Pernilla Sjöholm is a scam fighter rather than a victim these days, but this week she is thinking about Simon Leviev again.

The man better known as the ‘Tinder Swindler’ was arrested in Georgia on Sunday, and you could say it was a celebratory moment for her.

She posted a video with a German flag, thanking Berlin police ‘for doing the work that apparently no other country could do!’

While the exact reason for his arrest has not been made public, he was detained on an Interpol Red Notice as he crossed the border, days after he boasted about publishing a book.

Speaking to Metro before this news broke, Pernilla, 38, told how she was near suicidal after learning of his betrayal, after first meeting him in 2018.

In the 2022 Netflix documentary which became the platform’s most watched until that point, she claims she lost tens of thousands of pounds to Leviev after he posed as her platonic ‘best friend’, gaining her trust by taking her on lavish holidays on a private jet before requests for money began.

In reality, these trips were partly funded in part by another victim, Cecilie Fjellhoy (who has now become one of her genuine best friends).

Despite his moniker becoming a household name, no criminal charges have yet been brought regarding what happened to them.

Until now, it had appeared that Leviev was facing little accountability for his alleged actions, aside from a five-month jail stint in Israel in 2019 for an unrelated fraud.

His Instagram account showed him on yachts and private jets, writing captions such as ‘Walk up to that girl who gives you butterflies. Take risks’ and appearing on podcasts discussing his infamy.

Pernilla, who has just published a book co-written with Cecilie, told Metro that it took her at least two years to recover from the impact of being scammed.

‘I lost everything and felt like there was no future,’ she said. ‘I got blamed quite a lot for not knowing that he wasn’t who he said he was.’

She lost friends as the deceipt unravelled, and the betrayal and shame weighed on her, as they do to many fraud victims, whose care and generosity has been preyed on. 

‘Back in 2019, being defrauded meant I have lower intelligence. I am a stupid person and it’s just embarrassing to be seen with me,’ she said. ‘So that was very hurtful.’

But the experience has given her life purpose, as she has launched a tech business called IDfier designed to help ‘make sure you’re speaking to a real person’.

When she met Leviev online, it was just up to her to try to work out if there were red flags.

She had seen his passport, met his friends and apparent family, and seen him check into hotels under his assumed name (he changed his name from Shimon Hayut, allegedly so he could claim he was the son of diamond dealer Lev Leviev and heir to his fortune).

‘He had a verified Instagram account. I really thought that I had done my due diligence,’ she said. 

‘What else could I have done? I can’t send a private detective to every new person I meet.’

She now thinks that a verified badge on social media is not enough evidence that someone is who they say they are, showing me examples of profiles which are clearly fakes.

Typing in ‘Kevin Costner’ on Instagram, an account with a photo of his face and a blue tick appeared within seconds.

The verification badge, used by the Meta-owned company, was meant to show the user is authentic and notable; that you can trust what they post.  

But private account @k_evin_c_ost_ner1, based in Italy, had nothing to do with the American actor in reality, despite the profile photo showing his rugged jaw line and sandy blonde hair. Did his 231 followers realise this?

Showing me a screenshot of another verified but clearly fake profile registered to Nigeria – which had by then been removed after it was flagged  –she said: ‘This is not Kevin Costner. How come he passes through an identification process?’

The loophole seems to have been that users were able to change their details after getting verification for something obviously fake.

And Pernilla says the problem is not restricted to Instagram alone, but is an epidemic across the internet.

While celebrity impersonation scams are common, it’s also easy for people to fall victim to a persona entirely made up by AI.

Facebook took action on over a billion fake accounts in the third quarter of 2024 alone, and it is estimted that as many as 10% or more of dating profiles are fake.

‘We need to normalise identity verification,’ Pernilla said, so checking the identity of strangers when we first meet becomes commonplace. 

She doesn’t just see this as important for dating, but in any interaction where we are meeting strangers, such as for a job interview, or for a potential flatmate.

