Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, December 19, 2025
Little-Known Issue Contributing to Deadly Muslim Attacks on Christians in Nigeria
Trump Orders Blockade as U.S. Seizes Second Oil Tanker Near Venezuela
Why Are 50,000 New York City Apartments Vacant?
A long article on how gift cards work from a technical perspective and how that impacts common scams. The American Association of Retired People (AARP, an advocacy non-profit for older adults) has paid for ads on podcasts I listen to. The ad made a claim which felt raspberry-worthy (in service of an important public service announcement), which they repeat in writing: Asking to be paid by gift card is always a scam. Of course it isn’t. Gift cards are a payments rail, and an enormous business independently of being a payments rail. Hundreds of firms will indeed ask you to pay them on gift cards! Gift card scams are also enormous. The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center received $16.6 billion in reports in 2024 across several payment methods; this is just for those consumers who bothered reporting it, in spite of the extremely real received wisdom that reporting is unlikely to improve one’s direct situation.