Category: Business Insider

• A cryptocurrency trader lost nearly $70 million in an 'address poisoning' scam.
• Scammers made spoof accounts to trick the victim into sending funds to the fake address.
• Crypto-related scams are on the rise, costing investors almost $4 billion last year, the FBI says.

A cryptocurrency trader reportedly lost tens of millions of dollars in a so-called "address poisoning" scam.

Address poisoning scams are carried out by thieves who make spoof accounts of their victim's online crypto "address," which they use to send a small amount of currency to the victim in hopes that they will accidentally send money to the fake address later, according to Transak, a crypto trading platform.

Because blockchains are public, it's easy for scammers to find people's crypto addresses and send out spoof transactions to phish for victims.

CertiK, a blockchain security firm, confirmed it detected a transfer of $69.3 million worth of Bitcoin to an address "linked with address poisoning" in a post on X.

The victim's crypto wallet now shows a total loss of around 97% of its assets on Coinbase. The account is now worth just more than $1.6 million.

Peckshield, another security firm, wrote on X that the scammers traded the stolen Bitcoin for 23,000 Ethereum and then transferred the funds. Ethereum is trading at $3,116 a coin, according to The Daily Hodl.

Trezor, another crypto trading platform, recommends double-checking every address before sending a transaction and never copying an address from transaction history when transferring funds to avoid address scams.

Sending a small test transaction before making a large transfer is also an effective method of verifying the address, the company says.

Cryptocurrency-related scams are on the rise, according to the FBI's 2023 internet crime report. Crypto-related frauds cost investors $3.94 billion last year, the report says, making up more than three-quarters of the year's investment scam losses.

One study showed that crypto "pig butchering" scams cost investors $75 million from 2020 to 2024. The fraud starts with criminals sending a wrong-number text that they use as a way to build trust with victims.

Then, they send small payments to them and lure them into making fake crypto investments, only cutting off contact once the victim has sent a large amount of money to the thief.

The scam's name refers to fattening a pig up before the slaughter.

Most cryptocurrency scams involve scammers trying to get victims in unrelated scams to pay them in Bitcoin so that their crimes cannot be traced, according to the Federal Trade Commission.

The best way to spot a crypto scam is to never trust someone who will only accept payment in crypto or who is promising big profit returns on a fishy investment, the agency says.

"Investment scams are one of the top ways scammers trick you into buying cryptocurrency and sending it on to scammers," the FTC says. "But scammers are also impersonating businesses, government agencies, and a love interest, among other tactics."

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• Russian military personnel convicted of murder increased by 900% in 2023, 
• Russian military personnel were convicted of 116 murders in 2023, the Mediazona website reported.
• About 15,000 pardoned prisoners returned to Russia, some of whom committed new crimes.

Russian military personnel were convicted of 116 murders in 2023, Mediazona, a local news website, reported.

It is almost a 900% increase from the previous year when there were 13 convictions, said the UK Ministry of Defence on X.

The data came from Judicial Department of the Supreme Court's published statistics on the work of courts for 2023, said Mediazona.

Conditions like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and desensitization to violence, bred on the battlefield, often linger long after the conflict ends. Alcoholism and drug abuse exacerbate these problems, said the UK defense ministry last week.

"The high number of homicides by serving and veteran Russian soldiers are likely in part due to enduring war-related chronic poor mental health issues," it wrote.

Compounding this is the return to civilian life of ex-convicts who had volunteered to serve in Ukraine and secure their freedom. They were men with a pre-existing propensity for criminality and extreme violence, said the UK defense ministry.

Citing Olga Romanova, the head of Russia Behind Bars, The New York Times reported that 15,000 pardoned prisoners had returned to Russian society after serving in penal military units, such as the Wagner Group and Storm Z. 

The New York Times report detailed cases of high-security prisoners in Russia being offered a clean slate and freedom by the Wagner mercenary group if they agree to fight in Ukraine.

An ex-Wagner prisoner-soldier was sentenced by the Kirov court on April 24, 2024, to 22 years for the crimes of murdering and raping an elderly woman post-discharge, said the UK defense ministry.