Comparing it to tech for a quick money transfer, like ‘Monzo me’ or its Swedish equivalent ‘Swiss’, she said: ‘In the beginning we didn’t realise we needed it, and now we can’t really be without it,’ she said. 

Now married, Pernilla ‘loves’ being a mum to toddler twins, and says she is the happiest she’s ever been.

But the experience has clearly had a huge impact, and she says she still regularly gets messages from others who have fallen victim to scams.

‘It absolutely breaks my heart and to see that when these fraudsters, even if they get caught, only get caught for money loss,’ she said.

‘They don’t get caught for the mental, emotional abuse that they do, especially when it comes romance scams or emotional scams in general. It wasn’t just the money that I lost.’

Denying any wrongdoing, Leviev told Metro before his arrest: ‘Perenila [sic] never was my girlfriend, I never dated her and I never took money from her or any other woman. She is a liar which made millions out of it and trying to victimise herself to gain free publicity as you do.’

Fake celebrity content brought to the attention of Meta has been removed.

Impersoning others on Facebook and Instagram violates the policies of the social media platforms, and the company is investing in technology to improve detection of scams.

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A completely new style of iPhone is launching in the UK today – and it’s so thin you could almost get away with posting it as a letter.

At 5.6mm, the iPhone Air is Apple’s thinnest ever, and it’s pretty sleek, with CEO Tim Cook calling it ‘unlike anything you’ve experienced before.’

If you can’t wait any longer, you can get your hands on the new iPhone 17 range at the Regent Street flagship store in London from 8am.

To avoid disappointment on the launch day, many have opted to pre-order the new phone, so be prepared it might have sold out at many retailers.

The ultra-thin design has become controversial, but even other tech moguls like ChatGPT boss Sam Altman have praised it, posting that it’s the ‘first new iphone upgrade i have really wanted in awhile! looks very cool.’

For the important question of whether you could risk your new device by posting it, Royal Mail thinks something is thin enough to be in a regular envelope if it’s under 5mm. Nearly there, although given it weighs 165g, it will also have to work on getting under the 100g limit.

Here’s how the new iPhone Air looks:

Given how thin it is, you might be worried it would snap if you sit on it.

But Apple say it is strong, made from Grade 5 spacecraft titanium, as well as using Ceramic Shield 2 on both sides, making it the ‘most durable design yet’ and showing a video of it being dropped on the floor and surviving.

It has an A19 chip and Apple boast of its battery life, but the compromise may come in the single 48-megapixel camera, whereas the other models all have multiple lenses.

Last night’s Apple Event in Cupertino was the biggest date in the company’s calendar, when they released the next series of iPhone too, the iPhone 17.

The company has got a bit of bad rep for the latest iPhone launches being uninspiring compared to their heydey, more minor tweaks than any big overhauls.

But this year, tech geeks are more excited, with some major changes making this phone a real step up.

The iPhone 17

This year, the eSIM-only iPhone 17 models are designed with more processing power, using A19 or A19 Pro chips. They are easily able to support Apple Intelligence features in the latest iOS, as well as being prepared for future updates. Its cameras now span the whole of the back in Pro models, looking more similar to Google Pixels.

Given that the teaser image for the event showed a heat map, some thought part of the theme will be a cooler iPhone, literally.

They were right, as the Pro models switched back to aluminium rather than titanium, a metal which lets heat dissipate more quickly. They also contain a vapor chamber to disperse heat, improving performance and battery life. To do this, liquid in the chamber turns to vapour when the phone heats up, which draws heat away from internal parts like the chipset.

This time, you can get a Cosmic Orange Pro Max if that’s your style, but controversially you won’t be able to get a standard black one, as the only other colours announced were Silver and Deep Blue.

If you insist on black, you’ll have to go for a standard or Air model.

Apple’s Store went down yesterday afternoon ahead of the ‘awe dropping’ event.

The site going down has become something of a tradition, as it is typically taken offline before major launches to update product listings and prices.

While a folding iPhone may take longer to reach our pockets, there was plenty to get excited about if you’re an Apple fan.

