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Good morning. Welcome to our first Saturday edition. Today is about telling a real opportunity from a con. I grade the “make money with AI” pitches filling my YouTube feed, then show how a subscriber I know used AI to catch a fake car listing before sending a dime.
AI INSIGHT
The "Make Money With AI" Pitch, Graded
If you watch YouTube, you've seen the pitch: AI will build you an income while you sleep. I see these constantly, including from a few "AI experts" I actually follow. My honest take? Some of it works. But a lot of the people getting rich are the ones selling the course.
Here's my report card.
F: "Done-for-you" AI stores and AI agency "licenses." The FTC shut down three store schemes in 2024; customers of just one, Ascend Ecom, lost at least $25 million. In March it banned Air AI's owners from selling business opportunities. The shared red flag: a "guaranteed" refund that never came.
D: AI-written ebooks. Amazon got so flooded it capped self-publishers at three new titles a day. Volume isn't a business.
C-: Prompt packs. Mostly things you could ask AI yourself, for free.
B: Building something real, with AI as your help. A newsletter, a local service, a small product built on what you already know. It's slow, and it can pay off over time. This newsletter started exactly that way.
A: AI as your thinking partner. Nobody sells this one, because it's nearly free. AI has helped me think through problems, pressure-test ideas, and change direction more than once before I sank time into the wrong one. Your experience is the asset. AI helps you aim it.
The catch: even the B version takes months, not a weekend.
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AI TUTORIAL
Spot a Fake Listing Before You Send a Dime
Someone I know, who's also a subscriber, found a 2007 Toyota FJ Cruiser on Craigslist for $3,900. The seller had a suggestion: "Maybe you can put a small deposit." To hold it, of course. She ran the ad and the texts past Gemini first. It called the scam before she sent a cent.
Two details sealed it. The same truck, matched by VIN, was listed at a real Louisiana dealer for $16,990. And the ad mentioned a timing job the FJ's engine doesn't need, because it uses a timing chain, not a belt. You'd never catch that. AI did.
Here's her method, so you can run it on any listing:
➊ Screenshot the ad and every text, right now. Listings vanish. Gemini found a matching listing in Boise, since deleted.
➋ Paste the ad, the price, and the conversation into ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini, and ask for the red flags.
➌ Ask it to check the seller's specific claims (mileage, repairs, title) against how that model actually works.
➍ Ask it to search the VIN and photos for the same vehicle listed somewhere else.
➎ Verify the specifics with a second AI or a VIN history report before you act on them or repeat them.
Try This With AI What it does: Turns a too-good-to-be-true listing into a plain list of red flags, a fair price, and one test message a scammer can't pass.
"Act as a fraud investigator who specializes in online marketplace scams. I'm thinking about buying this [item]. Here is the listing, the asking price, and my conversation with the seller: [paste everything]. List every red flag you see and explain why each one matters. Check the seller's specific claims against how this [make and model] actually works. Tell me a fair market price, and give me the exact message to send the seller that a real seller would accept and a scammer would not."
Customize it: Swap in the [item] and [make and model], then paste the full listing and every message where it says [paste everything]. |
If it does not work: A vague "be careful buying online" answer means it didn't get enough to work with. Paste the full listing and the exact texts, not a summary. And watch confident specifics: Gemini also named a past dealer for this truck that a second check couldn't confirm. Trust the verdict. Verify the details.
What this doesn't fix: AI can tell you a deal smells wrong. It can't prove a seller is real. Only the vehicle, the title, and the seller in person can do that.
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NEWS YOU CAN USE
This Matters at Home
Short, practical summaries to help you stay updated on recent AI news—and what it means for everyday life.
🤖 ChatGPT's Free Version Just Got a Lot More Useful. Free ChatGPT users now get GPT-6 and a new interface that builds calculators, bill splitters, and charts right in the chat. No fancy prompts needed.
🍔 McDonald's AI Is Quietly Deciding What Your Big Mac Costs. A Reuters investigation found McDonald's uses AI to set prices restaurant by restaurant, so the same Big Mac can cost 21 percent more two miles away.
💼 11 Million Workers May Need a New Career by 2035. A new McKinsey report says office and retail jobs face the biggest AI squeeze. Warning signs include low pay, customer-facing work, and no backup credential.
🍪 That Online Recipe May Be AI-Made Nonsense. AI "Frankenstein recipes" splice ingredients and steps from different sites, and nobody tests them. Red flags: oddly exact measurements like 1.35 teaspoons and suspiciously shiny photos.
🎧 Audible Now Lets You Chat With Dracula's Henchman. Audible's new AI beta lets listeners talk with characters, starting with Renfield from Dracula, just in time for Halloween. Your book club just got weirder.
REAL WORLD
How We Used AI This Week
Real people, real uses—here’s how AI is quietly making life better, one small win at a time.
🔧 Steve D., from Stoke Orchard, Gloucestershire, England. When his boiler's control panel quit, the experts who visited all said the same thing: it's old, replace it, roughly £3,500 (about $4,600). Steve disagreed. Over a few weeks he worked the problem with ChatGPT day and night, mixing its advice with his own know-how. He found the cause: a technician had miswired the boiler on an earlier visit and damaged a small circuit board. A new board and a bit of solder later, it works. Total cost: £109 (about $145).
READER POLL
Has a seller ever asked you for a deposit to "hold" something you hadn't seen yet?
TOOLS FOR YOU
🕵️ Tool Spotlight: Incogni
Scammers rarely guess your phone number. They buy it. Data brokers sell names, addresses, and relatives' details to almost anyone, and that's how a fake seller or a fake grandkid finds you. Incogni sends removal requests to those brokers for you, re-sends them when your data reappears, and shows your progress. It won't make you invisible, but it shrinks the target. Start here.
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