Snippings

xxx

A hacker has targeted a website that lets users create their own “uncensored” AI-powered sexual partners and stolen a massive database of users’ interactions with their chatbots.

The data, taken from a site called Muah.ai and viewed by 404 Media, includes chatbot prompts that reveal users’ sexual fantasies. In many instances, users are trying to create chatbots that roleplay child sexual abuse scenarios. These prompts are in turn linked to email addresses, many of which appear to be personal accounts with users’ real names.

From: Hacked ‘AI Girlfriend’ Data Shows Prompts Describing Child Sexual Abuse.

xxx

xxx

A hacker has targeted a website that lets users create their own “uncensored” AI-powered sexual partners and stolen a massive database of users’ interactions with their chatbots.

The data, taken from a site called Muah.ai and viewed by 404 Media, includes chatbot prompts that reveal users’ sexual fantasies. In many instances, users are trying to create chatbots that roleplay child sexual abuse scenarios. These prompts are in turn linked to email addresses, many of which appear to be personal accounts with users’ real names.

From: Hacked ‘AI Girlfriend’ Data Shows Prompts Describing Child Sexual Abuse.

xxx

xxx

teenager has been jailed for 15 years after killing a 16-year-old boy with a knife he bought online with his friend’s father ID.

From: Boy, 17, is jailed for 15 years for murdering 16-year-old lad in cold blood with deadly blade he bought online with friend’s father’s ID | Daily Mail Online.

xxx

xxx

AI improves performance more for people with low baseline ability. However, holding ability constant, AI assistance is more valuable for people who are calibrated, meaning they have accurate beliefs about their own ability. People who know they have low ability gain the most from working with AI. In a counterfactual analysis, we show that eliminating miscalibration would cause AI to reduce performance inequality nearly twice as much as it already does.

From: Who benefits from working with AI? – Marginal REVOLUTION.

xxx

xxx

Motorola-owned DRN sells multiple license-plate-recognition cameras: a fixed camera that can be placed near roads, identify a vehicle’s make and model, and capture images of vehicles traveling up to 150 mph; a “quick deploy” camera that can be attached to buildings and monitor vehicles at properties; and mobile cameras that can be placed on dashboards or be mounted to vehicles and capture images when they are driven around.

Over more than a decade, DRN has amassed more than 15 billion “vehicle sightings” across the United States, and it claims in its marketing materials that it amasses more than 250 million sightings per month.

From: License Plate Readers Are Creating a US-Wide Database of More Than Just Cars | WIRED.

xxx

xxx

One idea floated in the current presidential race is temporarily imposing price controls on credit card rates, limiting them to 10%. While this may seem appealing to consumers living in a world where the average credit card interest rate is 22.76%, such price controls could have a potentially adverse—and possibly catastrophic—impact on the U.S. credit card market.

From: The Folly of Capping Credit Card Interest Rates – PaymentsJournal.

xxx

xxx

Now that locally run AIs can easily best image-based CAPTCHAs, too, the battle of human identification will continue to shift toward more subtle methods of device fingerprinting.

From: AI bots now beat 100% of those traffic-image CAPTCHAs – Ars Technica.

xxx

xxx

Rennie, 29, was convicted of possessing of stolen goods after a man was forced to transfer Bitcoin during an assault at a home in Blantyre, Lanarkshire, in March 2020.

From: Courts seize £110,000 of crypto cash in Scots legal first – BBC News.

xxx

 

xxx

When Dentzel opened the door, a group of four or five hooded people are said to have entered his home, covered his eyes and his home’s security cameras, and started to beat him.

Newspaper El Español, which cited “judicial and police sources,” reported that the whole ordeal lasted several hours, during which time Dentzel was allegedly sprayed in the eyes and tazed while the assailants stole his belongings and forced him to reveal the password to an online account that contained his Bitcoin fortune

From: Bitcoin Millionaire Zaryn Dentzel Says He Was Beaten, Had Fortune Stolen in Masked Robbery – Newsweek.

xxx

xxx

According to a report by the FBI on Monday, Americans lost more than $5.6 billion due to cryptocurrency scams in 2023. That makes up just under half of all total losses from financial fraud in the US last year—and a shocking 45 percent increase in crypto scam losses compared to 2022.

From: Crypto Scams Drained $5.6 Billion from American Wallets in 2023.

xxx

xxx

An 80-year-old woman was robbed while attempting to buy cryptocurrency at a convenience store in Houston on July 12. The incident occurred around 5:00 p.m. at a store in the 2100 block of Fannin.

According to authorities, the elderly woman was holding an envelope with cash when two men approached her from behind. One of the suspects grabbed the envelope, and both fled the scene in a black vehicle.

In the days leading up to the robbery, the victim had been targeted by a phone scammer who convinced her to deposit money into a Bitcoin kiosk.

From: Houston robbery: 80-year-old targeted in robbery after cryptocurrency scam | FOX 26 Houston.

xxx

xxx

The culprits were tied to the [stolen $243m] after they accidentally shared an address that has been used to purchase luxury clothing.

From: Arrests Made in Relation to $243M Crypto Heist Targeting Genesis Creditor.

xxx

xxx

If you’re the type to consider cryptocurrency a scam in and of itself, then this story will be a Russian nesting doll of scams within scams. A recent investigation has uncovered a crypto heist of $243 million worth of digital currency from one guy.

From: Crypto Scammers Steal $243,709,068.03 from Literally One Guy.

xxx

xxx

The proposed Scams Prevention Network (SPN) is designed to introduce a “whole-of-ecosystem” approach to reducing online financial scams by increasing the obligations on banks, telcos and social media platforms to reimburse customers and to take preventative steps of their own.

In 2023, the losses suffered by Australian consumers from scams totalled A$2.74bn.

According to assistant treasurer Stephen Jones,  the new mandatory codes will make Australia “the toughest target in the world for scammers”.

“There’ll be new obligations on social media platforms in the codes of practice to ensure that they’re confirming the identity of the people who are advertising on those platforms to ensure that the criminals don’t have an easy means of publishing their fake investment materials,” he said.

From: Fintech Australia backs government’s scam prevention plan.

xxx