Live translation with AirPods Pro 3

Apple unveiled its next generation of AirPods, with live translation and a heartrate sensor for workouts their most eye (ear?) catching features at a starting price of £219.

Translation is available in English, French, German, Portuguese and Spanish, while Italian, Japanese, Korean and a simplified version of Chinese should be on offer by the end of the year.

The hands free feature quickly became a topic of chatter online, with people excited by the opportunities to eavesdrop.

It works as a user speaks naturally with AirPods, according to the tech giant.

Apple say: ‘To interact with someone who doesn’t have this hands-free capability, there’s an option to use iPhone as a horizontal display, showing the live transcription of what the user is saying in the other person’s preferred language.

‘When the other person responds, their speech is translated into the user’s preferred language with AirPods.

‘It’s even more useful for longer conversations when both users are wearing their own AirPods with Live Translation enabled from their iPhone.’

This feature is not only available with Apple: you can also do something similar with Google Pixel and Samsung Galaxy buds.

Blood pressure monitoring on Series 11 Apple Watches

A highly anticipated feature was announced last night, which is the ability for their newest smart watches to monitor blood pressure over extended periods.

This has been in development for some time, and adds to the suite of health monitoring features.

Apple say it won’t be able to detect all hypertension,but can look for chronic high blood pressure over 30 day periods.

The company said it thinks it will alert over a million people with undiagnosed hypertension in the first year of availability.

You can also now get your hands on the Apple Watch Ultra 3, with a brighter screen as well as 5G and satellite connectivity.

Thinking of buying the iPhone 17? Here is the release date and all the new models

You will be able to pre-order the new models from 1pm on Friday September 12. They will be available on general release from today.

There are four versions: the iPhone 17, the iPhone 17 Air, the iPhone 17 Pro and the iPhone 17 Pro Max.

The lower selling ‘Plus’ model didn’t get taken forward for the new series, in favour of the Air which brings the phone into line with MacBooks and iPads, which both have lightweight Air models.

Although the iPhone 16 Pro Max was top of the range just a few days ago, now you can’t even buy it as a lower cost new option, as it has been scrapped.

There have been big price cuts on the standard iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus though.

So, if you’re still trying to coax an old iPhone XR into keeping its battery going long enough to check CityMapper on the way home, maybe it’s time to upgrade.

How much does the new iPhone 17 cost?

Here are the starting prices for the base 256GB storage variants:

iPhone 17: £799

iPhone Air: £999

iPhone 17 Pro: £1,099

iPhone 17 Pro Max: £1,199

When is iOS 26 released?

The latest iPhone software update was released on Monday, September 15.

You didn’t somehow forget iOS 19, 20, and 21: this time we are skipping ahead to iOS 26, because the naming system has changed.

Now, the operating system is taking the name of the year it will be most used in, 2026, which also means it can have a consistently named iOS with other Apple products.

As the new iOS was already available in beta form, there weren’t many surprises here, but we did get an official release date for the operating system featuring a ‘liquid glass’ display and the rollout of deeply integrated Apple Intelligence.

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A South Korean court has ruled that online insults directed at a K-pop band can be considered defamation.

Except, this boy band doesn’t technically exist. PLAVE consists of five men in their 20s with brightly coloured hair who are completely virtual.

Yejun, Noah, Bamby, Eunho, and Hamin are digital avatars designed in the style of manhwa, the term for Korean comics and webtoons.

The real identities of the band members are unknown and they use motion capture technology to perform, chat with fans and accept music awards.

A K-pop fan website even lists each PLAVE member’s birthday, height, hobbies, likes, dislikes, personality type and ‘representative emoji’.

On July 19 last year, a social media user said the people behind the avatars could be ‘ugly in real life’ and said they have a ‘typical Korean man vibe’.

The X user ridiculed Hamin, saying he is ‘not tall or handsome’ and has a’rotten’ body, so he has to ‘hide behind’ his avatar, according to court documents.

In a sixth post on July 26, he called the band ‘bastards’.

PLAVE – as in, the people, not the avatars – filed a lawsuit against the user, saying the remarks caused them emotional distress and sought 6.5 million won each (about £3,400).

