Sorry Anker: JMGO now makes my favorite flagship portable projector.
Technology
How scammers target grieving victims through online games
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For many people, games like Words With Friends are a relaxing way to pass the time. You play a few rounds, chat with opponents and enjoy a little mental exercise. But scammers have quietly turned these casual games into hunting grounds.
They look for players who appear friendly, are older, or are recently widowed. Then they start a conversation. At first, it feels harmless. A compliment. A friendly message. A question about where you live.
Weeks later, the conversation often shifts to money. Angela from Lake Mary, MN, recently wrote to us about a situation that has her entire family worried.
“My sister, who lost her Doctor husband of 56 years 1.5 years ago, is communicating with a man she met on an internet game, “Words with Friends”. She is buying him gift cards and giving him the number so he can cash them. My nephews took her to their local police dept and they told her it’s a scam! Dangerous and to STOP. She doesn’t believe anyone!!! Is there a way to find out where these emails and texts are coming from??? We are very concerned! Hope you have some advice.” Angela, Lake Mary, MN
Angela’s situation is heartbreaking. Sadly, it is also very common. Authorities consider these romance scams. They cost victims billions each year. According to the Federal Trade Commission, romance scams remain one of the most expensive fraud categories reported by consumers.
NEW FBI WARNING REVEALS PHISHING ATTACKS HITTING PRIVATE CHATS
Scammers are using casual word games like Words With Friends to target older and grieving players, often turning friendly chats into costly gift card fraud. (Anastasiia Havrysh/Getty Images)
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How the Words With Friends scam usually begins
Scammers often start inside casual apps where conversation feels natural. Games like Words With Friends allow players to chat during matches. That simple feature creates the perfect entry point for criminals.
The pattern often follows the same steps. First, the scammer begins a friendly conversation during a game. Next, they ask to move the conversation to email, text or a messaging app. Then they begin building emotional trust. Many claim to be widowed, traveling for work or working overseas.
Eventually, a crisis appears. They claim they need help paying a bill, fixing a problem or buying supplies. Finally, they ask for money through gift cards. Once the gift card numbers are sent, the money is usually gone.
Why gift cards are a major warning sign
Gift cards are one of the biggest red flags in scams. Criminals prefer them because they are fast and difficult to trace. Once someone shares the numbers on the back of the card, the scammer can redeem the balance immediately.
There is almost no way to recover the money after that. Legitimate people do not ask strangers or online acquaintances for gift cards. If someone you met online asks for them, treat it as a serious warning sign.
Can you find where the emails or texts are coming from?
Angela asked whether it is possible to trace the messages. Sometimes it is. Often it is difficult. Scammers work hard to hide their identity and location.
They often use:
- VoIP numbers such as Google Voice
- Email accounts created specifically for scams
- VPN services that hide their true location
Because of this, a message may appear to come from the United States even if the scammer is overseas. Still, there are a few steps that can sometimes uncover clues.
Check the full email headers for clues
If the communication is happening by email, the full email header may reveal the route the message traveled. Headers sometimes contain the originating IP address. That address may show the country where the email began its journey.
Free tools such as Google’s Messageheader analyzer, MXToolbox and Microsoft’s Message Header Analyzer can break down email headers and show the path a message traveled across mail servers.
While this information will not usually reveal the scammer’s true identity, it can sometimes indicate the network or country where the email originated.
APPLE PAY TEXT SCAM ALMOST COST HER $15,000
Romance scammers are moving from dating apps to online games, where casual conversation can quickly turn into requests for gift cards and money. (Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
Reverse search the photos
Romance scammers almost always steal photos from real people. Those photos often come from social media profiles or professional websites. You can upload the images to reverse search tools such as Google Images.
If the same photo appears under multiple names or accounts, that is strong evidence of a scam. Showing that proof sometimes helps victims reconsider what is happening.
Search the phone number or username
Another simple step is searching for the contact information online. Enter the phone number, email address or username along with words like scam or romance scam.
Many scammers reuse the same identity across multiple victims. In some cases, other people have already reported the same name or number. Finding those reports can help reveal the pattern.
Report the account inside the game
If the conversation began on Words With Friends, the account can be reported directly through the game. Companies investigate reports and often remove accounts involved in fraud.
That action will not always stop the scammer completely. However, it can prevent them from targeting additional players.
The hardest part of these scams
The emotional connection can be stronger than the evidence. Scammers spend weeks building trust. They learn about the victim’s life, their losses and their fears. Then they present themselves as someone who understands.
For someone who is grieving or lonely, that connection can feel very real. Experts often recommend approaching the situation carefully.
Avoid accusations or heated arguments. Instead, focus on protecting finances and calmly presenting evidence.
Family members may also help by monitoring financial activity or encouraging a pause before sending money.
