The Current!
$108,150 salary
To be a cop in Plano, Texas. Big-city police departments were having trouble recruiting, so they pulled out all the stops (paywall link). Perks include take-home cars, paid workout hours and a relaxed tattoo policy. It’s working — more officers joined in 2023 than in the four years prior.
💸 This isn’t tech, but it is free money: Chase and Wells Fargo want your business so badly, they’ll give you $300 to open a new checking account. At Bank of America, it’s $200. The catch: You have to set up direct deposit. Check with your local branch for all the details.
¡Ay, car-amba! Last year, GM nearly tied its 1979 record for Corvettes sold. While other sports cars struggled, GM moved twice as many (paywall link) Corvettes as in 2019. Why? Engineers put the motor in the back, just like high-end supercars. I swear it looks like a Ferrari. Now, gearheads are lining up.
$44.6 million
For a stegosaurus named “Apex.” The 27-foot-long skeleton sold on auction for 10 times more than expected, making it the world’s most valuable fossil. Apex was discovered in Colorado just two years ago and is thought to have lived well into old age. Must’ve been taking his Flintstones vitamins …
Ctrl + Space + X is Musk’s favorite keyboard shortcut: You used to be able to break into Elon Musk’s Starlink with just a leaked username and password. Then, bingo — you’ve got yourself some pricey hardware with someone else’s credit card. Now, they’re finally adding a two-factor authentication pop-up if someone tries to change your account email address or phone number. About time.
🗞️ Trust fall: Science says you’re more likely to believe fake news from an acquaintance than your best friend. That’s why so many scammers pose as long-lost classmates or distant relatives. Focusing instead on who’s sharing — not what’s being shared — could be the best way to stop fake news.
Stay far, far away: Scammers use crypto ATMs to defraud U.S. victims out of millions every year. They’re less regulated and let you send money overseas instantaneously. A 77-year-old woman just got scammed out of $9,000. Once her money left the country, she was SOL. Listen up: No legitimate entity will ever ask you to send money in crypto or from an ATM.
🚨 CrowdStrike’s global outage isn’t over: Scammers are out in full force using fake CrowdStrike websites to push phishing emails and phone calls posing as tech support to steal your info. Don’t give info over the phone, and check unfamiliar email senders’ domains very carefully. The official CrowdStrike website and domain is crowdstrike.com.
🪱 “Scarlet worm”: That term is in the Bible 25 times. It’s a dye made from ground-up insects and their eggs. Archaeologists just discovered a 3,800-year-old artifact, a woven fabric, made from that very dye. The little scrap, just two centimeters across, was hiding in the Cave of Skulls in the Judean Desert. Show this to someone who says the Bible is fiction.
He was onto something: In a newly released clip from 1983, Steve Jobs dreamt of a machine that could generate responses based on a person’s “underlying spirit, or underlying set of principles, or any underlying way of looking at the world.” Yeah, that’s an AI chatbot. Btw, Jobs wanted to talk to Aristotle and Plato. I’d like to chat with my parents.
♨️ Major recall: Some 3.2 million Bissell Steam Shot handheld steam cleaners shoot hot water or steam when you aren’t expecting it. Ouch. The steamers went viral on TikTok and were sold at Target, Walmart, Amazon and everywhere else. If you have one, hit this site.