When ex-prisoner Viktor Savvinov was pardoned after serving in Ukraine earlier this year, he drunkenly murdered two people upon returning to his native village.

"It is a story about invisible violence," said Kirill Titaev, a Russian sociologist and criminology expert at Yale, told the Times. "It is a big problem for the society, but one they do not recognize."

Last year, Russian President Vladimir Putin called the risk of pardoned convicts re-offending upon their release "inevitable," per the Times.

"But the negative consequences are minimal," Putin said.

In March, it was reported that Russia has tapped on so many inmates to fuel its war effort in Ukraine that it's closing down some prisons.

The Kremlin is now resorting to recruiting female convicts to replenish its troops.

According to recent UK estimates, about 450,000 Russian personnel have been killed or wounded, with tens of thousands more deserting their posts since the full-scale invasion commenced in February 2022.

The New York Times reported that in the fall of 2023, recruiters toured Russian prisons offering female inmates a pardon and $2,000 a month — 10 times the national minimum wage — in return for serving in frontline roles for a year.

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• Gov. Kristi Noem has long been touted as a potential running mate for former President Trump.
• But Noem's recent admission that she killed her family's dog has attracted a wave of criticism.
• A GOP senator told The Hill that Noem has essentially tanked her VP chances with Trump.

South Dakota GOP Gov. Kristi Noem has long been a potential running mate for former President Donald Trump, largely on the strength of her conservative credentials and the Republican Party's push to appeal to more female voters.

But Noem's admission that she killed her family's 14-month-old dog, Cricket, has elicited bipartisan outrage in recent days — and it could prompt Trump to look elsewhere should he be seriously considering Noem for the No. 2 slot.

In her forthcoming memoir, "No Going Back: The Truth on What's Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward," Noem wrote that she killed her dog because the dog was "untrainable" and "dangerous to anyone she came in contact with," according to an excerpt obtained by The Guardian.

Noem has continued to defend the act, stating last week on the Fox News program "Hannity" that the dog posed a threat to her children.

"She attacked me. And it was a hard decision," Noem said.

But according to a GOP senator who spoke to The Hill, Noem has sunk her chances with Trump.

"She's just done, too much drama," the unnamed lawmaker, who remains in contact with the former president, told the outlet.

Mike Rounds, one of Noem's Republican home-state senators, said the governor's actions could damage her in the eyes of voters should Trump select her to be his running mate.

"I don't see how it helps," the senator told CNN last week. "I've had dogs. I just think that when a family decides to put down dogs, it's a very personal and private decision to be made."

"These dogs become a member of a family, you know?" he continued. "People identify with that."

However, Dusty Johnson, the state's at-large GOP congressman, came to Noem's defense.

"I will tell you, there are lots of people in rural America, who if an animal's got to be put down, they would do that themselves," he told CNN. "I know most people would go to the vet, but I would tell you that Kristi Noem was not the first or the one thousandth, you know, farmer or rancher that's put down an animal themselves."

Noem, in late April, took to X to remark on the circumstances of such situations.

"We love animals, but tough decisions like this happen all the time on a farm," she wrote. "Sadly, we just had to put down three horses a few weeks ago that had been in our family for 25 years."

Business Insider reached out to a representative of Noem for comment.

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• A nine-year-old boy mistook a businessman as homeless and gave him his last dollar.
• The businessman, Matt Busbice, rewarded the boy with a shopping spree.
• Busbice said he hadn't had "that much faith in humanity in a very long time."

A nine-year-old boy in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, mistook a businessman as homeless and gave him his last dollar, local news outlet WBRZ reported.

The incident occurred after 42 year-old Matt Busbice had left his house in a rush one morning after hearing a fire alarm.

Finding no fire, he headed to a local coffee shop, placed his order, and then stepped outside to do his morning prayer, as security camera footage of the incident shows.

As he finished, nine-year-old Kelvin Ellis Jr. approached him with his hand held out, thinking Busbice was a homeless man.

