From this week’s inbox: “My wife was a victim of a Bank of America and Zelle scam, we lost $6,800 and the bank told me that there’s nothing they can do. Is this true? It blows my mind that our money is gone just like that. Is there really nothing [Keep reading]
Is the long national inflation nightmare over? Well, that’s a $64 trillion question. Today brought news that the Consumer Price Index rate of increase was flat last month — the first pause in that measure of rising prices since 2020. Wall Street reacted to the news with predictable restraint and [Keep reading]
If you are planning to take your first post-Covid flight soon, be prepared for some dramatic sticker shock. Really dramatic — like first-class-prices-for-coach-class -tickets dramatic. A friend recently posted about her depressing search for a fairly routine cross-country flight that used to cost around $400 — she was quoted around [Keep reading]
Some stories just make me more angry than others. You all know that the Internet is crawling with criminals out there looking for vulnerable people — widows, the elderly, children. There are, incredibly, people who go even lower than that. Criminals are actively searching for very sick people, cancer patients [Keep reading]
“Amazon Prime is *incredibly* popular with Americans. How popular? There are more than 150 million members in the U.S, with many (most?) there to enjoy “free”* two-day shipping. That’s roughly equal to the number of Americans who VOTED in 2020. And Amazon is betting all 150 million will do almost [Keep reading]
As war rages in Ukraine, big technology companies are struggling to keep up. Thousands of small decisions are being made at breakneck speed. Think, for just a moment, about the overwhelming task of sifting through propaganda-spewing social media accounts. Make yourself a tech exec right now. What’s free speech? What’s [Keep reading]
A set of armed robbers who terrorized residents near Duke University recently are being called “tech-savvy” after they allegedly demanded their victims Venmo them money and wipe their smartphones — disabling anti-theft measures — before stealing the gadgets. In one case, a 28-year-old woman was robbed at gunpoint and forced [Keep reading]
Hearing about an old flame can be…a strange feeling. Maybe it’s charming – you learn that the first girl you ever kissed on the lips, 20 years ago or so, just gave birth to twins – or maybe it makes you a little mad – “They started dating ONE WEEK [Keep reading]
Americans are mad. They feel like they’re getting ripped off all the time — I’ve made a career chronicling this — but I don’t think they are quite sure who to be mad at. There’s a long list of culprits, but here’s one that’s often overlooked. Even people with good [Keep reading]
A California woman who thought she was helping an old friend pay for a kidney transplant has been caught up in an Instagram hacking scheme with a nightmarish twist — criminals drained her bank account via Zelle and then forced her to make a hostage-style video endorsing a get-rich-quick scheme in [Keep reading]
Bob Sullivan