Technology

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• In 2024, Americans lost $12.5 billion to scams, up $2.5bn year-on-year
• Scams originating online outperformed more traditional methods
• The elderly are no longer the ones losing most money

American citizens lost $12.5 billion to different kinds of fraud in 2024, a new report from the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has claimed, meaning the number is up by $2.5 billion compared to the year before.

Fraud is not getting more frequent, the FTC says, but it is getting more expensive. One in three people who reported fraud in 2024 said they lost money, up from one in four last year.

Of the $12.5 billion, a huge chunk (more than $3 billion) came from scams that originated online, heavily outpacing the roughly $1.9 billion lost to more traditional scams (phone calls, for example). Phone calls, however, led to higher total losses, with victims losing a median of $1,500 per person, and scams going through bank transfers and payments accounted for $2 billion in losses, more than any other payment method. Cryptocurrency scams came in second with $1.4 billion drained.

Investment scams

Investment scams were the real money-makers for fraudsters, FTC further said, with four in five (79%) people who reported an investment scam actually losing money. The median loss was north of $9,000. Total losses from investment scams hit $5.7 billion, a $1 billion increase from last year.

Social media continues to be a major risk factor, as well, with seven in ten people who were contacted by scammers on social platforms losing money. Total losses through these platforms reached $1.9 billion, it was said.

One particular scam format - fake jobs - skyrocketed over the last half a decade. Between 2020 and 2024, reports nearly tripled, and losses ballooned from $90 million to $501 million.

Interestingly enough, the older generation is no longer the one losing most money. Those aged 20-29 reported losing money more often than any other age group. However, the elderly (70+) suffered far worse financial damage than any other demographic.

Via BleepingComputer

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• A leaker claims Indiana Jones and the Great Circle will launch on April 17 for PS5
• Preorders open on March 25 and there will be a Standard and Premium Edition to choose from
• Preordering the Premium Edition will allow two days early access

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is reportedly coming to PlayStation 5 next month.

That's according to the reliable leaker Billbil-kun for French outlet Dealabs, who claims that after a few months of Xbox and PC exclusivity, MachineGames' first-person action-adventure game will finally be released for PS5 on April 17, 2025 (via Eurogamer).

The game was recently spotted on the ESRB website and a French user on X / Twitter also spotted a PS5 listing that originally mentioned a May 30 release date before the same user said it was changed to April 17, days later.

Billbil-kun claims that the PS5 version will be up for preorder on March 25, 2025, in Europe and that there will be two versions of the game available at launch, including a Standard and Premium Edition.

The leaker was unable to find any information about a potential PS5 Collector's Edition.

Billbil-kun has a strong previous track record of PlayStation-related leak accuracy so this is definitely one to take notice of.

Just like the Xbox and PC versions, players who preorder the Premium Edition will be able to play Indiana Jones and the Great Circle two days early, on April 15.

It's also said that both the Standard and Premium Editions will be available as physical copies and be priced the same as the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S versions.

So this means the Standard will cost $69.99 / £69.99 / €79.99, while the more expensive Premium Edition will cost $99.99 / £99.99 / €109.99.

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• OpenAI throws its hat into the AI agent ring
• New tools include Responses API and Agents SDK
• Several new tools also launched to make its agents smarter and more effective

OpenAI has launched its bid to lead the AI agent race with the release of several new tools, including an agent builder platform, aimed at bringing the technology to more businesses than ever before.

The company has revealed a host of new tools which it says will help its platform to evolve and, “help developers and enterprises build useful and reliable agents,” providing, "the first building blocks for developers and enterprises".

The new releases include Responses API, several new built-in tools including web and file search functions, and a new Agents SDK (software development kit) looking to help streamlining the building of agents.

New APIs, and new tools to boot

“We believe agents will soon become integral to the workforce, significantly enhancing productivity across industries,” an OpenAI blog post announcing the news stated. “As companies increasingly seek to leverage AI for complex tasks, we're committed to providing the building blocks that enable developers and enterprises to effectively create autonomous systems that deliver real-world impact.”

“Our goal is to give developers a seamless platform experience for building agents that can help with a variety of tasks across any industry.”

The new Responses API builds on several of the company’s existing services, with OpenAI saying it, “combines the simplicity of Chat Completions with the tool-use capabilities of the Assistants API.”