GOOGLE SEARCH LED TO A COSTLY SCAM CALL
Experts warn that scammers often build trust for weeks inside games and messaging apps before inventing a crisis and asking victims to send gift cards. (Suzanne Kreiter/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
How to stay safe from Words With Friends and romance scams
Romance scams continue to grow. A few practical steps can help reduce the risk.
1) Be cautious with strangers in online games
Friendly chat inside games can easily become manipulation. Be careful when strangers try to move the conversation elsewhere.
2) Never send gift cards to someone you met online
Gift cards are one of the most common tools used in scams. Treat any request for them as a warning sign.
3) Reverse search profile photos
Running a quick image search can reveal stolen photos used by scammers.
4) Talk to family before sending money
A second opinion can stop a scam before it becomes expensive.
5) Report scams to authorities
If you suspect fraud, report it to the Federal Trade Commission at https://reportfraud.ftc.gov.
Reports help investigators track organized criminal networks.
6) Keep conversations inside the game platform
Scammers almost always try to move the conversation to text, email or messaging apps. Staying inside the game platform makes it easier to report suspicious behavior.
7) Monitor credit and financial accounts
Some scammers eventually ask victims for personal details such as bank information or identification documents. Monitoring your credit reports and financial accounts can help detect suspicious activity early. See my tips and best picks on Best Identity Theft Protection at Cyberguy.com.
8) Reduce how much personal information appears online
Scammers often research potential victims through people-search websites and public records. Limiting the personal details that appear online can make it harder for criminals to target you. Check out my top picks for data removal services and get a free scan to find out if your personal information is already out on the web by visiting Cyberguy.com.
9) Watch for sudden emergencies or travel stories
Romance scammers often claim they are working overseas, stuck on an oil rig or deployed in the military. These stories are designed to explain why they cannot meet in person.
Kurt’s key takeaways
Angela’s story shows how easily these scams can begin. They often start in places that feel harmless. A simple word game. A friendly chat. A conversation that slowly becomes personal. By the time money enters the picture, the emotional bond may already feel strong. That is why families must focus on patience and protection. Helping someone step back from a scam can take time, but support and evidence can make a difference.
If a friendly opponent in a simple word game started messaging you every day, would you recognize the moment when the conversation turns into a scam? Let us know by writing to us at Cyberguy.com.
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The N3 Ultimate is an excellent portable 4K projector that defeats moderate ambient light at severe placement angles and can rival more expensive home theater installations at night. After a few weeks of testing, I think the raw adaptability exhibited by the JMGO’s N3 Ultimate justifies its current $2,399 price ($500 off its $2,999 list).
Modern all-in-one projectors built around Google TV are already super accommodating when it comes to placement. Set one down on a living room table or campsite rock and it will begin searching for a screen or blank wall while avoiding obstacles to project a focused, color-corrected image that’s properly aligned. But these techniques typically resort to digital optimizations that degrade image brightness, resolution, and responsiveness. To avoid this, it’s always best to place a projector directly in front of the projection surface.
JMGO’s N3 Ultimate projector promises “lossless placement” by mounting it on a motorized gimbal that rotates horizontally and vertically. That, combined with optical zoom and generous lens shift, increases off-center placement flexibility without resorting to digital trickery. You can even drag the image Wiimote-style to the exact spot you want it using the included remote control. Handy!
The N3 Ultimate doesn’t live up to all of its marketing hype, however. It’s pitched as a 5800 ISO lumen projector that I found to be unwatchable in its brightest mode for reasons I will explain later. In modes you can actually use, you’re getting about 4,600 ISO lumens, which drops to 3,000 ISO lumens if you want more accurate colors — that’s noticeably brighter than Anker’s Nebula X1 flagship 4K portable running in comparable modes.
Even though the N3 Ultimate misses the advertised ceiling, its class-leading brightness and impressive picture could make this a television replacement for some.
$2399
The Good
- Unbeatable physical placement options that preserve image quality
- Incredibly bright, daylight-ready output
- Excellent out-of-the-box color reproduction
- Very good sound for a portable
- Snappy menu navigation and native Netflix support
The Bad
- Horribly green and loud at max brightness
- Automatic eye protection is wonky and slow to react
- Clumsy menus required to swap into Bluetooth speaker mode
- It’s portable, so where’s the handle?
The first spec I look at on portable projectors is the lumen rating. If the number is listed as anything other than ANSI or ISO, I just assume they are lying. JMGO isn’t exactly lying with its 5800 ISO lumen spec, but it’s not being completely transparent, either.
The N3 Ultimate only comes close to hitting that incredibly bright mark (I measured closer to 5,200 ISO lumens) when running in Dynamic mode, which skews the colors horribly green and causes the cooling fans to roar. The colors produced by this triple-laser RGB DLP projector are most accurate in Movie mode, but at almost half the advertised brightness.