The defendant, named in court documents as ‘B’, said that as the group is made of fictional characters, their comments don’t count as defamation.

But a court in Gyeonggi ruled in favour of the band in May, saying that to insult an avatar is to insult the person behind it.

The verdict added: ‘The avatar in the era of the metaverse is more than a virtual image, but a way of expression of the user, one’s identity and one’s way of communicating with society.’

The real identities of PLAVE have ‘become information readily available to the masses’, the judgment said, with tabloid journalists and message board users regularly claiming to have tracked them down.

‘When considering the fact that B also committed the offences in question with that information in mind, it must be concluded that B specifically targeted the plaintiffs,’ the ruling added.

The defendant was ordered to pay 100,000 won per plaintiff, having dismissed some of the band’s claims.

The judgment was confirmed in a court bulletin notice last week.

The ‘virtual entertainment company’ behind the band, VLAST, warned in a statement last March that it would take legal action against people who comment on the band’s true identities.

It added: ‘Our findings revealed that around 20,000 reported cases and proofs were discovered by VLAST and fans. There are also approximately 30 incidents deemed for trial since November 2023.’

But whether a ruling of this kind could happen in the UK is doubtful, Iain Wilson, libel lawyer and managing partner of the London firm Brett Wilson, told Metro.

‘While in the UK a fictional character could not bring a legal claim, a performer might, if the attack was understood by some of the readership to be against them rather than the character,’ he said.

‘However, on the reported facts of the PLAVE case, a UK defamation claim would likely fail. Recourse to English defamation law only applies if there is a likelihood of serious reputational harm. Insults or abuse, however hurtful, are insufficient.’

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New AI smart glasses controlled by ‘brain signals’ have been unveiled by Meta.

A ‘Neural Band’ can detect electrical impulses in the forearm, allowing tiny hand gestures to control the built-in screen on the lens.

Users will be able to see AI generated images and video with the glasses, called Meta Ray-Ban Display, and make use of a camera, speakers and microphone.

The new technology is one step towards CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s goal of achieving ‘personal superintelligence’.

The new Ray-Ban Display will project a phone-like interface on the right lens, allowing users to see texts, photos and make live phone calls.

But whatever you’re looking at won’t be visible from the outside.

An LED light on the frame will alert others when the camera on the glasses is active.

Other things the technology will be able to do include provide captions and translations for live conversations and give walking directions.

However these glasses will replace the keyboard and mouse with signals from the brain.

In what Zuckerberg labelled a ‘huge scientific breakthrough’, little muscle movements will be picked up by the company’s Neural Band to control the glasses.

The water-resistant bracelet will detect tiny movements such as pinches, swipes and taps.

The glasses use electromyography (EMG) to register signals sent between your brain and your hand when performing a gesture.

Handwriting will also be possible later this year.

AI will also play a big role in the new product, with Meta’s AI chatbot able to answer questions and show pictures through the Ray-Ban Display.

The new wearable devices will be priced at $799 (£585) and be available from September 30 in the US.

They’ll hit stores in the UK, France, Italy and Canada in early 2026.

They are not the only new piece of tech announced by Meta.

The trillion-dollar company also unveiled a set of Oakly smart glasses designed for sport.

The 66g-heavy Oakley Meta Vanguard will offer a camera, nose piece, speakers and AI tech to be used while exercising.

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There were more than 16,000 excess deaths in Europe due to heatwaves driven by climate change this summer, researchers have concluded.

Looking at the impact of a warming world on excess mortality, they said of these deaths, 1,147 were in the UK.

The study released today looked at cities across the continent during the roasting hot summer, the warmest on record, which saw temperatures of 46C in Spain and Portugal.

Overall, the researchers estimated 2025 was 1.3°C hotter than it would have been without man-made climate change, but that the effect was more pronounced in the summer months: August was an estimated 2.3°C hotter, for example.

Jim Dale, a meteorologist who wrote ‘Surviving Extreme Weather: The Complete Climate Change Preparedness Manual’, told Metro: ‘Am I surprised that people die with extreme heat? Absolutely not: it’s written on the can.’