The aim, unsurprisingly, is to make building agents much quicker and more straightforward for developers, allowing them to solve complex tasks with multiple models, without the complexity of integrating multiple APIs or external providers.

These will be supported by a number of new built-in tools which should make the agents themselves smarter and more effective.

These include web search, which can quickly provide up-to-date answers from web-based sources, file search, which does the same, but with the file library on your device or within your business, and computer use, which enables agents to complete tasks typically done on a computer, such as automatically diagnosing and fixing technical issues, or everyday tasks like scheduling meetings or handling emails.

For those developers or businesses which want that extra level of customization and personalization, the new Agents SDK allows them to build single and multi-agent workflows to their exact requirements.

OpenAI says the open source platform can offer greater power and flexibility than its previous Swarm tool, making it ideal for tasks such as customer support automation, multi-step research, content generation, code review, and sales prospecting.

Developers will be able to integrate Agents SDK into their Python codebases, and will work with models from other providers which provide a Chat Completions style API endpoint.

All the new services are available now to OpenAI subscribers at no extra cost, with the company promising additional tools and capabilities soon.

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• Severance star Dichen Lachman doesn't know when filming will begin on season 3
• Director/producer Ben Stiller has confirmed its scripts are being written
• Lachman hopes to find out when it'll start shooting before the end of March

It appears that Severance actor Dichen Lachman has more in common with her character Gemma/Ms. Casey than we realized.

Indeed, speaking exclusively to TechRadar, Lachman revealed she had no idea when filming on the hugely popular Apple TV Original's third season will commence. That's in spite of the sci-fi mystery thriller's director/producer Ben Stiller confirming that work is underway of season 3's scripts.

Hope springs eternal, though, for anyone who might be disappointed by that update. With the final episode of Severance season 2 set to debut on March 21, Lachman said she's due to attend a post-season 2 finale event in LA on March 22. She hopes, then, to learn more about Severance season 3's filming schedule in the near future.

Please try to enjoy this disappointing season 3 filming update, everyone (Image credit: Apple TV Plus)

"I'm so in the dark!" Lachman told me with a smile. "I'm very much like Gemma in that respect. It's like art imitating life that's imitating art. I'm very separated from the rest of the cast. You know, most of them live in New York, but I'm here in London.

"I'm sure there's stuff going on, but I'm not like privy to it," Lachman added. "Maybe when I see them in late March, I'll get some little tidbits. But yeah, I don't have any insider information."

When will Severance season 2 episodes 9 and 10 be released on Apple TV+?

Will Gemma be rescued from her Lumon purgatory in season 2's final two episodes? (Image credit: Apple TV Plus)

We don't know when principal photography will start on Severance's third season, but we do know when season 2's last couple of episodes will air on Apple TV+.

If you're in the US, you'll be able to watch episode 9 on one of the world's best streaming services at 6PM PT / 9PM ET on Thursday, March 13. The season 2 finale will be released at the same time one week later, too – i.e., at 6PM PT / 9PM ET on Thursday, March 20.

UK viewers can tune into season 2's last two episodes at 1AM GMT on March 14 and March 21. That's an hour earlier than this season's first eight episodes, which is down to the clocks going forward in the US.

As for Australian fans, one of the best Apple TV+ shows' next two chapters will be available from 12PM AEDT on March 14 and March 21.

I'm expecting season 2's final two installments to be explosive and shocking affairs – and you can bet that I'll be covering them in-depth once they've launched on Apple's streaming service. So, be sure to check back in with TechRadar this Friday and the next for a breakdown (and more theories!) about one of 2025's hottest TV shows.

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• Nvidia RTX 5060 has been spotted in a French retailer’s product listing
• That product page is for an Acer gaming PC, and it gives us a couple of specs
• The RTX 5060 is (once again) shown to purportedly have 8GB of video RAM, and it’s GDDR7 memory

Nvidia’s RTX 5060 GPU has been sighted in a retailer’s product listing of an Acer desktop PC, adding another rumor to the growing pile of speculation that these are the next Blackwell models to launch (perhaps very soon).

VideoCardz reports that regular leaker @momomo_us on X noticed the listing at a French retailer, EvoPC.

