Scams & security

● Aliven.✎ 3

AI Voice Scam

A phone scam in which a cloned voice — a child, a grandchild, a boss — pleads for urgent money, made possible by cheap voice-cloning tools from 2023 and widespread enough by 2025 that families were advised to agree a safe word. The record's entry for the call that sounds exactly like her.

▸ 2023peak 2025still up

● Aliven.✎ 2

Quishing

Phishing by QR code — quishing — in which a sticker on a parking meter or a code in a PDF sends the phone to a fake login page, a crime that grew with the pandemic's QR menus and got its name in 2023. The record's entry for the square you should not have scanned, and for the worst word in security.

▸ 2023peak 2024still up

● Aliven.✎ 2

Task Scam

A job scam in which the 'work' is clicking to rate products or 'optimise' listings, small payments arrive to build trust, and then the tasks require deposits to unlock — the task scam — the fastest-growing job fraud of 2023 and 2024. The record's entry for the job that pays you first.

▸ 2023peak 2024still up

● Aliven.✎ 2

Rage Farming

Posting deliberately to provoke fury, because furious people reply, and replies are reach — rage farming — a term coined in January 2022 by researcher John Scott-Railton for what the algorithm rewards and politicians learned to supply. The record's entry for the outrage as a cash crop.

▸ 2022peak 2023still up

● Aliven.✎ 2

Hi Mum Scam

A message from an unknown number that says 'Hi Mum, I've lost my phone, this is my new number' and, shortly, needs a bill paid — the Hi Mum scam — a WhatsApp fraud of 2021 that spread through every country where parents love their children. The record's entry for the child who is not yours.

▸ 2021peak 2022still up

● Aliven.✎ 2

Wrong Number Scam

'Hi, is this Jenny from the dog groomer?' — the wrong number scam — a text from a stranger who apologises, keeps talking, and within a week is explaining how well their investments are doing. The opening move of pig butchering, and a genre of 2021 onwards. The record's entry for the friendliest wrong number you ever got.

▸ 2021peak 2023still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

Emotional Support Water Bottle

The enormous bottle carried everywhere as a comfort object as much as a vessel — the emotional support water bottle — named around 2020 and made a status object by 2023, when it acquired a handle, a straw and a colourway. The record's entry for the litre of water you carry to meetings and do not drink.

▸ 2020peak 2023still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

Cheapfake

A manipulated video made with cheap tools — slowing, cropping, re-captioning, selective editing — rather than AI, and named a cheapfake in a 2019 Data & Society report to point out that the low-tech version does most of the actual damage. The record's entry for the slowed-down clip.

▸ 2019peak 2024still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

Pig Butchering

A long-con investment fraud in which the victim is befriended, flattered and 'fattened' over weeks of chat before being led to a fake trading platform and slaughtered — pig butchering — translated from the Chinese scammers' own term and widespread in English by 2022. The record's entry for the scam that begins with 'sorry, wrong number'.

▸ 2019peak 2023still up

● Aliven.✎ 2

Seed Oils

Sunflower, canola, soybean and their relatives, recast by a corner of wellness Twitter as the cause of every modern illness — seed oils — a panic from about 2019 that reached restaurant menus and a health secretary by 2024, on evidence the nutritionists describe as thin. The record's entry for the villain in the bottle.

▸ 2019peak 2024still up

● Aliven.✎ 2

Engagement Farming

Posting whatever produces replies — polls, wrong opinions, 'name a better one', an image with an obvious mistake — to harvest engagement for reach or payouts — engagement farming — a practice with a name from 2018 and a business model from 2023, when X began paying for it. The record's entry for the field, and the crop.

▸ 2018peak 2024still up

☠ Deadphr.✎ 3

Alternative Facts

A falsehood re-described as an alternative fact — the phrase Kellyanne Conway used on live television in January 2017 to defend inauguration crowd claims — which became, within hours, the internet's shorthand for a lie with a press office. The record's entry for two words that lasted a news cycle and a presidency.