Display Mode |
Calculated ISO Lumens |
|---|---|
| Movie | 3,066 |
| Office | 4,209 |
| Vivid | 4,624 |
| Dynamic | 5,216 |
Out of the box, I found the colors and tones produced by the N3 Ultimate’s factory tuning to be more true to life than many projectors in this class. Typically, I’d select Vivid during the day and then switch to Movie mode in darkened rooms. Sometimes I’d forget because the differences weren’t always obvious. The projector’s brightness allows its Dolby Vision support to meaningfully improve picture quality in both dark and not-so-dark rooms.
I tested the N3 Ultimate for an unhealthy number of hours on displays as large as 110 inches and as small as 32 inches; on painted walls, a glossy tabletop, a matte-white screen that increased the intensity, and a gray Ambient Light Rejecting (ALR) screen that boosted the contrast. It adapted admirably to each scenario with little intervention.
Typically the projector ran whisper quiet — I had to strain to hear it. In warmer rooms and with adaptive brightness turned on, I could hear the fans kick up a notch to about 30dB from their usual 26dB, at a distance of one meter. At max brightness, the fans peaked at a very distracting 50dB.
Optimizing image placement is a little tricky at first due to all the menu options and descriptions that aren’t exactly consumer friendly. Fortunately, there’s an optimization button right on the remote that removes the guesswork. Hold it down and you can drag the projected image around the room to center it wherever you want. Double-click the button and you’re presented with four menus that guide you through image-tuning options for Lossless Lens Shift, Gimbal Motion, Zoom, and Rotate. It’s very well done and makes the projector fast and easy to set up at new locations.
The sound is decent for a portable all-in-one of this size. It’s essentially an Anker Nebula X1 turned on its side, but lacking the optional satellite speakers that make Anker’s portable projector unbeatable for sound. Without those satellites, however, the Anker and JMGO sound roughly the same. The N3 Ultimate produced clear, detailed, room-filling sound with a respectable amount of bass. So, it’s a shame that JMGO doesn’t make it easy to quickly switch the projector into Bluetooth speaker mode from the shutdown screen like many portables — instead, you have to clumsily enable it through the settings menu.
The N3 Ultimate runs Netflix out of the box and menu navigation is snappy — two things you can’t take for granted with portable Google TV projectors. The one thing missing is an integrated handle, which makes this a two-handed portable. Fortunately, JMGO does ship the N3 Ultimate inside a reusable carrying case that came in handy when transporting it by car.
1/18
I also found the projector’s automatic eye protection feature to be wonky. Even at the default sensitivity, it can be triggered for no reason. Worse, it’s slow to respond when eyeballs are actually at risk from the laser optics. And besides an on / off button, the N3 Ultimate lacks on-device controls — don’t lose the remote!
“Ultimate” is a dangerously high bar to set when naming your projector, but JMGO gets close to the mark. If audio quality is your absolute highest priority, Anker’s bulkier Nebula X1 speaker bundle remains a tempting alternative — though it will cost you significantly more cash. But if you are looking for class-leading brightness and unmatched physical placement flexibility from a 4K all-in-one projector, the JMGO N3 Ultimate at $2,399 is the way to go.
Listed Specs: JMGO N3 Ultimate
Display & Picture Quality
- Light Source: MALC 5.0 Pure Triple Laser / RGB Laser
- Resolution: 4K UHD
- Brightness: 5800 ISO Lumens
- Contrast Ratio: 20000:1
- Color Gamut: 110% BT.2020
- Color Accuracy: ΔE ≈ 0.7
- HDR Formats: Dolby Vision, HDR10
- Image Size: 40 to 300 inches
- Display Technology: DLP
Optical & Placement System
- Throw Ratio: 0.88–1.7:1
- 3-in-1 Projection: Combines Optical Zoom, Lens Shift, and an AI Gimbal base
- Projection Types: Front, Rear, Front Ceiling, Rear Ceiling
Smart Software & AI Features
- Operating System: Google TV with native Netflix integration
- Smart Features: Auto Screen Fitting, Auto Keystone, Auto Focus, Adaptive Brightness, and Wall Color Adaptation, Eye Protection
- Custom Memory: AI Spatial Memory System to remember preferred walls, zoom levels, and shortcuts
- Processor: MediaTek MT9679 chipset
- Memory: 4GB RAM
- Storage: 64GB ROM
- Motion Tech: MEMC motion compensation
- Speakers: Dual 12.5W stereo speakers (25W total output)
- Sound Enhancement: Dolby Audio
- Refresh Rate: Up to 240Hz
- Input Lag: 1ms ultra-low latency
- Extra Features: Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) support and specialized game modes
- Wireless: Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2
- Wired Ports: 2x HDMI 2.1 (with one port supporting eARC) and 1x USB 3.0
- Dimensions: 308.3 x 229.85 x 274.13mm
- Weight: 6.95kg
- Power Consumption: up to 300W
Photography by Thomas Ricker / The Verge
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Technology
Fox News AI Newsletter: Sanders bill would seize 50% of stock in OpenAI, Anthropic for sovereign wealth fund
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Welcome to Fox News’ Artificial Intelligence newsletter with the latest AI technology advancements.
