THREAD: In recent weeks, my colleague @alexrkonrad and I spent time trying to figure out how Amalgam, a little-known crypto firm tricked both employees and investors.

TLDR: its founder, Jeremy Jordan-Jones, pulled a fast one on all of them.

forbes.com/sites/cyrusfar… We first heard about this story from some former employees, who were mystified as to how they could have been hired by a company that had all the trappings of a startup -- Slack, Rippling -- but no actual product, no customers. Most importantly, they never got paid.

THREAD: My friends, have you gotten a text like this in recent years? A purported wrong number out of the blue?

Maybe you've block the number and move on.

But, if you engage, and follow their lead, it will take you down a dark road.

forbes.com/sites/cyrusfar… This is the tragic story of how one man, Cy, got conned out of $1M. He was "pig butchered," -- that is, enticed into spending more and more of his own money on cryptocurrency. Cy was made to believe that he was trading gold futures and was making fabulous returns. But he wasn't.

THREAD: While I knew that some cities had imposed commission caps — like here in Oakland, at 15% — going back nearly a year, I didn’t know how often DoorDash had imposed new extra fees nationwide, payable by customers.

Here’s what that looks like.

nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news… They go by different names in different cities. Most common is the “Regulatory Response Fee.”

DoorDash won’t say how many commission caps it faces. But we know it’s at least 73, because that’s what they told investors last month.

I found 68, and of those, 57 have new fees.

THREAD: This, friends, is the astonishing story of a mobile casino-style game that anyone can put unlimited amounts of money into.

But here’s the catch: it is actually impossible to win anything.

As a result, players have lost up to $500,000 apiece.

nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news… When I first heard about this game (back in Feb 2020, in the Before Times), just the premise of a casino that you can’t cash out of seemed crazy on its face.

How could anyone spend so much on something like this?

I made call after call and heard the same heartbreaking story.

THREAD: I’m reading some old newspaper clips tonight about the Spanish flu!

HED: CITY SUED FOR $100,000

DEK: Oakland man arrested for failure to wear flu mask, claims heavy damages of Richmond

Hanford Sentinel, Volume 62, Number 89, 24 October 1919

cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=HS19191… Summary: Oaklander was arrested on a street car for not wearing a mask and resisting an officer. Was jailed for 2 days. Sued the city of Richmond! (Would love to know how this ended.)

THREAD: It’s been a day, you guys.

First, thx to @factionbrewing for making awesome ale.

Second, big ups to my new pals, @jonallendc, @PhilMcCausland, and editor extraordinaire, @sinderbrand. Can’t wait to drink with you in person, one day

Our latest: nbcnews.com/politics/white… @factionbrewing @jonallendc @PhilMcCausland @sinderbrand HED: While Trump minimizes the toll, government orders 100,000 new body bags

There are some incredible details in this story.

This small company in LA Co. was hired to be the middleman for 100,000 “human remains pouches,” better known as body bags.

nbcnews.com/politics/white…

THREAD: Exactly one week ago, I asked what felt like a dumb, simple question on Twitter: where to donate N95s?

@ETSshow and @jilliancyork were the first to speak up, so they got my household’s small stash.

But it didn’t take long before nurses starting contacting me. @ETSshow @jilliancyork Very quickly, I received messages from nurses DESPERATE to be heard from.

They were frustrated at their employers, anxious to protect themselves and their patients, and baffled as to why they were practically having to beg for PPE, a term I didn’t even know until last week.

THREAD: The latest from yours truly:

Cute videos, but little evidence: Police say Amazon Ring isn't much of a crime fighter

nbcnews.com/news/all/cute-… This piece began months ago when I started to see story after story about Ring and privacy by @dellcam, @josephfcox, among others.

I had a more basic question: does Ring actually stop crime? Does it deter crime, as the company claims?

This amazing WaPo story establishes :

a) The president was more concerned about his own chief of staff snooping on his calls than foreign adversaries.

b) Giuliani is "otherwise known for his lack of technological sophistication.”

https://twitter.com/RyanLizza/status/1202961377121521664

Also, a Trump infosec reading list!

