
Samsung Gives Away Free Galaxy S25 With Unexpected New Code
After giving away free subscriptions, and a free tablet to Galaxy S25 Ultra buyers, Samsung is now bundling the Galaxy S25 with select TV purchases.
Predictably, shoppers need to buy a reasonably expensive TV to qualify for the free Galaxy S25 (just the base model, not the Plus or Ultra). On the U.K. deal page, Samsung is pushing buyers towards TVs that cost thousands, but it's possible to qualify for the free phone by purchasing a TV for as low as £1,199 ($1,623.93).
The £1,199 set is the 43' Neo QLED QN93F. The next cheapest model that comes with a free handset is the £1,349 ($1,827.09) 85' U8000F, after that it's the 55' Neo QLED QN85F for £1,499 ($2,030.25).
To get the free Samsung Galaxy S25 shoppers have to use the code 'AITV.' Samsung has combined this code with a 'SPRING' voucher that knocks 20% off the the TV, alongside up to £1000 ($1,354.40) cashback.
The NEO QLED QN85F, for example, qualifies for £200 ($270.88) of cashback. There's a lengthy, awkward, process to get your money back, which includes submitting a claim and waiting for approval. This could take up to 45 days for the money to eventually reach your account.
Rather than directly discounting the TV by £200, Samsung is likely hoping that some people will be put off by the rigmarole of going through the claims process. But it is absolutely worth taking the time to do.
For more savvy shoppers, a new and unopened Galaxy S25 can be sold on eBay for roughly £600 ($812.64). Combined with the 20% off SPRING code and £200 cashback, the QN85F's price effectively drops down to £549 ($743.57). A solid price for a yet-to-be-released 2025 TV.
Samsung has made a habit of giving away free hardware in recent promotions. The company has bundled a free Chromebook, earbuds and Galaxy Watches with Galaxy phone purchases in the last year. The latest deal bundles a free Galaxy Tab A9 Plus with purchases of the Galaxy S25 Ultra, alongside knocking 20% off wearables if bought together.
Free high-end hardware obviously grabs shoppers' attention. Samsung's aim is partly to draw as many individuals as it can into the Galaxy ecosystem." The clue is in the discount code's name 'AITV.' The Korean company has imbued AI into almost all of its devices, including its cheaper smartphones through it's 'awesome intelligence' suite of tools that offers a pared down experience compared to the mainstream Galaxy AI.
This strategy might pay off because Samsung has always been unclear about its Galaxy AI pricing plans. When the company launched its AI tools with the Galaxy S24 last year, it stated that Galaxy AI would be free until the end of 2025. The company has remained silent on its subscription plans since.
What Samsung has done is roll out AI to old Galaxy phones, TVs, wearables, Chromebooks, TVs, ovens and other home appliances. If the company does launch a subscription one day that paywalls important features on several devices, these hardware freebies will be a small price to pay for tying millions of people to a monthly charge.

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WIRED
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Matt Burgess Lily Hay Newman May 30, 2025 9:22 AM The elusive boss of the Trickbot and Conti cybercriminal groups has been known only as 'Stern.' Now, German law enforcement has published his alleged identity—and it's a familiar face. Photograph:For years, members of the Russian cybercrime cartel Trickbot unleashed a relentless hacking spree on the world. The group attacked thousands of victims, including businesses, schools, and hospitals. 'Fuck clinics in the usa this week,' one member wrote in internal Trickbot messages in 2020 about a list of 428 hospitals to target. Orchestrated by an enigmatic leader using the online moniker 'Stern,' the group of around 100 cybercriminals stole hundreds of millions of dollars over the course of roughly six years. Despite a wave of law enforcement disruptions and a damaging leak of more than 60,000 internal chat messages from Trickbot and the closely associated counterpart group Conti, the identity of Stern has remained a mystery. Last week, though, Germany's federal police agency, the Bundeskriminalamt or BKA, and local prosecutors alleged that Stern's real-world name is Vitaly Nikolaevich Kovalev, a 36-year-old, 5'11' Russian man who cops believe is in his home country and thus shielded from potential extradition. A recently issued Interpol red notice says that Kovalev is wanted by Germany for allegedly being the 'ringleader' of a 'criminal organisation.' 'Stern's naming is a significant event that bridges gaps in our understanding of Trickbot—one of the most notorious transnational cybercriminal groups to ever exist,' says Alexander Leslie, a threat intelligence analyst at the security firm Recorded Future. 'As Trickbot's 'big boss' and one of the most noteworthy figures in the Russian cybercriminal underground, Stern remained an elusive character, and his real name was taboo for years.' Stern has notably seemed to be absent from multiple rounds of Western sanctions and indictments in recent years calling out alleged Trickbot and Conti members. Leslie and other researchers have long speculated to WIRED that global law enforcement may have strategically withheld Stern's alleged identity as part of ongoing investigations. Kovalev is suspected of being the 'founder' of Trickbot and allegedly used the Stern moniker, the BKA said in an online announcement. 