It’s a product page for an Acer Nitro N50 gaming PC (still live, at the time of writing) which has an RTX 5060 graphics card, and we get a couple of small spec details about this GPU too.

Obviously regard all of this with a sizeable helping of skepticism, but the RTX 5060 is listed as having 8GB of VRAM and the type of memory is shown as GDDR7.

It’s already been rumored that Nvidia will use GDDR7 video RAM for all its Blackwell graphics cards – save perhaps for the RTX 5050, if the desktop version does indeed exist, as claimed – so this tallies with existing rumors. As does the allocation of 8GB of VRAM for the RTX 5060, for that matter.

(Image credit: Pexels) Analysis: Another round of the video RAM blues?

Another rumor pointing to 8GB of video RAM for the vanilla RTX 5060 is going to cause groans from gamers who weren’t impressed that the RTX 4060 stuck at this level, let alone its successor. But it’d hardly be a surprise given that the RTX 5070 also maintained 12GB of video memory (again, to the disappointment of many).

Nvidia may argue that this new GDDR7 RAM is much faster – and it is, for sure – and that the company has tricks up its sleeve to make leaner VRAM loadouts work better (such as RTX Neural Texture Compression). The trouble with those AI boosts is that they won’t apply across the board – they’re only for supported games – and so the overall picture of where we’ll end up with this eventually is muddy.

I suspect, however, like many out there, that Nvidia is underequipping the RTX 5060 (and the 5070) VRAM-wise, for any real level of future-proofing anyway.

As you may recall, Nvidia is supposedly keeping the same formula as Lovelace for the RTX 5060 Ti, too, meaning there’ll theoretically be both 8GB and 16GB spins on that GPU (and again, the latter will offer more VRAM than its higher-tier sibling, the RTX 5070). So, for those who do want a better level of protection against the VRAM blues, there should hopefully be the RTX 5060 Ti 16GB – albeit with the prospect of it exacting a less-than-fair toll on your wallet. (Bearing firmly in mind that all this is rumors, of course).

The grapevine also reckons that the RTX 5060 and 5060 Ti might be revealed in March, very soon – perhaps even later this week, or early next week – and these GPUs could go on sale later in March, or in April, when we might see the RTX 5050, too. The hope is that the latter could be a truly wallet-friendly Blackwell graphics card, fingers crossed.

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• The Last of Us creator Neil Druckmann has revealed that Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet will be about "faith and religion"
• The team spent years developing "this new religion" that takes place on one planet
• Druckmann said the player will crash land on this planet and need to figure out how to escape, saying, "I want you to be lost in a place that you're really confused about what happened here"

Naughty Dog co-president Neil Druckmann has revealed new details about the studio's new game Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet.

In an almost one-hour-long Sony 'Creator to Creator' discussion, Druckmann, alongside 28 Years Later director Alex Garland, sat down to discuss their mutual inspirations and their respective process in how they each tackle their creative process.

On the topic of Naughty Dog's next major title Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, Druckmann revealed that it will take place "2000 years in an alternate future that deviates in the late 80s". The game director then joked that the game will receive less hate than the divisive The Last of Us: Part 2, since it's about "faith and religion".

"I joke about this with the team," Druckmann said, "With The Last of Us 2, we made certain creative decisions that got us a lot of hate. A lot of people love it, but a lot of people hate that game," to which Garland said, "Who gives a sh*t."

"Exactly. But the joke is like, you know what, let's do something that people won't care as much about. Let's make a game about faith and religion," Druckmann said.

Speaking more on the game's narrative, Druckmann added, "So there is not only in this alternate history timeline, we've made this - where the where the timeline deviates - this new religion becomes pretty prominent and then we spend years just building out this religion like from the original prophet all the way [to] how it gets like changed and sometimes bastardised and evolves over all these years."

Druckmann continued, revealing that this religion takes place on one planet until, one day, all communication suddenly stops. The playable character and bounty hunter, Jordan A Mun, who is chasing her bounty, eventually crash lands on this planet alone and is left to figure out how to escape.

On top of tackling faith and religion, Druckmann said that he wanted to also focus on isolation.

"So many of the previous games we've done there's always like an ally with you," he said. "I really want you to be lost in a place that you're really confused about what happened here, [about] who are the people here, what was their history, and in order to get off this planet like, again no one has been heard from this planet for 600 years, so if you ever have hoped to have a chance to get off you have to figure out what happened here."

Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet doesn't have a release date just yet, but we can expect the game to get a PS5 launch.

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• PwC study finds more than half of investors predict global economic growth
• They want businesses to invest more in upskilling - especially around AI
• Environmental factors still influence decisions

The business world has high expectations for generative AI tools in the year ahead, with hopes specifically that efficiency and business growth will see positive impacts, new research has claimed.

PwC’s recent survey of investors and analysts revealed around three-quarters (74%) believe the tech will boost productivity, outpacing the global average of 66%, which means that three in five now anticipate increased profitability.

More broadly, investors appear to be optimistic about the broader economic outlook, with more than half (53%) anticipating global economic growth over the next 12 months.

AI is driving economic growth after all

The figures mirror another recent PwC study of company CEOs, 61% of whom expect to see global economic growth this year.

Artificial intelligence’s impacts aren’t just limited to financial benefits, though; scaling the business (61%), measuring ROI (42%), shaping stakeholder perception (43%) and enhancing workforce impact (43%) were also noted as the tech’s biggest opportunities.

“GenAI has been a game changer for businesses worldwide, but investors now expect it to deliver real, measurable value," noted PwC UK Asset & Wealth Management Leader Albertha Charles.

Looking ahead, investors are more keen for companies to upskill their workforce (77%) than deploy artificial intelligence at scale (72%), highlighting the crucial role human workers are to play in the AI revolution.

Charles added: “As AI adoption accelerates, investors will be watching closely to see how leaders balance technology with upskilling their workforce to unlock meaningful gains in profit and productivity.”

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• Design company AndoAndoAndo released a turntable-inspired wrist watch
• The design takes inspiration from the classic Technics SL-1200
• Shipping rolls out in April, but the collection is limited to only 30 pieces

Design company AndoAndoAndo is taking the Hamilton Brothers' funky bop Music Makes the World Go Round quite seriously in its upcoming release of wrist watches, which are an ode one of the world's best turntables. The company’s latest creative venture takes the legendary DJ turntable, the Technics SL-1200, and reimagines it as an automatic wrist watch for music and vinyl fans alike – making it the tiniest turntable I’ve ever seen (albeit one that can't actually spin a tune), and it’s kind of adorable.

Powered by Miyota 9039 Premium automatic movement, the watch is a tiny replica of the legendary DJ turntable which uses a tiny vinyl record as the clock face. Its attention to detail is admirable, going the distance to avoid including numbers in its design and instead using a distinct pattern of dots to indicate the hours, minutes, and seconds. And again, no it can’t spin actual vinyl records nor play music of any kind, but that would be very impressive wouldn’t it?

The larger red disc with the letter 'A' points to the current hour. The smaller red disc indicates seconds past which, when the text returns to its original position, marks the beginning of a new minute. (Image credit: AndoAndoAndo)

It’s a unique take on a classic deck (and a chance to wear your analog-loving heart on your wrist), however it may take some getting used to when it comes to deciphering the actual time – and its designer, Yu Ando, seemingly agrees. When referring to the watch’s minute hand in the product description online, Ando writes: "Yes it's not straight, it's not pointing (to) the minute marker straight, but so you can interpret it in your own way". OK – I still want one.

The minute hand is designed to replicate the turntable’s tonearm, hence its slightly bent shape, and sitting on top of the vinyl record are two spinning discs; a large one with the letter ‘A’ that points to the current hour, and a smaller one that shows the seconds past, which can be difficult to read – although Ando has stated that when the text on the disc is level and back to its original position, that indicates that the zero second has begun.

The watch is available to preorder now, and is available in three different finishes; red, black, and silver, or gold and black both for $438 (which is around £350 or AU$697), or a slightly pricier all-gold version at $455. Shipping will be processed in April, but according to the AndoAndoAndo website there’ll only be 30 pieces made for this edition – so it’s a very limited run indeed.

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• Asus has launched three new monitors using its new built-in air ionizer technology
• Asus claims it removes up to 90% of airborne dust in indoor environments
• One of the monitors is a WQHD ultrawide, which uses a VA panel for better contrast

Asus is shaking things up with its monitors, not only by focusing on high refresh rates and good response times but also by introducing an innovative feature that aims to improve indoor air quality - and it may be something that other monitors should copy.

