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Welcome to your Saturday, {{first_name | friend}}. Remember when villains had lairs, capes and maybe a dramatic swivel chair? Now they’ve got ransomware dashboards, crypto wallets and an economy big enough to make countries sweat.
💰 If cybercrime were a country, where would its economy rank in the world? A) 15th, around Spain, B) 8th, around Italy, C) 3rd, behind only the U.S. and China or D) First in our hearts, said no one ever? Keep scrolling, the answer is laundering itself at the end.
📻 Listen up! My national radio show is airing all weekend across the USA. With over 510 stations strong, find your closest one by using our super-duper station locator map, or listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart or watch the entire show on YouTube. I’m wherever you are. — Kim
TODAY’S DEEP DIVE
Found cause
Image: ChatGPT/Kim Komando
🤯 WOW! A dark web market was selling over 170 million stolen ID documents, including 153 million U.S. and Canadian driver’s licenses. One of them belonged to the secretary of defense. If Pete Hegseth’s license isn’t safe, yours isn’t either. But that’s not the end of this story.
The Short Version: Leaked data isn’t stolen money. The theft happens later, when somebody uses it. Your job isn’t stopping the leak. It’s shrinking the time between “used” and “caught” from months to minutes. Steps below.
📖 Read time: 2 minutes
Thursday, I told you about the dark web market caught selling more than 153 million stolen ID documents, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s driver’s license. Cameron hit reply:
“Kim, there are so many data breaches it feels like white noise now. Since our data is out there all over, it seems to me that identity theft coverage like Coveron is a lost cause. I figure someday someone will grab mine.” — Cameron in Houston
Cameron, you’re half right. And the half you’re wrong about is where your money lives.
You’re right that your data is out there.
That market, Nexus, held 153 million U.S. and Canadian driver’s licenses and was growing by 400,000 documents a DAY when Brian Krebs blew the whistle. Even the man who runs the Pentagon couldn’t stay out of it. Assume your email, phone number and SSN are out there. That’s not paranoia. That’s math.
Here’s what the shrug misses. The FBI moved in, and Nexus went dark. The site is gone. The data isn’t. Every crook who bought a copy still has a copy.
⏱ Leaked isn’t stolen. Yet.
A leaked SSN is not a drained bank account. It’s an ingredient.
The crime happens later, when somebody uses it. Catch a fraudulent account the day it opens, and it’s a phone call. Catch it six months later, and it’s weeks of collections letters and dinged credit.
Identity fraud cost Americans $27.3 billion last year, and speed decides who pays.
🕵️ That race is where Coveron earns its keep
LifeLock is a 21 year old company that really took off when its founder put his SSN on the ads. That was the extent of identity theft back then. Today, identity theft needs a lot more protection. That’s why I use Coveron.
It watches the places you can’t. Real-time dark web scans for your email, U.S. phone numbers and SSN.
Alerts come with instructions. What leaked, plus the exact steps for that type of breach. Thank you for that.
It knows when the leak is YOUR device. A malware alert means the crook is inside your computer, phone, tablet or more. Different crime scene, different fix.
It watches your name. If your identity gets tied to a criminal record, you hear it from an alert. Not a traffic stop. Yeah, this happens. Someone gets arrested and uses your name.
So no, Cameron, it’s not a lost cause. Hegseth’s license only got pulled because somebody was looking. Put eyes on yours. Call it a found cause.
Do this today: Freeze your credit at all four bureaus (free). Here are the links you need.
Then turn on the watch. I used to have LifeLock, but it didn’t keep up with the times and also got so dang expensive. That’s when I did the research and found Coveron, formerly NordProtect.
My radio listeners get a great deal, and you can grab it, too. Coveron is 71% off and super affordable at only $4.36 a month.
✅ Get Coveron $4.36 a month, that’sfor 71% off. I wouldn’t use or recommend Coveron if it was a waste of money. We all work too hard for it. Your order is covered by a 30-day money-back guarantee. The only thing you can lose is the shrug.*
🎯 Send this to someone who deletes breach emails without reading them. Their shrug is exactly what the crooks are counting on. You can also use the links below.
WEB WATERCOOLER
🔥 Claim to flame: Picture opening a fire claim, trusting the AI summary, then learning it invented a detail while the homeowner and their lawyer unload on you. That’s the job. Adjusters hate AI. On Glassdoor, 98% of adjuster reviews that mention it are negative. Lemonade’s bot handled 96% of initial reports last year. Machines draft the mistake and leave a human to absorb the screaming. Denied: the robot’s request for a raise.
Dr. ChartGPT is in: I read this and immediately imagined arguing with a chatbot over my cholesterol. OpenAI lets hospital networks connect ChatGPT Enterprise to electronic medical records, drafting discharge summaries, lab analyses and follow-up letters in seconds. Convenient, until one wrong phrase affects treatment or an insurance claim. I’d still ask who verified mine. Second opinions should come from a doctor, not a “regenerate response” button.
📱 Cellphone bill too high? You’re not alone. The average American pays $144 a month for their cellphone plan. That’s $1,728 a year. Consumer Cellular uses the same towers as the big carriers but charges a fraction of the price. Get a new 5G phone with 36-month EasyPay financing and pair it with an unlimited everything plan for $59 a month or less. No contracts, no hidden fees. Switch today and save.*
🥪 Gate-side service: United is testing app orders at Newark’s Terminal C: sandwiches, salads, kids’ meals, candy, medicine, neck pillows and charging cords delivered to pickup shelves at your gate before boarding. Houston is next. Fewer “wow, I’m not in shape” sprints back to the gate. Next up: a water bottle that isn’t $8. Finally, a reason to be in Group D. The sandwich shows up before you do.
