The iPhone 18 Pro starts at $1,199 with the A20 Pro chip, variable-aperture camera, Siri AI, faster charging, and up to 2TB of storage.
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OpenAI plans to expand independent safety assessments into model training and evaluation, giving outside groups earlier access to test high-risk AI systems.
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Between January 2025 and July 2026, the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center received almost 61,000 complaints concerning scams using police and government official impersonation tactics. As a result, around $1.6 billion is believed to have been scammed and extorted.
Tactics used by scammers included unsolicited phone calls and in some cases video calls, with victims losing an average of $26,000 per scam.
Particularly concerning is the targeting of foreign nationals, international students, and immigrant citizens, often with threats to cancel visas and home country passports. Incredibly, 10% of all losses were traced to a single scam, one that targeted fewer than 3% of the victims.
According to the FBI, the fake cop/fake government official scam has various angles, from alleging missed jury duty to threatening arrest due to circumstantial links to an alleged crime.
The demand from the scammers, inevitably, is payment.
Making a commitment to extreme lengths of scamming and extortion, the criminals took things to a new level when it came to targeting victims. International students, visiting foreign nationals, and other immigrant citizens were given special treatment. Not only were they threatened with extradition, there was also the implication of victims losing their home country passport.
To convince the target, scammers built actual studio sets, donned uniforms or suits, and appeared in video calls to the victims, who were convinced they were talking to foreign law enforcement agents or US-based diplomats. Creating the illusion of officialdom to sell the scam, victims paid whatever necessary to stay in their adopted country.
It is important to note that not all fraud of this type takes place in the US. These may be online or offline, but the so-called fake cop scam is an international criminal phenomenon. So, how do you avoid it?
We’ll assume you’ve answered a call inadvertently rather than having spam calls blocked (that should be set already).
First, remain calm. These situations are designed to impose stress and heightened anxiety. Scammers rely on these factors to cloud their victim’s judgement and force the narrative they are selling (“you missed jury duty”/“your presence in the country is illegal.”)
Second, it is vital to request credentials. Failure to provide these is the first red flag that the person communicating with you is not what they seem. That’s your cue to end the conversation.
Third, check the credentials. It doesn’t matter how long this takes – a legitimate caller will not mind waiting for you to do the necessary background check, even if it means them calling back.
Finally, and most importantly: neither law enforcement, security services, nor the FBI will demand money. If that is happening, it’s time to end the call.
It’s not a Tamagotchi, but Mark Zuckerberg’s one more thing is just as cute and hopefully much more functional. Announced at the very end of Meta Connect 26 keynote — after the Meta VR Glasses and Meta Ray-Ban Audio — was Muse Charm.
A tiny silver square with a screen on the front and thicker black bezels, central to the experience is the display that shows off your custom Muse. It’s probably more of a squircle and had what looks like a wrist strap dangling from the bottom, seemingly showing off easy portability. Distinctly, you don’t wear it, and since we didn’t see buttons, it’s a touchscreen, maybe an OLED or AMOLED.
Judging from the on-screen renders, it had a microphone on top, so you could communicate with your Muse from anywhere, essentially putting the already very popular Muse assistant quite literally in the palm of your hand.
Mark Zuckerberg was quick to note that Muse Charm is not ready just yet, but the hope is it will ship by the holidays. It’s also a brand-new device category for Meta: a true AI wearable distinct from glasses, focused entirely on Muse’s capabilities and future roadmap.
Will it follow the Rabbit R1 or the Humane AI Pin and fail? That remains to be seen, but Muse is already proving powerful as a software-only, ultra-customizable personal AI assistant. Packaging that into a wearable, hopefully an affordable one, maybe cheaper than glasses, could be a winning package.
It was announced shortly after the news that Muse would be arriving on Meta Glasses, affording it multi-modal capabilities of both voice and seeing the world around you. Additionally, the Muse App for macOS will be getting computer use and that will allow the AI that you can name whatever you like to complete tasks for you.
The Muse Charm doesn’t appear to be multimodal and, apparently, avoids the Looki route, as it lacks a camera.
Much more to come, but for now, stick with TechRadar for all the news from Meta Connect.