'It has long been assumed, based on numerous indications, that 'stern' is in fact 'Kovalev',' a BKA spokesperson says in written responses to questions from WIRED. They add that, 'The investigating authorities involved in Operation Endgame were only able to identify the actor stern as 'Kovalev' during their investigation this year,' referring to a multi-year international effort to identify and disrupt cybercriminal infrastructure, known as Operation Endgame. The BKA spokesperson also notes in written statements to WIRED that information obtained through a 2023 investigation into the Qakbot malware as well as analysis of the leaked Trickbot and Conti chats from 2022 were 'helpful' in making the attribution. They added, too, that the 'assessment is also shared by international partners.' The German announcement is the first time that officials from any government have publicly alleged an identity for a suspect behind the Stern moniker. As part of Operation Endgame, BKA's Stern attribution inherently comes in the context of a multinational law enforcement collaboration. But unlike in other Trickbot and Conti-related attributions, other countries have not publicly concurred with BKA's Stern identification thus far. Europol, the US Department of Justice, the US Treasury, and the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office did not immediately respond to WIRED's requests for comment. 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In all of this activity, though, the US and UK linked Kovalev to the online handles 'ben' and 'Bentley.' The 2023 sanctions did not mention a connection to the Stern handle. And, in fact, Kovalev's 2023 indictment was mainly noteworthy because his use of 'Bentley' as a handle was determined to be 'historic' and distinct from that of another key Trickbot member who also went by 'Bentley.' The Trickbot ransomware group first emerged around 2016, after its members moved from the Dyre malware that was disrupted by Russian authorities. Over the course of its lifespan, the Trickbot group—which used its namesake malware, alongside other ransomware variants such as Ryuk, IcedID, and Diavol—increasingly overlapped in operations and personnel with the Conti gang. In early 2022, Conti published a statement backing Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and a cybersecurity researcher who had infiltrated the groups leaked more than 60,000 messages from Trickbot and Conti members, revealing a huge trove of information about their day-to-day operations and structure. Stern acted like a 'CEO' of the Trickbot and Conti groups and ran them like a legitimate company, leaked chat messages analyzed by WIRED and security researchers show. 'Trickbot set the mold for the modern 'as-a-service' cybercriminal business model that was adopted by countless groups that followed,' Recorded Future's Leslie says. 'While there were certainly organized groups that preceded Trickbot, Stern oversaw a period of Russian cybercrime that was characterized by a high level of professionalization. This trend continues today, is reproduced worldwide, and is visible in most active groups on the dark web.' Stern's eminence within Russian cybercrime has been widely documented. The cryptocurrency tracing firm Chainalysis does not publicly name cybercriminal actors and declined to comment on BKA's identification, but the company emphasized that the Stern persona alone is one of the all-time most profitable ransomware actors it tracks. 'The investigation revealed that stern generated significant revenues from illegal activities, in particular in connection with ransomware,' the BKA spokesperson tells WIRED. Stern 'surrounds himself with very technical people, many of which he claims to have sometimes decades of experience, and he's willing to delegate substantial tasks to these experienced people whom he trusts,' says Keith Jarvis, a senior security researcher at cybersecurity firm Sophos' Counter Threat Unit. 'I think he's always probably lived in that organizational role.' Increasing evidence in recent years has indicated that Stern has at least some loose connections to Russia's intelligence apparatus, including its main security agency, the Federal Security Service (FSB). The Stern handle mentioned setting up an office for 'government topics' in July 2020, while researchers have seen other members of the Trickbot group say that Stern is likely the 'the link between us and the ranks/head of department type at FSB.' Stern's consistent presence was a significant contributor to Trickbot and Conti's effectiveness—as was the entity's ability to maintain strong operational security and remain hidden. As Sophos' Jarvis put it, 'I have no thoughts on the attribution as I've never heard a compelling story about Stern's identity from anyone prior to this announcement.'


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