📺 YOUTUBE: THE KIM KOMANDO SHOW
Watch now or bookmark for later
Turns out your selfie could hand a stranger everything they need to recreate your fingerprints. Yes, really. That’s just the opener in this week’s episode.
WSJ writer Danielle Crittenden shares something that’ll stay with you: the devices still connected to her late daughter and what it’s like to keep them running. It’s a hard watch, in the best way.
Plus, AI is quietly stepping into IVF, I found 11 hidden cameras in an Airbnb (yes, 11), a magician breaks down how thieves lift Apple Watches mid-handshake, a Waymo drove off with a man’s luggage, AI systems are starting to replicate themselves, kids beat age-verification software with fake mustaches and China unveiled a $650,000 transforming rideable robot that has to be seen to be believed.
Funny, creepy, emotional, a little terrifying, basically a normal week on the show.
Watch now before everyone else is talking about it. 👇
Or for audio only, click your favorite podcast player below:
BROUGHT TO YOU BY
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Right now, they’re on sale for $350. That’s $90 off.* An investment that pays off every single holiday season from here on out.
DEVICE ADVICE
⚡️ 3-second tech genius: Mobile site hiding the buttons you need? The page probably isn’t playing nice with your phone. In Safari, open the Page Menu > Request Desktop Website. On Chrome, tap the three dots > Desktop site. Everything gets smaller, but the menus, filters and controls should show up. Squinting still beats no “Add to cart” option. 😅
💾 The 3-2-1 backup rule: Three copies of your data. Two different storage types. One off-site. That’s the gold standard for protecting everything you can’t afford to lose. Carbonite handles the off-site part automatically, backing up your files to the cloud in the background without you lifting a finger. Set it up once and forget it. Get 50% off right now.*
📺 Roku remote gone missing again? Open the Roku app and tap Devices > your Roku > three dots > Ping Remote. It’ll chirp for up to 60 seconds until you find it. You can also say, “Hey, Roku, where’s my remote?” (Much easier than tearing apart the couch.) FYI, you’ll need a remote with a speaker, like the Voice Remote Pro 2nd edition. I named my TV remote Waldo. For obvious reasons.
⌨️ Mac window tricks worth stealing: Hold Option and click the yellow minimize button to hide every open window from that app. Hold Option and click the green button to make a window bigger without going full screen. For a quick split screen, press Fn + Control + Left or Right Arrow. Save the clicks. You’ll need that finger for doomscrolling later. 😏
📂 Want a folder nobody can see? Windows can make one invisible on your desktop. Create a folder, open Character Map and use a blank character for the name. Then right-click it > Show more options > Properties > Customize > Change Icon and choose a blank icon. It looks like there’s nothing there at all.
🛋️ Don’t waste cash on an interior designer: Take a few photos of a room from different corners and upload them to ChatGPT. Tell the bot your style and budget, then ask what to keep, relocate, modify, sell or replace. Have it rank free changes first, then cheap fixes, then purchases. Ask it to generate a preview of the finished room before you move anything. More tips like this on my official website. 😉
KIM’S DAILY DEALS
As an Amazon Associate, some links pay us a commission at no extra cost to you. Keeps this newsletter free. Thank you.
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Image: Astercook
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😋 Make room for seconds: Shop all my kitchen helpers before your next grocery run. →
Prices and deals were accurate at the time of publication.
WHAT THE TECH?
Image: U.S. Air Force
🕶️ See-through pricing
I sat in a fighter jet simulator once and couldn’t find the brakes. Remember those comic book ads promising X-ray specs for a buck? The Pentagon found a version that works. Naturally, it costs $400,000.
F-35 pilots get custom helmets fed video from six infrared cameras around the aircraft, letting them look through the cockpit floor and see what’s underneath. The visor also handles night vision and overlays targeting information from hundreds of miles away. It’s basically a wearable control room doing 1,000-ish mph.
Childhood dream achieved. Minor catch: You also need the jet. Plane English.
LOGGING OUT …
🎓 What you learned today: A leaked SSN is only the start of identity fraud, insurance adjusters are sick of cleaning up AI mistakes, ChatGPT moves into medical records, United may bring snacks to your gate and F-35 pilots wear $400,000 see-through helmets. Not bad for one email. First, they wanted your clicks, then your data and now your brain. Tomorrow, I’ll break down Neuralink, mind uploads and the billionaire dream of “humanity 2.0.”
🌍 The answer: C) 3rd, right behind the U.S. and China. Yep, the digital bad guys would be the third biggest economy on planet Earth, and that text from “your bank” could be asking for a contribution. Cybercrime damage runs about $10.5 trillion a year. The cloud sounds less like a fluffy tech miracle and more like a neighborhood where you lock your car doors.
Why are hackers fast? Because they’re Russian. (Good one!)
🍽️ The best conversations happen when nobody is holding a phone. Try one tonight. — Kim
Kim Komando • Komando.com • 510+ radio stations • Trusted by millions daily
🏆 THE KIM CHALLENGE: Forward this to ONE person who needs to hear it today. Pick the person who popped into your head while reading. You know who it is.
Photo credit(s): ChatGPT/Kim Komando, Govee, Astercook, U.S. Air Force
Companies and products denoted by an asterisk (*) within this publication are paid sponsors or advertisements. As an Amazon Associate, the publisher earns from qualifying purchases. Statements regarding products denoted by a double asterisk (**) have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration; such products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. This newsletter is provided for informational and entertainment purposes only and does not constitute legal, financial, medical, or professional advice of any kind. Readers should consult with a qualified professional before making any decisions based on this content. The publisher disclaims all liability for any loss, damage, or injury resulting from the use of or reliance on the information contained herein.