"'I said, 'Excuse me, sir, are you homeless? Because if you are, here's a dollar,'" Ellis Jr. recalled, adding that he had always wanted to help a homeless person.

"I had money, it wasn't that much — but it could still help him get something," he said.

Busbice told CBS News he hadn't had "that much faith in humanity in a very long time."

As a thank you for the kind gesture, Busbice bought Ellis Jr. breakfast as well as a coffee for his father. He also took Ellis Jr. on a shopping trip to his sporting goods store, BuckFeather, giving him 40 seconds to choose anything he wanted, per the report.

According to WBRZ, Busbice is a millionaire who found success after opening a string of outdoor businesses and brands focused on the hunting industry.

"If you give, you're actually going to get more out of that," Busbice told CBS News. "I couldn't grasp that as a kid. And if we can spread that around, everything changes."

Louisiana has experienced huge swings in the number of homeless people in the state over the last few years, likely driven by the devastating impact of Hurricane Ida in 2021.

From 2020 to 2022, the state suffered the second-largest percentage increase in homelessness levels, up 132.4%, per the 2022 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report to Congress.

From 2022 to 2023, Louisiana had the largest percentage decrease in the number of homeless people, down 57%,

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• Increasingly more people are choosing to work remotely from Disney theme parks.
• The trend began in the wake of the pandemic, as remote working became more popular and parks reopened.
• Writers and social media workers are among those heading down to work in Orlando.

More and more people are choosing to work remotely from Disney World theme parks — and it's not just Disney bloggers.

Writers, techies, and social media workers are just some of those heading down to Orlando and sharing their experiences online.

Workers are taking to TikTok, Instagram, and Reddit to document their days at the parks, sharing tips on the best spots to work from, how to navigate the parks, and how they plan their schedules.

AJ Wolfe, who runs the Disney Food Blog, told NBC News that the number of remote workers setting up in Disney World had increased since the parks reopened in late 2020 after they'd been forced to close due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Wolfe said that it likely reflected the "blurring between conventional workspaces and leisure time" that has occurred in the wake of the pandemic.

"I think people are adopting and looking to adopt a situation where they can work at the same time they're experiencing something they enjoy," she said.

"People want to move to Orlando, they want to feel like they live in Disney World," Wolfe added. "You're closer to the place that makes you happy, and you can access it much more quickly when you're done working."

While it may not work for everyone, certain professions could be particularly suited to the environment.

Jenna Clark previously wrote for Business Insider that the parks were ideal for her job as a writer, as the hustle and bustle of the many guests helped her research and brainstorm new story ideas.

One concern for her, however, was the lack of indoor seating available.

"If you're wanting to sit and work in air conditioning, have a couple of dollars handy just in case you need to purchase something," she wrote.

Clark used her annual pass to access the four theme parks at Disney World, which costs about $1,500 annually.

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• Turkey has suspended trade with Israel, demanding a cease-fire in Gaza.
• Turkish authorities criticized Israel, as well as the West, in its announcement.
• Turkey is one of Israel's largest trade partners.

Turkey halted trade with Israel last week, demanding a permanent cease-fire in Gaza and criticizing Western influence in the war.

Turkey criticized Israel's response to the October 7 terrorist attacks by Hamas, during which fighters killed 1,200 Israelis and took about 200 others hostage. More than 100 of those hostages are believed to be still in Gaza.

An outpouring of global support for Israel in the aftermath of the attacks quickly dissipated, however, as the scale of Israel's response grew. Some 34,000 Palestinians, mostly civilian women and children, have so far died in Israel's campaign.

Turkish authorities cited Israel's "uncompromising attitude" toward Palestinians, particularly the Israel Defense Forces' recent escalation in the Rafah region of Gaza, in its decision to suspend trade, Reuters reported.

Turkish officials said the country would suspend all exports and imports with Israel, valued at about $7 billion annually, until there is a permanent cease-fire in Gaza.

That's a significant portion of Israel's trade, according to recent trade data. In 2022, the only nations Israel imported from more than Turkey were China and the United States, according to data from the Observatory of Economic Complexity, a project from the MIT Media Lab.

