When I first came to Japan, the hot scam was “ore ore” (“it’s me!”) — some shaky-voiced “grandson” calling grandma for emergency cash. The phone call equivalent of “trust me, I’m family.”

But are scams humanity's oldest art form?
Fake cowrie shells in 10,000 BC China and India. Card hustlers on Paris bridges. Bernie Madoff, stealing billions with a smile. Trying to cancel Amazon Prime…

But now we’ve entered the AI Age of Fraud — where the con artist might not even exist.
The “ore-ore” call is back, only this time it’s your own voice saying, “Hey Grandma, send crypto.”

The highlight reel:

And it's working. Losses from deepfake schemes? Almost $1 billion this year alone. The monthly rate is climbing faster than your credit card bill before Christmas.

And in the UK, 70% of CFOs suspect staff are using AI to fake expense claims (probably because they’ve done it themselves.)

The answer? Companies are now fighting AI with AI.

Visa’s fraud-bots flagged almost $1 billion in scam transactions and shut down 25,000 fake merchants — like digital SWAT teams for your wallet.

But it’s an AI arms race, and scammers adapt faster than cybersecurity budgets.

The takeaway? From fake shells to fake selves. Every tool we create is only as good—or terrible—as the hands (or code) using it.

💡 PRO TIP: If a voice, face, or email tugs your heart and your wallet, verify it elsewhere. Emotion + urgency = scam.

💬 FOLLOW-UP: “What’s the wildest scam you’ve ever seen?” (Selling The Eiffel Tower, twice?)

⛔ DON’T SAY: “AI would never fool me.” (Been online recently? It already has.)

Phishing began in the ’90s — hackers “fishing” for passwords via email, borrowing the ph from old-school “phone phreaks,” the 1970s tech pranksters who hacked telephone lines.

Then came vishing (voice + phishing) — scam calls tricking you into sharing bank details.

Now? The con talks back. AI can clone a voice in three seconds.

That panicked call from “Grandma” begging for money might sound exactly like her (just with a better signal.)

Seriously, try ElevenLabs. Terrifyingly realistic.

🎣 The fishing rod got an AI upgrade. And we’re all bait.

“The easiest person to deceive is one’s self.”
(Edward Bulwer-Lytton, English writer, 1803-1873)

♠️ Two con men, one big score, and a tune you’ll be whistling for days.

Answer at the end of the issue.

October 30, 1938 — Halloween Eve.
Americans tuned into CBS Radio expecting swing music… then heard: “Martians are invading New Jersey!”

Panic. Chaos. People actually fled their homes.
America’s first case of mass “WTF!!”

The culprit? A 23-year-old named Orson Welles, turning H.G. Wells’ novel War of the Worlds into fake news before fake news existed.
The programme, structured as a series of realistic news bulletins, convinced many listeners that aliens really had landed.

Newspapers screamed RADIO HOAX!

Welles apologised — then became famous overnight. (Cancel culture in reverse, 1938 edition.)

Fast forward 87 years: deepfaked CEOs, AI Brad Pitt, cloned family voices begging for bitcoin.

Different tech, same trick.

Can’t tell if someone’s lying? Here’s your four-step human lie detector.
Combine this with issue #11, and you’ll be sniffing out untruths faster than Poirot.

💡 PRO TIP: One sign means nothing. Multiple L.I.A.R. signals? Time to raise your internal eyebrow.

💬 FOLLOW-UP: “Have you ever been caught lying?” (Now watch them lie 😜)

⛔ DON’T SAY: “I know you’re lying!” (Even if you’re right — confrontation rarely gets truth, just better lies.)

All this talk of scams and lying getting heavy?
Time for a change of pace! Here's nature being hilariously ridiculous.
100% AI-free!

All pics are finalists in this year’s Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards.

💬 FOLLOW-UP: Which one is your fave?

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At first, I thought this was a parody.
It isn’t.

Neo — the world’s first consumer-grade humanoid robot — is up for pre-order.
$20K gets you a helper, companion, or future lawsuit…

Even the box (3:34) looks like an alien pod.

What do you think?
Home helper or potential life ender?

Paul Newman and Robert Redford play two charming con men out to swindle a mob boss in Depression-era Chicago.

🎵 Cultural Impact: Turned the con artist into a cinematic hero — and made ragtime cool again (thanks to The Entertainer.)

🧠 Deep Dive: Won 7 Oscars, including Best Picture.

💬 YOUR TURN: What’s your favourite movie about con artists?

A) 🤖 Absolutely! Silence (and safety) is golden — 30%
B) 🤔 Maybe…if it’s cheaper — 40%
😰 No way. I need a human — 30%

💬 Your Two Cents

S.H: The last taxi I was in may as well have been driverless, the guy at the wheel spent more time staring at his TV screen instead of the road ahead. Although the thought of a driverless car getting hacked also terrifies me, maybe I'll just walk everywhere from now on.

S.Y: Sign me up!!

R.B: Would rather let the chumps get the kinks out 😆

Right back at you! From Tokyo to Tunbridge Wells, we’re proving that good conversation has no borders 🌎

That's it for #42.

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