1) Rudy Giuliani butt-dials NBC reporter, heard discussing need for cash and trashing Bidens (Oct 2019)

nbcnews.com/politics/polit…

Thanks again to the lovely people who came out to my talk last night, and big ups to @Info_Activism and @mozilla for putting on THE GLASS ROOM, a fun and interactive tech/art/privacy show in downtown SF. (Free!)

https://twitter.com/tigerbeat/status/1187186587911643137

@Info_Activism @mozilla My book is here: habeasdatabook.com

Here’s some stories I’ve done on surveillance at US border for @NBCNews and @arstechnica :

1) Without warrants, U.S. border agents can search devices for wide range of crimes, lawyers claim (April 2019)

nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news…

ok here we go!

Levandowski is in court. He’s in a suit, not handcuffed. (he’s tall!) DOJ listing the counts and max penalty.

THREAD: Here’s a minor update in the 643 v. Facebook legal case, which @oliviasolon and I covered back in April. (nbcnews.com/tech/social-me…)

It’s worth noting that this case has been pending in San Mateo Co. Superior Court for over 4 years now, one of the longest in the county. @oliviasolon Over a month ago, Judge Swope ordered 643’s CEO Ted Kramer to find new counsel for his company.

Kramer finally has: two bankruptcy lawyers who have offices in SF and Modesto.

macfern.com/reno-f-r-ferna…

macfern.com/matthew-j-olso…

documentcloud.org/documents/6199…

THREAD: John Steele, the mastermind of Prenda Law, has been sentenced to 5 years in prison, per DOJ.

documentcloud.org/documents/6186… Prenda Law is the insane story about (now disbarred) lawyers who between 2011 and 2014 made porn films, uploaded them to Pirate Bay and other similar sites, then sued people who pirated those movies—unless they agreed to a $3,000 settlement.

Steele and his cohorts made over $6M.

Since I began at @NBCNews about 2 mo ago, a substantial portion of my time has been taken up working on this story, with @oliviasolon.

The result: "Mark Zuckerberg leveraged Facebook user data to fight rivals and help friends, leaked documents show"

https://twitter.com/oliviasolon/status/1118138216761184256

@NBCNews @oliviasolon I had reported some on Six4Three, Pikinis, and Ted Kramer before, back at @arstechnica.

arstechnica.com/tech-policy/20…

arstechnica.com/tech-policy/20…

arstechnica.com/tech-policy/20…

And my mini-scoop, about the only other lawsuit like Six4Three v. Facebook:

arstechnica.com/tech-policy/20…

THREAD:

Some of my own fav @arstechnica stories from 2018:

1) Why cops won’t need a warrant to pull the data off your autonomous car

arstechnica.com/tech-policy/20… @arstechnica 2) Here’s how to use Kalanickspeak at your next jam sesh, bro

arstechnica.com/tech-policy/20…

Per a new report, Oakland has an equity score of 33.5. (Highly inequitable!)

Or, as the report puts it: “substantial room for improvement."

documentcloud.org/documents/4757… "We found that for Prime construction and professional services contracts, 66.7% of African American contractors received contracts under $100,000, which was 3.42 times as often as White contractors (19.5%)."

I’m reading the nearly 500 page set of written answers that Facebook submitted yesterday to two Senate committees. There’s a lot here to unpack. Story TK.

Commerce report: documentcloud.org/documents/4503…

Judiciary report:
documentcloud.org/documents/4504… So far, the questions from and answer to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) are the most entertaining.

Hey friends! It’s #openingday! I’m taking the day off work to catch the @Athletics today!

Last year I did a story for @ebyesterday about baseball history in #Oakland! (m.soundcloud.com/user-736747354…)

Then I was invited to talk about it at @NerdNiteEB! Here’s the quick Twitter version. The @Athletics and owner @DaveKaval have made a big push that the team is #RootedInOakland. After all, #Oakland is about to lose the @warriors and the @RAIDERS within a few years.