Online Shopping Scams Are Surging: How to Spot and Avoid Them If you were shopping online in Belarus in mid-May 2026, you might have been one of the hundreds of people who encountered a fraudulent offer. On a single day, authorities recorded roughly 400 online shopping scam attempts—a number that points to a wider problem that reaches well beyond any one country. ...
1 in 3 Americans Hit by Online Shopping Scams: How to Spot and Avoid Them If you shop online, you’ve probably seen a deal that seemed too good to pass up—a designer handbag for $30, a new smartphone at half the retail price, or a “limited time” flash sale from a brand you’ve never heard of. According to new data from the Pew Research Center, roughly one out of every three U.S. adults has fallen for a scam like that, or at least had one attempted on them. ...
1 in 3 Americans Has Been Scammed Shopping Online — Here’s How to Avoid It If you’ve ever bought something online that never arrived, or paid for a product that turned out to be counterfeit, you’re far from alone. A recent study from the Pew Research Center found that about a third of Americans say they’ve had an online shopping scam happen to them. That number is striking, and it suggests that nearly every regular online shopper either has been hit or knows someone who has. With holiday shopping and year-end sales approaching, it’s worth understanding what’s going on and how to protect yourself. ...
Title: New Tool Alerts You When Your AI Assistant Shares Data Without Permission Intro AI assistants like ChatGPT, Copilot, and Alexa are increasingly being given autonomy – they can draft emails, book appointments, make purchases, and even manage your calendar. This shift to “agentic AI” promises convenience, but it also introduces a real risk: your assistant might be sharing data with third parties without your knowledge or consent. A new privacy tool from researchers at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) aims to detect exactly that kind of betrayal. Here’s what the tool does, why it matters, and what you can do right now to protect yourself. ...
New Tool Spots When Your AI Assistant Secretly Works Against You AI agents are becoming more common: personal assistants that book your calendar, smart home hubs that answer your questions, and automated tools that manage your shopping or travel. As these agents handle more tasks, they also gain access to sensitive data—contacts, browsing history, financial information, even private conversations. The risk isn’t just that someone might hack into the AI; it’s that the agent itself could be designed or compromised to act against your interests. Researchers at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) have developed a new privacy tool aimed at detecting precisely this kind of “double agent” behavior. ...
Nearly One in Three Americans Has Been Hit by an Online Shopping Scam — Here’s What to Watch For If you shop online — and most of us do — there’s a decent chance you’ve run into a scam without realizing it. According to a recent Pew Research Center study, about a third of Americans say they’ve had an online shopping scam happen to them. That’s a striking number, and it suggests that even cautious shoppers are getting caught off guard. ...
The Privacy Myth: Why You Shouldn’t Trust AI with Your Secrets It’s easy to treat ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, or Google Gemini like a helpful friend. You ask it to draft a tricky email, summarise a long document, or even help you think through a personal problem. After a few exchanges, the interface feels private — just you and the machine. But that feeling is deceptive. The reality is that most consumer AI tools are designed to retain, analyse, and sometimes reuse the conversations you feed them, often in ways that aren’t obvious. ...
Why You Should Think Twice Before Trusting AI With Your Personal Secrets Most of us treat AI assistants like a smart friend who never judges. We ask them to draft emails, summarize meeting notes, and sometimes even walk us through personal dilemmas. But that friend is not a person. It’s a software service that runs on someone else’s servers, and everything you type may be stored, analysed, or shared in ways you don’t expect. ...
One in Three Americans Has Fallen for an Online Shopping Scam: What to Know If you shop online regularly, you may be surprised—or sadly not—by a new statistic from the Pew Research Center: about a third of U.S. adults say they’ve personally experienced an online shopping scam. That revelation, published in November 2025, confirms that fraud isn’t an edge case anymore; it’s a common risk for ordinary consumers. ...
1 in 3 Americans Has Been Scammed Online Shopping — Here’s How to Avoid It If you’ve ever bought something online that never arrived, or paid for a “deal” that turned out to be fake, you’re far from alone. New data from Pew Research Center, published in November 2025, found that about a third of Americans (34%) say they have experienced an online shopping scam. As holiday shopping ramps up, that number is likely to climb. Understanding the most common tricks—and knowing a few simple precautions—can make the difference between a successful purchase and a costly mistake. ...