Though they didn't name the United States, Turkish leaders also called out the West's tolerance and support of the war.

"I want this to be known: we aren't chasing animosity or a fight with any country in our region," Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said, according to Reuters.

In March, diplomatic tensions grew after the United Nations voted for a cease-fire in the region. The United States abstained from the vote, sparking sharp dissent from Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu. While the US Congress recently approved a multibillion-dollar aid package to Israel, the relationship between Netanyahu and US President Joe Biden is at an all-time low.

"We have a single goal here: to force the Netanyahu leadership, which has gotten out of control with the West's unconditional military and diplomatic support, to a cease-fire," Erdogan said, according to Reuters.

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• Ukraine's 47th Mechanized equipped with top US military hardware, continuous combat.
• It has been in continuous cobat for many months.
• The Pentagon plans to replenish the powerhouse brigade with  Bradley fighting vehicles, Forbes said.

Ukraine's hard-fighting 47th Mechanized Brigade is battle-weary and urgently needs US support, Forbes reports.

Trained by NATO instructors, the 47th Brigade all-volunteer unit is one of Ukraine's powerhouse brigades. It is equipped with US-made military hardware, including M1 Abrams tanks, M2 Bradley fighting vehicles, and M-109 howitzers.

In January, the 47th battling reputation was burnished when an attack using Bradley fighting vehicles became an international news story. A video of one of the US-built combat vehicles hammering a T-90M, which Putin has called "the world's best tank," with chain gun fire from its 25 mm cannon, was widely reported.

The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine posted the video online, attributing it to the 47th Mechanized Brigade fighting in Stepove, a village outside Avdiivka in northeastern Ukraine.

This week, the ministry released new footage showing the destruction of Russian tanks and combat vehicles that it said had been eliminated by Bradley IFVs and FPV drones of the 47th Brigade.

But with nearly continuous combat since Ukraine's unsuccessful counteroffensive last summer, the Brigade's 2,000 troops are in dire need of respite, resupply, and reinforcement, Forbes said.

The Pentagon is set to swoop in to help replenish depleted resources and bolster combat effectiveness, Forbes said.

Recently, despite initial plans for withdrawal, the brigade was rushed into action when the Russian 30th Motor Rifle Brigade launched an assault near Ocheretyne, northwest of Avdiivka in eastern Ukraine. The rapid redeployment highlights the unit's fighting reputation as an "emergency brigade,' Forbes said.

However, it now appears the 47th Brigade fought for nothing. Russian troops were able to take most of Ocheretyne following a rotational blunder involving the 47th and 115th Mechanized Brigades in April.

Russia's 30th Motor Rifle Brigade took advantage of the rotational lapse as the 47th Brigade withdrew and attacked, capturing a large swathe of territory.

The former company commander of the 47th Brigade, Mykola Melnyk, who lost a leg during the summer offensive, wrote on Facebook: "The drastic advancement of the Russians became possible because certain units just fucked off."

Months of fighting have taken a toll on the 47th Mechanized Brigade, with casualties and equipment losses escalating, said Forbes. Repeated changes in leadership have further exacerbated challenges.

Indeed, the 47th Brigade had also lost its Abrams tanks. They were pulled from the front due to Russian drone tactics, two US defense officials told the Associated Press last month.

The New York Times reported that Ukraine has lost five out of its 31 Abrams tanks in recent months, citing an unnamed senior US official.

The recent approval of fresh aid to Ukraine signals a crucial lifeline, with replacement Bradleys poised to bolster the Brigade's capabilities on the battlefield.

The first new US arms shipment to Ukraine following Congress's approval included an unspecified number of Bradleys. The 47th Brigade is the only Ukrainian unit that uses the vehicle, said Forbes.

Beyond material support and tactical adjustments, the 47th Brigade needs a reprieve from the relentless cycle of conflict.

"Another month, and there will be a year without rotation." said Melnyk.

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• OpenAI introduced Sora, a text-to-video model that generates high-quality videos, in February.
• Early testers have said Sora can enhance their creative process. 
• Despite its potential, users agree that Sora still requires human oversight. 

