The sketchy hospital letter that turned out to be real, a deepfake you can't report, and the Windows bug eating your drive

Two stories this week hit on the same question: is this real, or is somebody fooling me? One is a hospital breach letter that looks exactly like a scam but is completely genuine. The other is a phone call from your bank that looks completely genuine but is a scam. The same thirty-second habit sorts out both, and it shows up twice below.

In this issue:

• The sketchy hospital letter that turned out to be real
• What data brokers actually sell, and California's new delete button
• What do you do when an AI deepfake has your face?
• The Windows 11 bug that fills your hard drive while you watch
• Start using a password manager
• This week's tech tip: copy text straight out of any photo

And the Scary Headline of the week: Apple is warning about a FaceTime scam, and the scary part is not FaceTime.

That sketchy letter from your hospital might be real
About 18,600 Rochester Regional patients got a breach notice from a company they had never heard of, naming a hospital that does not exist. It hit every scam marker, so plenty of people threw it away. It was real. The breach was at Xsolis, a records vendor holding files on 1.4 million patients nationwide, still sitting on Rochester records five years after that hospital stopped using it. Here is the habit worth building, and it covers your bank and your insurer too: never call the number printed on the letter. Look the hospital up yourself, on a bill you already have or its real website, and ask whether they sent it. A scammer can fake a letter. He cannot get your actual hospital to vouch for it.

News

Data brokers have a file on you. California is making them delete it.
Data brokers assemble and sell a file on you: where you live, what you buy, and what they infer about your health and your money. California's Delete Act creates one request that brokers have to honor and keep honoring, and they have to start processing those on August 1. If you live somewhere else, the free opt-outs at the biggest brokers still cover most of the ground, and the post lists them. Skip the paid removal services. They mostly resell work you can do yourself in an afternoon.

Learn

What do you do when an AI deepfake has your face?
A New Orleans pediatrician found himself starring in TikTok ads for a supplement he had never heard of, wearing a lab coat with his own name on it. Taking them down took months, and what worked in the end was a journalist friend making a phone call. The report buttons are the trap: they were built for fake accounts impersonating you, which is a different thing from a real account posting AI video of your face. YouTube is the one platform whose form covers content that looks or sounds like you, so that is where a report actually goes somewhere. Everywhere else, the cleanup firms quote nine to twenty thousand dollars.

Learn

Windows 11 has a disk-eating bug. Tuesday's update fixes it.
A recent Windows 11 update let a hidden system file grow with no limit until it filled the drive, hundreds of gigabytes in the worst cases. Microsoft's July update stops it and cleans up the runaway file on its own. If your PC started warning you about low space this month, install that update and let it sort itself out. If space is still tight afterward, the post walks you through finding the culprit by hand.

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Start using a password manager
One password you can remember, used across several accounts, is the most common way ordinary people get broken into. A password manager keeps a different strong password for every site and fills them in for you, so the only one you have to know is the one that opens it. Start with the manager already built into your phone and browser. It is free, it is good, and the best one is the one you will actually use. If your hesitation is getting locked out of the manager itself, the post answers that directly.

Learn

If you only read one: the password manager. It is the single habit here that protects every other account you own, and most people can have it done in one evening.

5-Minute Tech Tip

Your phone can pull text straight out of a photo, no retyping. Photograph the wifi password on the back of the router, a serial number off the bottom of a laptop, or a page of a book, then tap and hold the words to select and copy them like any other text. On iPhone it is built into the camera and Photos. On Android it is Google Lens inside Google Photos. Five minutes to learn, and then you will use it constantly: Your phone can copy text out of any photo.

Scary Headline of the Week

"Apple warns iPhone users about a dangerous new FaceTime scam."

Apple did update its guidance this month, after scammers started working FaceTime into their impersonation schemes. Here is the part the headline buries: there is nothing wrong with FaceTime. No bug, no hack. This is the old bank-impersonation scam wearing a new coat. A text warns of suspicious activity on your account, then an unexpected FaceTime call from someone claiming to be your bank pressures you into reading back a verification code or installing remote-access software. The live video is the only new trick, and it works because seeing a face makes the pressure feel real.

The tells are the same as any phishing attempt: contact you did not expect, a rush, and a request for a code or a password.

Verdict: real and growing, and the defense is the same one from the top of this issue. Hang up and call back on a number you looked up yourself. Apple will never ask you for your Apple Account password, your device passcode, or a two-factor code, and neither will your bank.

Seen a headline this week that scared you? Reply and send it. It might get next week's verdict.

The Cache: everything free in one place

Most of you joined in the last week, so you may not know this exists. The Cache is where all the free FFC guides live: how to spot a scam, how to spot a phishing email, how to fix a slow computer, and a worksheet for getting your important accounts written down before somebody needs them. No forms, nothing to buy, and your subscription already covers it. Open the Cache, and send one to somebody who needs it.

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Joel