▸ 2017peak 2017†2021

● Alivephr.✎ 3

Misinformation vs Disinformation

The distinction the careful insist on: misinformation is false and shared in good faith; disinformation is false and shared on purpose — with 'malinformation' for true things shared to harm. A media-literacy framework of 2017 that became, by 2020, a thing people corrected each other about in replies. The record's entry for the difference.

▸ 2017peak 2020still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

SIM Swap

Persuading a phone company to move your number to the attacker's SIM, so that your two-factor codes arrive with them — the SIM swap — a crime of the late 2010s that hit the famous first and taught everyone else that SMS is not a lock. The record's entry for the phone that suddenly has no signal.

▸ 2016peak 2019still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 3

Chumbox

The grid of grotesque sponsored links at the bottom of news articles — 'Doctors Hate Her', 'You Won't Believe What She Looks Like Now' — the chumbox, named in a 2015 Awl essay after fishing bait, and the funding model of a good deal of journalism. The record's entry for the thumbnails you scrolled past for a decade.

▸ 2015peak 2016still up

● Aliven.✎ 2

Gift Card Scam

Any scam whose final step is 'go to the shop, buy gift cards and read me the numbers' — the gift card scam — the payment method of choice for tax, tech-support and boss-impersonation frauds from about 2015, because the cards are untraceable and the cashier rarely asks. The record's entry for the tax office that accepts iTunes.

▸ 2015peak 2021still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

Troll Farm

An office of paid humans posting as ordinary people to shift opinion — a troll farm — named in Adrian Chen's 2015 report on a St Petersburg building and central to every election post-mortem since. Unlike a bot farm, a troll farm employs people, which is why it is harder to spot and worse to think about. The record's entry for the shift work.

▸ 2015peak 2018still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 3

Webinar Funnel

A 'free training' that is in fact a ninety-minute sales pitch ending in a countdown timer and a payment page — the webinar funnel — the standard machinery of the online course business from about 2015, complete with fake 'live' sessions and a scarcity that resets weekly. The record's entry for the training that never started.

▸ 2015peak 2019still up

● Aliven.✎ 2

Wellness Influencer

A creator whose product is a life that looks healthy — smoothie bowls, supplements, retreats, the word 'holistic' — the wellness influencer, an Instagram type of 2015 who became, in 2020, a significant vector for misinformation about a pandemic. The record's entry for the tonic in the linen dress.

▸ 2015peak 2020still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

Bot Farm

A bank of automated accounts run from one place to like, follow, retweet and trend on demand — a bot farm — from the phone-rack photographs of 2014 to the platform purges of 2018 that made follower counts drop overnight. The record's entry for the racks of phones, and the engagement that was never real.

▸ 2014peak 2018still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

Data Broker

A company you have never heard of that buys, merges and sells what is known about you — a data broker — an industry older than the web but named and investigated in the 2010s, and the reason the 'delete me' services exist. The record's entry for the file on you, held by someone else, for sale.

▸ 2013peak 2024still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

Fake Giveaway

A post promising a car, a console or a doubled deposit if you like, share and follow — the fake giveaway — a Facebook page-farming trick from 2012 that graduated in 2018 to impersonated billionaires promising to send back double whatever you sent. The record's entry for the prize that was your engagement.

▸ 2012peak 2018still up

● Aliven.✎ 2

Cookie Banner

The box that asks you to accept cookies before every website — the cookie banner — a European legal requirement from 2011 that went global in May 2018 and has been clicked, unread, more times than anything else in human history. The record's entry for 'Accept All', and for the 'Manage Preferences' nobody has managed.

▸ 2011peak 2018still up

● Aliven.✎ 2

NoFap

An online community for abstaining from pornography and masturbation, founded on Reddit in June 2011 and grown by 2019 into a movement with an app, a merchandise line, a vocabulary of 'streaks' and 'relapses', and claims about benefits the evidence does not support. The record's entry, kept to the facts, for the streak counter.

▸ 2011peak 2019still up

● Aliven.✎ 2

Biohacking

Treating the body as a system to be optimised with supplements, gadgets, fasting, cold and data — biohacking — a word from 1980s garage biology that Dave Asprey attached to butter coffee in 2010 and Silicon Valley attached to itself by 2018. The record's entry for the man with the continuous glucose monitor and no illness.