IN TODAY’S NEWSLETTER:
– Bernie Sanders unveils plan to take 50% stake in AI companies for government wealth fund
– College grads expect to earn $80,000 a year, but the math isn’t mathing
– Jensen Huang says Nvidia’s new RTX Spark chip will reinvent the PC
Sen. Bernie Sanders reacts to questions from a Fox News Digital reporter about Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner’s resurfaced Reddit posts while walking through the Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. (Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images)
SOCIALIST SHARE-UP: Democratic socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., is arguing that the federal government should establish a sovereign wealth fund that’s financed by taking possession of half of the stock in AI giants like OpenAI, Anthropic and xAI, among others.
PAPER CHASE: If you want to understand what’s broken about higher education in America, look no further than one statistic.
According to a recent survey, the average college student expects to earn $80,000 a year shortly after graduation. The reality? The average starting salary is closer to $56,000. That’s a 30% gap between expectation and reality before a graduate even receives their first paycheck.
THE AGENTIC ERA: Nvidia on Monday unveiled a new chip that will bring artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities onto laptops and desktop computers.
The new AI chip, known as RTX Spark, was built as part of a collaboration between Nvidia and Microsoft to make personal computers that are built to power AI tools.
A student walks across the campus grounds at Harvard University. (Zhu Ziyu/VCG via Getty Images)
CRACKED IN DAYS: Apple devices have earned a reputation for being tough to break into. That comes from Apple’s tight control over the hardware, software and many of the protections standing between you and an attacker. However, a new claim from security startup Calif shows how quickly the cybersecurity world may be changing.
FINANCIAL DYNAMITE: Billionaire Jeff Bezos just detonated a financial hand grenade in the middle of America’s tax debate.
The Amazon founder recently suggested that the bottom half of American earners should pay zero federal income tax. Not lower taxes. Not a temporary rebate. Zero.
BIG BROTHER BOSS: The NewsGuild of New York has accused The New York Times of using artificial intelligence technology to monitor and surveil the performance of unionized tech workers in violation of their collective bargaining agreement.
The New York Times Building is shown in Midtown Manhattan. (Joshua Comins/Fox News)
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Fellow Traveller, the publisher behind games like Titanium Court and 1000xResist, just wrapped up its Story-Rich Showcase, which featured a bunch of narrative-driven indie games. With more than 20 games on display, there was a lot to follow, but we’ve pulled together some of the most notable announcements below. You can also catch the full show on Fellow Traveller’s YouTube channel.
Ambrosia Sky is getting its second and final episode
Ambrosia Sky, a sci-fi game about death where you have to clean up alien fungi, will be getting its second act as a free update on August 6th. The game was originally planned to have three acts, but developer Soft Rains announced in March that it would be brought down to two. When Act Two launches, the game’s price will go up from $14.99 to $24.99.
The Citizen Sleeper games are coming to Nintendo Switch 2
The sci-fi RPGs Citizen Sleeper and Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector are getting Switch 2 versions on June 25th. If you already own them on the original Switch, you can play the Switch 2 versions at no extra charge. Developer Gareth Damian Martin also says they will be revealing their next game during Sunday’s PC Gaming Show.
Desktop Explorer, a spooky game about looking through an old computer, launches in July
This trailer for Desktop Explorer, a horror puzzle game where you click through a creepy version of an old, Windows-like operating system, might be the scariest way to use a computer. It’s launching on July 17th.
Demonschool is getting DLC and will launch on the Switch 2
The upcoming paid DLC for Demonschool, a tactical RPG from Necrosoft that channels Buffy and Persona, has a focus on “puzzle battles” where players work to clear out enemies using certain characters in one turn. Both the DLC and the Switch 2 version (which includes mouse support and an improved frame rate) will launch sometime this year.
The developers of a point-and-click thriller are making a fantasy game
Powerhoof, the studio behind last year’s retro-styled mystery game The Drifter, is now working on The Telwynium, a “fantasy adventure epic.” “Book One” of the game is now available on Steam, though you can also grab it from Itch.io if you prefer.
The Mermaid Mask, a new detective game, is launching in July
SFB Games, the studio that made games like Tangle Tower and Crow Country, is releasing its next game, The Mermaid Mask, on July 16th. It’s a locked-door mystery that’s fully voice-acted and features hand-drawn animations — looks like a great story to settle into this summer.
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