Homebuyers in the US Canceled Contracts at Record Rate for July
About 58,000 agreements fell through last month, equivalent to 15.3% of homes that went under contract, according to Redfin. It was the highest cancellation rate for a July in data going back to 2017, the brokerage reported.
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The Drive
a minute ago
- The Drive
New Jeep Cherokee Will Still Be Capable Off-Road, CEO Says
The latest car news, reviews, and features. After a multi-year hiatus, the Jeep Cherokee is officially back! And while the 2026 model will be a mid-sizer like the car it replaced, it will hit the showrooms of a very different Jeep brand operating in a challenging and unpredictable environment. Over at Stellantis, we hear they call that 'Tuesday.' But the market has changed considerably since we last saw a Cherokee. This time, it won't be going it alone against a sea of cute 'utes and dated competition. Toyota has a new Land Cruiser and a new 4Runner, Subaru and Honda have both gotten more serious about the off-road capabilities of their midsize two-rows, and Nissan says it will find a way to bring back the Xterra. Plus, being an SUV brand just isn't special anymore. It's 2025. They're all SUV brands. If you take a look at a Jeep showroom, you'll find a bunch of people window shopping for Wranglers and Gladiators, but driving off the lot in Grand Cherokees and Compasses. Where Stellantis hasn't spent the last several years pricing itself out of many mainstream markets, it has been forced to axe highly profitable, long-running products. The reasonably priced, midsize Cherokee will give Jeep dealers a third relief valve for buyers whose wallets force them to be more sensible than their hearts would otherwise allow. But just because Jeep needs volume doesn't mean its volume models necessarily have to be boring. Jeep CEO Bob Broderdorf was eager to reassure us that despite that giant elephant in the room, the new Cherokee will indeed lean into the company's 4×4 heritage. When asked about its future aspirations, Broderdorf assured us that not only will a Trailhawk happen eventually, but even the most basic Cherokee models will have the fundamental mechanical components needed to go off-road. 'It's a Jeep,' Broderdorf said, with confident emphasis. And while Cherokee arrives on the same new chassis as the company's other midsize cars and SUVs, this is not going to be a primary outlet for the company's electrification push, nor should we expect to see any of Jeep's longitudinal powertrains in the midsize Cherokee. The four-cylinder hybrid is an east-west setup with a traditional mechanical transaxle and prop shaft going to the rear. In other words, no, that thang ain't got a Hemi, nor should you expect one. The only question Broderdorf wasn't able to answer is 'When?' Got a tip? Let us know at tips@
Forbes
a minute ago
- Forbes
AI Scams Are Coming For Your Parents—Here's How To Fight Back
The pop-up looked official enough to fool anyone—blue shield, Microsoft font, a blinking 'SECURITY ALERT' and a 1-800 number 'to prevent shutdown.' On the other end of the line, a calm voice turned menacing: 'If you don't cooperate, we will have to disable your computer permanently.' My client's 79-year-old mother—let's call her 'Mary'—felt her chest tighten. She wasn't reckless; she was kind, trusting, and alone with a machine that suddenly felt hostile. The scammer pressed for remote access and a wire 'to unlock' her accounts. That's when her son (our client) became the hero. He had already installed account alerts, restricted daily transfer limits, and set up multi-factor authentication. In minutes, he froze the right accounts, shut down remote access, and called the real bank on a published number. The thief never got a dime. Mary got her peace back. That scene is becoming more common, and more convincing, for one reason: automation plus psychology. Today's criminals use generative AI to write flawless emails, mimic support scripts, and even clone voices. The con feels human—because, in a way, it is. AI Scams Are Accelerating The emotional story is real, but so are the numbers. Internet crime losses reported to the FBI hit more than $16 billion in 2024, up 33% from 2023, on 859,532 complaints—both records. Seniors are being targeted with particular ferocity: in 2024, Americans age 60+ reported $4.9 billion in losses across 147,127 complaints—double-digit growth in both complaints and dollars. It isn't just the FBI's data. The FTC's 2024 Consumer Sentinel figures show consumers reported $12.5 billion in fraud losses—25% higher year-over-year. What's amplifying the trend? More organizations—and households—are adopting AI, which accelerates both productivity and abuse. In the World Economic Forum's 2025 outlook, two-thirds of security leaders expect AI to materially reshape cyber risk in the next 12 months, yet barely a third have mature guardrails in place. On the ground, incident volume is rising: Verizon's 2025 DBIR analyzed 22,052 incidents and 12,195 confirmed breaches—the most in the report's history. Translation: the con artists are faster, more believable, and more scalable than ever. Jocelyn King, 'The Queen of Online Safety,' is a Top 10 Woman in Cybersecurity and CEO/founder of Smarter Online Safety. She says the situation is daunting but not hopeless. 