Early testers for OpenAI's Sora are breathing a sigh of relief. Some are even feeling a rush of inspiration.

In February, OpenAI introduced a text-to-video model called Sora to "understand and simulate the physical world in motion." Sora was touted for generating videos up to a minute long from text, and its proof-of-concept videos stunned the internet with their image quality.

But some in Hollywood saw it as a threat.

Veteran filmmaker Tyler Perry was so impressed — and intimidated — by demonstrations of Sora that he put his plans for an $800 million studio expansion on pause. He even called for Hollywood workers to organize under a single union to protect jobs from the threat of AI.

The tool hasn't officially been released to the public, but workers in creative fields have already begun experimenting with it. They say it makes their jobs easier without making them feel replaceable. Sora can help them communicate abstract concepts more clearly, they say, push them to visualize ideas in new ways, and cut production costs. But, for now, it still needs human oversight.

Know when to pick your battles.

Brand advertising consultant Charlotte Bunyan put Sora to the test by creating a campaign for a "well-known high street supermarket" and told the Financial Times that she could "potentially" use the video it made as a "taster of something we could bring to life in a virtual experience."

Bunyan participated in a comparison organized by the Financial Times between Sora and its competitors Runway and Pika — both of which claim to create AI-powered videos with just a few words.

Bunyan wrote a prompt fed directly into Pika and Runway, while OpenAI gave Sora a revised version. Sora rendered the elements of the prompt more "faithfully" than the other tools, Bunyan said, but all three can "speed up the way we communicate creative ideas and make them more tangible." Regardless of the tool, though, she said there probably still needs to be a "human layer" added to any content they generate through editing tools.

Others say Sora isn't always consistent, which can bring about new creative opportunities.

Indie artist Washed Out's new music video, "The Hardest Part," is the longest video made with Sora, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The video's director, Paul Trillio, said he "leaned into the hallucinations, the strange details, the dream-like logic of movement, the distorted mirror of memories, the surreal qualities unique to Sora / AI," in a post on X.

The Times reported that the video was made by stitching 55 clips Sora generated based on detailed prompts. But the clips weren't always consistent. The appearance of the couple in the video and their child varies from clip to clip. Trillo said he overlooked the discrepancies, and in some sense, they enhance the dream-like nature of the video. He believes Sora can complement the creative process, but it shouldn't be the main tool.

"You have to know where to pick your battles with it," Trillo told the Times. "You kind of have to relinquish a bit of your free will in working with this thing and you kind of have to accept the nature of how chaotic it is."

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• Coffee is so popular that bean-growing crops are devastating the environment.
• So some companies are using biotechnology to create viable coffee alternatives.
• Some use beanless coffee made from other ingredients, while others are developing lab-grown coffee.

Your morning cup of joe might be missing a key ingredient in the future: coffee beans.

Coffee is so popular around the world that the vast crop requirements are devastating the environment. So some companies are seeking a more sustainable alternative.

A handful of them are already using biotechnology and food science to create viable coffee replacements, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Atomo, one of those companies, has launched a series of beanless products. Its Coachella Latte Blend is a ground espresso made from things like date seeds, lemon, and guava. A one-pound bag of the regular and decaf versions both retail for $15.99.

Other companies are relying on lab-grown cells from coffee plants, the Journal reported.

Demand for coffee remains high, with the National Coffee Association reporting in 2020 that the average American drinks "just over 3 cups per day." The Journal reported that people worldwide drink two billion cups of coffee daily.

This has led to mass deforestation, heightened carbon emissions, and low wages for the farmers who tend to the crops. The climate crisis is also making land typically suitable for coffee production unfit.

The coffee industry is also eyeing a possible price surge in the future as El Niño causes a drought in Vietnam, which produces the largest amount of the robusta coffee variety in the world, Bloomberg reported in April.

Beanless coffee and other alternatives might be a good solution to all these coffee woes. But much like the lab-grown and alternative meat industry, convincing consumers to try it might be the biggest challenge of all.

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• This post originally appeared in the Insider Today newsletter.
• You can sign up for Business Insider's daily newsletter here.

