Talking About Money

Here in the US, the rise of Square payment systems has helped every small shop and flea market merchant accept digital payments. It’s quick and simple. But what about the rest of the world? Especially in countries where mobile data is unreliable and people are quick to get scammed? Enter the payment “sound box”. Adnan Bhat at Rest of World has more on this innovative solution. Eventually, a fellow vendor suggested he subscribe to a “sound box” — a nifty internet-connected device that reads out payment confirmation messages. “Earlier, I had to wait for five to 10 minutes after every…

Cupertino Savings

It’s no secret that Apple is making many inroads in the financial sector. I would guess it’s a lucrative place for them to focus now that services are fully established for the company. Apple Card allows Apple to save money in transaction fees. Now they’re able to provide another service to let people keep money with them: savings accounts. And the draw to entice people? A killer interest rate. More from Ashley Capoot at CNBC: Apple on Monday launched its Apple Card savings account with a 4.15% annual percentage yield. It requires no minimum deposit or balance, Apple said, and…

Tipping Overload

It is everywhere. You buy a sandwich, you’re asked to tip. Grabbing a t-shirt at a concert’s merch booth? You’re asked to tip. Picking up an online order you needed to pay for at the counter? Tip. Stop the insanity! Tipping is uniquely American and we have created a society where employees are severely underpaid (legally) because they can earn tips. That system alone is awful because people should earn a living wage regardless of tips. However, tipping has permeated into situations where the employee is doing their job or minimal work. Sara Morrison at Vice has more about how…

Bitcoin’s $2T Loss

Imaginary “currency” that has no intrinsic value, is wildly manipulated, speculated like crazy, that uses more electricity than many nations, turns out to be a bad idea. Shocker, right? But that’s what is going on in the cryptocurrency world right now. And it’s not just Bitcoin either. For nearly a month, the bottom has fallen out from under the imaginary coins floating around. Bitcoin alone has lost over $2 TRILLION in value since Nov 2021. Being the biggest player in the space, of course, this brought down the value of every other “coin”. It’s losses for everyone who’s involved. Corrie…

Targeting the Zelle

An article that flew under my radar was this one over on Krebs on Security wherein Brian Krebs explains Zelle scams. It’s a fascinating breakdown of fraudsters anticipating how the system works and manipulating victims into bypassing Zelle’s security. Here’s the kicker: it’s not about giving up your password. An important aspect of this scam is that the fraudsters never even need to know or phish the victim’s password. By sharing their username and reading back the one-time code sent to them via email, the victim is allowing the fraudster to reset their online banking password. Brian Krebs Zelle, for those…