▸ 2010peak 2018still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

Dark Pattern

Interface design built to trick — the pre-ticked box, the cancel button in grey, the 'No thanks, I hate saving money' — a dark pattern, named by UX designer Harry Brignull in 2010 and by 2023 the subject of regulation on two continents. The record's entry for the button you did not mean to press.

▸ 2010peak 2023still up

↺ Undeadn.✎ 2

Content Farm

A company producing thousands of cheap articles a day to catch searches and serve ads — the content farm — the eHow era of 2009 to 2011 that Google's Panda update supposedly killed, and which came back in 2023 with the writers replaced by language models. The record's entry for 'How to Boil Water' and its descendants.

▸ 2009peak 2011†2011

● Aliven.✎ 3

Sextortion

Blackmail using real or fabricated intimate images — sextortion — a word in press and legal use from 2009 that became an internet-safety emergency in the early 2020s when organised schemes began targeting teenagers over social media. The record's entry, kept factual, for the crime and the word.

▸ 2009peak 2023still up

● Aliven.✎ 2

Grandparent Scam

A phone fraud in which a caller claims to be a grandchild in trouble — arrested, hospitalised, stranded — and needs money sent quietly and now — the grandparent scam — running since the late 2000s and upgraded in the 2020s with cloned voices and couriers who come to the door. The record's entry for 'Grandma, it's me'.

▸ 2008peak 2023still up

● Aliven.✎ 2

Romance Scam

Fraud conducted through a fake romantic relationship, usually online, in which the beloved cannot meet, cannot video-call and urgently needs money — the romance scam — tracked by the FTC as its most expensive consumer fraud category by 2021. The record's entry for the oil-rig engineer who loves you.

▸ 2008peak 2021still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

Tech Support Scam

A fraud in which 'Microsoft' phones to say your computer has a virus, or a pop-up screams it, and the fix requires remote access and a fee — the tech support scam — cold-calling since 2008 and, since the mid-2010s, a YouTube genre in which people scam the scammers back. The record's entry for the call about your Windows.

▸ 2008peak 2016still up

● Aliven.✎ 2

Smishing

Phishing by text message — smishing — a word coined in 2006 for a crime that stayed marginal until the 2020s, when every phone in the world began receiving parcels it had not ordered and tolls it had not driven through. The record's entry for the link you should not tap.

▸ 2006peak 2023still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

Vishing

Phishing by phone call — vishing — in which a person claiming to be your bank, your tax office or your own IT department talks you through handing over what they need. Named in 2006, industrialised by call centres, and lately augmented by cloned voices. The record's entry for the call you should hang up on.

▸ 2006peak 2020still up

● Alivev.✎ 2

Fact-Check

To verify a claim against the record, and to publish the result with a rating — fact-check — a newsroom practice that became a genre in 2003, a website industry by 2010, and a platform label by 2020, at which point being fact-checked became something people were angry about. The record's entry for the verb, and the pushback.

▸ 2003peak 2020still up

▲ Fossiln.✎ 4

Mafiaboy

The handle of Michael Calce, a fifteen-year-old who used distributed denial-of-service attacks to take Yahoo, eBay, CNN, Amazon and Dell offline over a week in February 2000. It was the first time the general public learnt that a teenager could switch off the biggest sites on the web. The record's entry for the week the internet met its own fragility.

▸ 2000peak 2000†2000

● Aliven.✎ 3

Snopes

The internet's original urban-legend reference desk, founded in 1994 to debunk email hoaxes, kidney thieves and Mr Rogers' military career — Snopes — which became a general fact-checker in the 2010s and, in 2016, a target. The record's entry for the site you were sent before you forwarded that.

▸ 1994peak 2016still up

◐ Dyingadj.✎ 2

Post-Truth

Describing a public sphere in which feeling outweighs fact — post-truth — coined by Steve Tesich in 1992, revived by a 2004 book, and made Oxford's word of the year in 2016 after a year of referendums and elections that seemed to prove it. The record's entry for the adjective everyone used for eighteen months.

▸ 1992peak 2016still up