As highlighted by Notebookcheck, Asus has launched three new monitors under the VU series: the VU249HFI-W (24-inch), VU279HFI-W (27-inch), and the VU34WCIP-W (34-inch WQHD ultrawide), all of which maintain a 100Hz refresh rate and 1ms MPRT response time - but these aren't just any ordinary monitors - they take advantage of Asus' new built-in air ionizer design.

Asus claims this removes up to 90% of airborne dust, leading to fresher air which could be highly beneficial for office spaces and gaming setups. This is possible thanks to 'Innovative Nano-Ion Technology' that does not require a filter, and instead uses negative ions to eliminate dust, pollen, and allergens - essentially, these monitors will draw air in from their rear to refine your room's air quality.

Both the VU249HFI-W and the VU279HFI-W use IPS panels, which are bright and designed for greater color accuracy - however, the VU34WCIP-W will use a VA panel, which is better for higher contrast ratios and response times (it's still 1ms MPRT in this case) including VRR (Variable Refresh Rate) to ensure that the refresh rate matches the frame rate of gaming or video content.

The specifications of these new monitors may not be the best when compared to other high-end displays from Asus, but it’s still good enough to cater to productivity, gaming, and video content uses. It’s also a good way for Asus to test its new technology on a monitor without all the bells and whistles (at a low cost), with hopes that it becomes a newfound success that inspires other manufacturers to follow suit.

(Image credit: Asus) Now, just use this technology on gaming monitors, and I'll be happy

It might be easy to dismiss Asus' efforts here as simply a gimmick, especially if you're more excited about improvements in terms of display quality - but I'd argue this is a great innovation.

I'm fully aware that there is a chance it won't be widely adopted by Asus for its other monitors or by other manufacturers - but this could help reduce the dust buildup I'm sure we all hate with our desktop setups. If this saves me from having to regularly clean my desktop (and the desk itself), then I’d be very interested in using one of these monitors in the future.

Price and availability are currently dependent on your region, but the standout choice for me, the VU34WCIP-W model, is currently available at various US retailers for $359 (around £280 / AU$570).

Ultrawide monitors with 3440x1440 resolutions have always been my go-to for productivity and gaming - and don't get me wrong, I'd never choose this over my Alienware AW3423DWF QD-OLED or the PG49WCD super ultrawide monitor Asus sent me for testing, but it has me hoping this can somehow be used for gaming monitors. Let's just hope the air-purifying quality is good enough (and therefore proves popular enough with consumers) to make that a reality.

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• Two US healthcare firms confirmed suffering a cyberattack
• More than 300,000 victims have had sensitive data stolen
• Rhysida claimed responsibility for the attack and added the data to its leak site

Ransomware operators Rhysida are claiming responsibility for cyberattacks on two US healthcare organizations.

On its data leak site, they listed Sunflower Medical Group, and Community Care Alliance (CCA). The former is a healthcare provider in the Kansas City metropolitan area offering services such as primary care, urgent care, pediatrics, and more. The latter is a unified human service agency offering more than 50 programs.

Combined, it seems that more than 300,000 people have had their sensitive data compromised as a result of these attacks.

No abuse yet

In a public announcement posted on its website, Sunflower said that the attackers broke into the systems on December 15, but were only spotted and ousted a month later, around January 7.

During that time, they stole people’s names, addresses, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers, medical information, and health insurance information. In a filing with the Maine Attorney General’s Office, Sunflower said 220,968 people were affected.

CCA, on the other hand, was struck in July last year, and claims that the miscreants took people’s names, addresses, dates of birth, driver's license numbers, and SSNs, as well as diagnoses and conditions, lab results, medications, patient ID numbers, health insurance information, provider names, and other data. Its filing with the Maine Attorney General’s Office puts the number of affected people at 114,945.

As for Rhysida, the ransomware operators claim to have 7.6 TB worth of Sunflower’s data, including a 3TB SQL database, The Register reports. Since the data is still listed on the site, it means either that the negotiations are ongoing, or that they’ve broken down.

In any case, Rhysida is yet to leak everything on the dark web, and at press time, there was no indication of abuse in the wild. Both organizations said they tightened up on security following the incident.

Via The Register

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