Hello! A submersible superyacht sounds like it should belong to a supervillain in an animated movie. But an Austrian company says it's a real possibility, and it's already in talks with potential buyers.

On the agenda:

• Silicon Valley is betting on a Goldman prodigy to build the city of the future.

• The more you earn, the harder it is to find a job right now.

• Big Tech has a big green-card problem.

• The hedge-fund industry's newest rock stars don't manage money.

But first: Why Wall Street is so happy to see the job market slowing down.

If this was forwarded to you, sign up here. Download Insider's app here.

This week's dispatch

Job market slowdown

The US economy added 175,000 jobs in April, falling short of expectations for the first time in six months and showing a steep drop from the revised 315,000 figure for March.

That sent stocks soaring and bond yields plunging. Why? A higher number had the potential to push any rate cuts from the Federal Reserve further out into the future. A lower number would signal cracks in economic growth and hint at stagflation.

Instead, investors took the not-too-high, not-too-low hiring numbers as a sign that the hoped for soft landing for the economy is still on the cards, despite sticky inflation.

"In our view, the softening trend in labor markets will make it easier for the Fed to cut rates," Brian Rose, a senior US economist at UBS Global Wealth Management, wrote.

While investors might be happy with the jobs numbers, they're likely to do little for the economic mood. Wage growth slowed while unemployment picked up. White-collar workers are finding it harder to get hired.

It's a reminder that good news for the stock market isn't always good news for workers.

Big Tech's urban hero

Jan Sramek quietly became the largest landowner in Solano County, a sparsely populated area wedged between Napa and Sacramento that he hopes will one day become California Forever.

Sramek, a former Goldman Sachs trader, is backed by a who's who of Silicon Valley billionaire investors. Tech barons from Reid Hoffman to Marc Andreessen are betting on him to make the city of the future — the question is whether he can pull it off.

Meet the man behind California Forever.

The white-collar recession

For people who've recently searched for a job, the market appears to be brutal.

That's especially true if you're a relatively high-earning worker. New data from Vanguard shows a two-tier job market: one divided between a blue-collar boom and a white-collar recession.

Why high-earners can't find work.

Also read:

10 things you should be negotiating every time you land a job offer, according to ex-Microsoft HR VP

Big Tech's green card problem

As competition dwindles and the green-card process gets tougher, some Big Tech companies are backing off green-card applications.

The situation is making it harder for foreign tech workers to stay in the US. One top immigration attorney said overseas candidates may want to search far beyond Silicon Valley and New York City for jobs in the industry.

More on that here.

Also read:

• Google says immigration rules are making it hard to hire top AI talent

• Here are the 25 startups that sponsor the most H-1B visas for immigrants looking for work

The portfolio-manager whisperers

The new power figures in hedge funds do not manage money. Instead, these business development professionals scout and evaluate investment talent.

These so-called BD roles, once an under-the-radar gig, have become coveted, multimillion-dollar jobs amid the war for talent.

Inside the rise of the business-development professional.

Also read:

• Citadel's stock-pickers lead the way in April — here's how hedge fund competitors fared

This week's quote:

"Satya (Nadella) and the entire senior leadership team lean on (Bill) Gates very significantly. His opinion is sought every time we make a major change."

– A Microsoft executive on Gates' continued presence.

More of this week's top reads:

• Endless Shrimp didn't kill Red Lobster. Wall Street did.

• Joseph Stiglitz explains why America's appetite for Trump endures.

• The US's major job hubs are now cities like Charleston and Hilton Head, South Carolina.

• Tesla tells the EV industry: Fend for yourselves.

• Quit hosting PowerPoint parties with your friends.

• Gen Z is outpacing boomers on income and millennials on home ownership.

• Biden used ChatGPT for the first time. Here's how that went.

  ---

  The Insider Today team: Matt Turner, deputy editor-in-chief, in New York. Jordan Parker Erb, editor, in New York. Dan DeFrancesco, deputy editor and anchor, in New York. Lisa Ryan, executive editor, in New York.

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