🚨 Ghost tapping?! The scam that steals without touching your wallet

Happy Friday, {{first_name | friend}}. 💰 Tech the halls with gold! Some tech recycling centers pull more gold from electronics than gold mines do from rock. That’s right, forget pickaxes and panning. The real mother lode might be sitting in your kitchen drawer, tangled in charging cables and old flip phones.

👑 So here’s your trivia for today: What common tech items contain more gold per ton than the average gold mine? A) Smartphones, B) Smartwatches, C) HDMI cables or D) USB flash drives? Stick around, your golden goose is at the end. It’s a glittering revelation! 

⭐ Now you can take The Current on the go! George is hosting our brand-new AI-powered podcast, serving up some of my best stories in a quick, fun listen. Perfect for your commute, dog walk or while you’re pretending to fold laundry. Click here to check it out now! You can also let it run in your browser. — Kim

📬 Was this forwarded to you? Be the first to know, not the last to hear. Sign up now. It’s free!

Let’s talk about something no one thinks about when booking a flight: where your travel info really goes.

An investigative bombshell from 404 Media just uncovered that the Airlines Reporting Corporation (ARC), a company owned by the biggest U.S. airlines, has been giving federal agencies access to passenger records. 

No, I’m not talking about flagged terrorists. We’re talking 5 billion ticket records of everyday folks like you and me, completely searchable by the FBI, ICE, the Secret Service and more. Wow.

All without a warrant.

ARC isn’t a household name, but it processes bookings from over 12,800 travel agencies and 270 airlines. That includes your flight through Expedia, business trip from your company’s travel desk or miles you cashed in last summer.

The data includes your full name, payment method, dates and times of travel, full itinerary and who you traveled with. This info goes into a database that law enforcement can search instantly, no judge or subpoena required.

The contracts between ARC and these agencies reportedly forbid them from ever revealing ARC as the source of the data. So if your personal travel history helped trigger an investigation or was sold off, you’d never know how they got it.

It’s a direct runaround of the Fourth Amendment, which is supposed to protect you from this kind of unchecked surveillance.

If this made your stomach drop, you’re not alone. It’s the latest example of data brokers acting as secret surveillance partners. 

Once the government or any third party has access to your flight history, they can cross-reference it with everything else brokers collect. That includes your phone number, medical conditions, political party, driving history, jobs, online activity, purchase history, location data, who you’re related to and more. 

These companies build detailed dossiers on nearly every American, and they sell it to whoever pays, including agencies sidestepping the courts. Now, you can try to remove yourself from the 400+ data brokers. Good luck with that. I tried.

This is why Incogni (a sponsor of my radio show) matters so much. It’s the tool I use to force data brokers to delete my personal information. Incogni handles the legal requests and pushback automatically. 

You can get 60% off right now using promo code KIM60. If you buy, I don’t get any kickbacks or residuals.

Your digital footprint isn’t just online. Sometimes, it’s 36,000 feet in the air. And someone is always watching.

A former exec says Facebook tracked teen girls deleting photos, then pushed beauty ads right when they felt vulnerable. Plus, New York City is testing crime-predicting AI, and Ken from Ohio shares how his Apple Watch saved his life.

Listen on Komando.com →

🎧 Subscribe on your favorite platform:

Blending with last week’s foundation? Drop in your brushes, hit the button, and boom, they’re ready to go.

🛁 Memory foam rug set (50% off, two-piece): Your feet deserve better. These are soft, nonslip and machine washable.

African bath sponge set (20% off, three-pack): Long enough to scrub your back, tough enough for daily exfoliation.

💦 Shower drain hair catcher (7% off): Clogs are gross, plumbers are expensive. This stops crises before they start.

Foaming hand soap pumps (20% off, five-pack): A little pump, a lot of foam. You’ll smell fresh with aloe and essential oils.

🛒 Skip the drugstore run: Click here for today’s best beauty deals. I picked out 25 more for you on my Amazon storefront.

⚡ Hands off my wallet: The BBB says crooks are pulling a new move called “ghost tapping” (paywall link). They carry a legit-looking wireless card reader, like the ones you see at coffee shops, and only need to get a few feet from your tap-to-pay card or phone. Bump into you at a concert? Stand too close in a line? Boom, tiny “test” charge hits your account. The scam works best on debit cards since the money comes out instantly. Easiest defenses: Toss your cards in an RFID-blocking sleeve (they’re cheap), turn on instant bank alerts and always check the terminal screen before tapping your phone, debit or credit card. If something feels sketchy, swipe or insert instead. It’s pickpocketing, just upgraded for 2025. These scams are getting nuts.

🌍 Free Wi-Fi takes flight: Good news, you might not have to pay $8 just to text “landed” anymore. Free in-flight Wi-Fi is expanding, boosted by new satellite providers like Starlink. That’s right, soon you can finally stream Netflix while squished in seat 32B. I’d like to believe this to be true. I was on a 10.5-hour flight from London to Los Angeles on Monday with no Wi-Fi. Torture.

