“I lost 10 pounds in 10 days,” said a reader, after describing a Facebook scammer who ruined his account. “I want to cut my throat.”

It all started when he obeyed a fishy text from Facebook Messenger. Immediately, his Facebook account was taken over, and the bait was sent off to his friends, then to their friends in an ever-widening circle. One guy lost $1200. Another was pressured into giving $2000. The reader lost access to his email account as well. “Want your account back?” screamed the scammer in large letters. “I want you to go away,” said the reader. “Pay me,” he demanded.

Even I got the infected message, since I’m Facebook friends with the reader. It read: “I’m trying to reset my password on my Facebook. They told me they are going to send to a friend so I picked you. Please help me send the code you receive from them?”  For a moment I thought it really was from my friend, so I texted: “I’m surprised you could do it that way.” “It’s Facebook new security,” he wrote back ungrammatically, adding: “Sorry, what phone number do you use in receiving text messages inbox?” That was a huge red flag. Scammers often ask for info you weren’t expecting to give or involve third parties or add cumbersome steps.

The consequences can be dire. From one bad move on Facebook, you could lose control of your Apple ID, Google account and Instagram account, in addition to your email and Facebook accounts, according to cybersecurity-education firm StationX.

After I reported the scam to Meta, the reader’s hacked account was closed. But just to play it safe, he got a new phone number. He also tried calling Facebook, but that’s impossible unless you work there. Facebook has over three billion users. Around 300,000 of them are hacked daily. A free service can’t afford to hold your hand.

Unrelated to this event, I recently got an email with the subject line: “43272949 is your Facebook recovery code.” It looked legitimate, since it supposedly came from a real Facebook address, security@facebookmail.com. But I went to facebook.com/recent_emails/security to see if they’d written to me. Nope, not since June. When I went to Facebook.com, I saw that I was still signed in. No recovery code necessary.

To report a Facebook problem, log into Facebook on your computer, then click your profile picture in the upper right corner. From the menu, choose “Help & Support,” then choose “Report a problem.”

Around the same time as this Facebook scam, I received an email asking me to update my Amazon credit card. It looked real, since I’d just received a replacement card in the mail. But when I went to Amazon.com, I saw that my account had already been set up with the new credit card number, since Amazon does this automatically. It’s always a good idea to go directly to the company’s own website instead of clicking a link in an email or text.

Though some Samsung, Motorola and other Android phones have memory card slots built in, Anker’s MagGo USB-C Adapter will add one to your slot-less iPhone 16. It’s $23 on sale at Amazon and sticks on the back of the phone. Adding a memory card gives you extra storage space and makes it easy to transfer files between devices. If you choose a fast card (220 megabytes per second write speed), the Anker add-on can record video in 4K resolution.

Venmo Privacy

Every time I open my Venmo app, I see who paid who. It’s things like “John Doe paid Jane Doe,” with a note that says: “for rent, internet, Spotify.” But you can make everything private.

Open the Venmo app on your phone. Tap “Me” in the lower right, then tap the image of a gear in the upper right. Scroll down to “Privacy” and choose “Private, visible to sender and recipient only.” To make past transactions private, tap “Past Transactions,” then “Change All to Private.”

Air Taxi Coming in 2025

There’s a great video in CNET’s article: “Inside Jobi’s Air Taxi Facility, I Saw the Future of Air Travel Take Flight.”

Jobi Aviation is trying to make it as easy to hail an air taxi as it is to get an Uber. Designed for short hops, their electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, or “eVTOL,” can go 100 miles. It’s much quieter than a plane or helicopter, thanks to the electric engine and special propellers. There’s room for four people, including the pilot. Eventually, the company plans to make their planes self-flying.

Delta Airlines has already invested in Jobi, and Jobi bought Uber Elevate. Now they’re just waiting for approval from the federal government. Competitors include Archer Aviation, Hyundai, Boeing-backed Wisk Aviation and China’s Ehang.

Internuts

• TheHongKongerMovie.com website has a free documentary about Jimmy Lai, the wildly successful, imprisoned entrepreneur who left China on a fishing boat as a penniless teenager. He’s in jail for defending Hong Kong’s long-standing liberties.
• Scientists at the University of California Berkeley figured out a way to vaporize two of the most common plastics, turning them back into their original building blocks, ready to become new plastic bags, bottles and containers. For more info, see “Most Plastic Bottles Can Only Be Recycled Once. But Scientists Find a Way to Recycle Plastic Indefinitely.”

Filed under: electronics, environment, facebook, Internuts, security