'Hacker's number one tool is not AI or software algorithms. Their number one tool is people's lack of knowledge and action. If you believe your bank or the IRS or DMV is really trying to reach you, leave the conversation and contact a known number and speak to an actual agent,' she advises. 5 Practical Moves To Protect Everyday People You don't need a six-figure tech stack to get safer. You just need guardrails. Create a house rule—especially for elders—that nothing involving money or access happens in real time. If someone calls, texts, or pops up on screen asking for action, hang up or close the window. No legitimate company demands install payment over email, text or the phone. Hang up and then call the real company using a known, published number from the back of the card or the company's actual website. Add a family 'safe word' for urgent requests that claim to be from relatives ('Grandma, it's me; I need bail'). No safe word, no action. Make it a word or phrase that is not something shared on social media. Before trouble strikes, set account alerts (every transaction), MFA (multi-factor authentication) on banking, brokerage, email and password manager, and daily transfer limits small enough to sting a fraudster. Jocelyn says, 'For seniors who are not tech savvy, are too trusting, or are losing some cognitive ability, put a trusted family member's phone number on the MFA account access number. It's far better to get interrupted in a busy meeting seeing that a retirement account is being accessed for an oversees wire transfer than to later fail at trying to recover a loved one's transferred lifesavings.' Consider credit freezes at all three bureaus for seniors who don't need new loans often; it's free and reversible. When available, passkeys (face/fingerprint + device) beat passwords because there's nothing useful for criminals to steal or phish. Legitimate tech support will never cold-call you, threaten to 'shut down' your PC, or demand payment to 'unlock' anything. Uninstall unattended remote-control apps your family doesn't use. If a pop-up includes a phone number, that is itself the red flag. Close the browser entirely or power the device off. If you think malware may have been installed, consult a trusted local tech or the device maker's official support—not the number in the pop-up. Set your lock screen. Turn on automatic updates for the operating system and browsers. Use a reputable DNS filter (often free from your router or ISP) to block known malicious sites. Give every user a standard (non-admin) account for daily use and reserve admin rights for installs. On phones, disable sideloading and review app permissions—especially anything with accessibility or screen-sharing rights. When adrenaline spikes, checklists win. Review this as a family or organization and keep it in a secure location away from any visitors or prying eyes. • Bank/Broker: call fraud department on the card back; freeze cards; reverse transfers. • Email & Cloud: change passwords from a clean device; revoke suspicious sessions; enable TFA/MFA everywhere possible. • Credit: freeze your credit with all three credit bureaus; place a fraud alert. • Block and Report: file with and help investigators see patterns and may speed restitution. Why This Works Criminals rely on four levers: urgency, authority, isolation, and confusion. Your job is to remove at least two of the four. The Pause Protocol kills urgency. Known-number callbacks puncture fake authority. Family safe words and checklists reduce isolation and confusion. Money guardrails like these mean that even if someone clicks once, the blast radius is small. 'If you want to be safe online, it's critical that you realize you're in an unfair battle for your privacy, safety and money against an AI cybercrime tsunami hitting our shores," says Jocelyn. "You can't afford to miss one key area, because as we say in cybersecurity: The bad guys only have to be right once.' Let's circle back to Mary. She felt embarrassed afterward, but she shouldn't. This con was designed to bypass human logic and hijack human emotion. What saved her were systems installed in advance by someone who loved her. In an era when AI makes scams look and sound legitimate, that's the blueprint: a warmer conversation around money and technology, plus a few well-placed speed bumps that buy time for common sense to catch up. If you remember one thing, make it this: Trust your pause, not the pop-up. The right small steps—today—can turn a would-be catastrophe into nothing more than a story your family tells over dinner about the day you outsmarted a machine.
Bloomberg
a minute ago
- Bloomberg
E-Commerce Firm Pattern Said to Seek IPO Filing by September
Pattern Inc., an e-commerce firm that resells goods on marketplaces such as Inc. 's, is set to file for a US initial public offering before the start of September, according to people familiar with the matter. The Lehi, Utah-based firm is working with banks including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. on the offering, the people said, asking not to be identified as the information is private. A listing could raise about $400 million, one of the people said.