⚠️ Keep your email private: Big email providers like Gmail and Yahoo track what you do. I use StartMail because it keeps my inbox secure, stops spam and keeps my personal info private. Try it free for 7 days, and when you sign up, you’ll get my 60% off deal for the first year! It’s a terrific service.*

LUV hurts: Imagine checking the mail and finding 15 tickets from states you’ve never even driven through. That’s what happened to a California woman with the vanity plate “LUVSICK.” Turns out, a clothing brand was selling fake novelty plates that looked almost identical to hers. She lawyered up and got them pulled offline, but not before fighting every bogus ticket.

🔥 Your new robot intern: So Amazon just handed sellers a robot sidekick. Their updated Seller Assistant actually does stuff for you, like fixing account issues, ordering inventory, even sketching out a business plan. Over a million sellers already use Amazon’s AI to crank out listings, and this upgrade’s free. For now.

🔮 Witches on the payroll: Before their hot streak, the Mariners were cooked. Then a fan hired SpellByLuna on Etsy to “unf*ck the team.” Now? Nine wins straight and a team-approved witch cameo on X. Players even shouted out the witch. Sports curses? Cliché. Sports spells? Apparently working overtime. I think the witch was from Austin, which makes her a hexin’ Texan.

Feeling nervous? ChatGPT Voice Mode makes it easy to practice anytime, so you’re ready when it counts.

Listen on Komando.com →

🎧 Subscribe on your favorite platform:

⚡️ 3-second tech genius: On YouTube desktop, press 0 on your keyboard to restart a video instantly. Or hit numbers 1 through 9 to jump to that percentage of the playback. Nice.

🖱️ Focus on one window in Windows 11: Too many apps cluttering your screen? Try Title bar window shake. Left-click the title bar of the window you want, shake your mouse, and everything else minimizes. Shake again and they come back. If it’s not on by default, go to Settings > System > Multitasking > Title bar window shake.

Multitask on your Android: Browse Instagram while replying to messages at the same time. Open your Recent apps, tap the app icon at the top of one, and select Open in split screen view. Then choose your second app. A slider will appear between them, so you can drag to resize each window however you like.

🔍 Check site info in Chrome: See that little tune icon in your address bar (two lines with two circles)? Click it to view a site’s security and permissions. You see if your Connection is secure, and under Site settings, you can change what the site can access, like your camera, microphone or location.

Stop wasting money! Most of us pay for subscriptions we forgot about. Rocket Money finds them, tracks them and helps you cancel what you don’t need. I saved $435 on my first try. See how much you’ll save!*

🍏 iPadOS 26: There’s now a Mac-style menu bar. When you’re in an app, swipe down from the top to open it. Next to the traffic lights icon, you’ll see menus for everything the app can do. In Mail, for example, tap File > New Message. Works great with a keyboard and mouse, but touch does, too.

📱 iOS 26: The Camera app’s been fully redesigned. At the bottom, everything revolves around two main buttons: Video and Photo. Swipe left from Video for capture modes like Slo-Mo, or right from Photo for modes like Portrait. Once you’ve picked a mode, swipe up for options like Flash and other controls.

💻 macOS 26: Translation is built in more than ever. In Messages, your Mac can auto-translate text and show it alongside the original. In FaceTime, you’ll get live translated captions during calls. The Phone app even adds spoken translations for regular calls. FYI: Some features require Apple Intelligence, so you’ll need a Mac with Apple Silicon.

⌚ watchOS 26: The Workout app has a new look. Scroll through the list of workouts, and when you pick one, you’ll see five buttons. Play at the bottom starts your session. Top-left is Workout Views to choose your metrics, top-right is Goals and Targets, bottom-right is Notifications, and bottom-left is Autoplay Media.

🧺 Laundroid? I barely know her.

A five-person startup thinks they’ve cracked one of life’s most time-eating chores. Syncere’s Lume robot looks like bedside lamps until it sprouts arms and folds your clothes. 

The catch? It’s just a CGI demo for now. 4M+ views later, over 1,000 people already put down $200 (or $2K to skip the line). 

Shipping in 2026, Lume promises not just folding but future “upgrades” like bed-making and massages. Translation: Today it folds socks, tomorrow it tucks you in and whispers, “Sweet dreams, king.”

⭐️ The answer: A) Smartphones. One ton of iPhones contains up to 300x more gold than a ton of gold ore. Why? Smartphones pack tiny bits of gold in components like circuit boards and connectors. Recycling them is basically high-tech panning for gold. Now that’s rich.

🪙 Fun fact: When receiving payment in gold coins, pirates used to verify their purity by biting into them. In other words, criminals only accepting payment in bit coins goes a long way back. (Get it? Bitcoins … I’ll try to do better tomorrow!)

Be sure to rate today’s issue below because this is the #1 tech newsletter in the U.S. Tomorrow, I’m digging into why your insurance “discount” might actually be surveillance in disguise. Your car’s snitching, and it’s not even getting paid well.

✌️ You’ve got the confidence. The tech is just your tool. — Kim

📣 Don’t keep me a secret: Share this email with friends (or copy URL here)

Photo credit(s): ChatGPT, Azang, Lume

Companies noted with an asterisk (*) sponsor my national radio show. Also, as an Amazon Associate, we earn a small commission from qualifying purchases.

This newsletter and its content are intended for informational purposes only. They are provided without warranty of any kind. You shouldn’t construe anything provided here as legal, health, medical, technical, tax, investment, financial or any other kind of advice.

Missed something? View past issues

Join the lists for my weekly small biz and cryptocurrency newsletters!