He said that 35°C was usually the threshold at which there started to be major health concerns, but it could be lower.

The study led by researchers at Imperial College London used modelling, historical mortality records and peer-reviewed methods to provide early estimates of fatalities this summer.

Authors warned that their analysis was only a snapshot of the death toll, as the areas they studied represented only around 30% of Europe’s population.

Extreme heat is known as a ‘silent killer’ because the majority of heat-related deaths also go unreported, while official government figures can take months to appear.

People often die from conditions such as heart, respiratory, or kidney problems that are made worse by high temperatures, even though heat is rarely recorded on death certificates.

2025 saw the UK’s hottest summer overall on record, so far. But Mr Dale told Metro that this year’s heatwaves were not a blip, but part of a trend seen around the world.

Pointing to the record-breaking heat in 2022, where the hottest single day was recorded in the UK with 40°3C, Mr Dale said: ‘There was a much longer fuse this time around (in 2025). We had the dry spring; it wasn’t particularly hot, but sunny as well. Then we got the summer which was periodically hot, particularly in the south.’

Hitting out at people who downplayed the impact of climate change, he said those walking around bare chested in the heat were not those most at risk: ‘It does affect the elderly, the infirm, and those with underlying conditions.’

The study found that people aged 65 and over made up 85% of the excess deaths, and those over 85 make up 41%.

Heat deaths reported across the continent included a 51-year-old street cleaner in Barcelona, Spain, and a 47-year-old construction worker in San Lazzaro di Savena, Italy.

Clair Barnes, researcher at the Centre for Environmental Policy at Imperial College London, said: ‘It may not sound like much, but our study shows that shifts in summer heat of just a few degrees can be the difference between life and death for thousands of people.

‘The longer it takes governments to shift away from fossil fuels and cut emissions, the deadlier summer heat will become – even with efforts to become more resilient to extreme temperatures.’

Researchers noted that other factors play a role in how deadly heat is, such as preparedness, population demographics and air pollution.

They called for governments to build resilience to extreme heat, such as ensuring cities have ‘green and blue spaces’, meaning grassy or watery areas like parks and pools, increasing air conditioning, and allowing for flexible work schedules during hot periods.

The analysis was conducted by 11 researchers from Imperial College London, the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, the University of Bern, the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute and the University of Copenhagen.

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If you heard a new song on a streaming platform, would you realise if it was AI generated? Would you care?

This is a question we’re going to have to think about more, with a surge in tracks generated by algorithms.

French streaming platform Deezer has released new figures showing that over a quarter of tracks delivered to them every day are now fully AI generated.

Now at 28%, this is a big jump even from the beginning of this year, when the figure was only 10% in January, rising to 18% in April.

Deezer, which launched in 2007 and is a rival platform to Spotify, said it is now being inundated with 30,000 fully AI-generated tracks every day.

This is not just bad for listeners, who may think they’re supporting real bands only to be listening to a batch of coding.

It can also be downright criminal: Deezer previously explained to Metro that many AI tracks are uploaded for fraudulent purposes.

So-called streaming farms allow for tracks to be listened to over and over again by bots to game the system, and earn royalties.

It would be too obvious if an unknown artist suddenly racked up millions of streams, so fraudsters flood streaming platforms with lots of fake songs which are each streamed just a few thousands times: enough to make money, but less likely to make people suspicious.

Aurelien Herault, Chief Innovation Officer, told Metro: ‘If an artist is able to gain a significant number of users streaming their music, they then become entitled to a bigger share of the royalty pool.

‘This is true whether an artist is using AI or not; the only difference being that AI music is significantly easier to produce.’

Deezer prides itself on being the only streaming platform to tag if a track is generated by AI, giving transparency to listeners.

The need for this was illustrated after a mysterious ‘band’ called The Velvet Sundown racked up millions of streams on Spotify.

When they first became popular, there was nothing to indicate the band was ‘synthetic’ aside from their lack of social media presence, and some oddly smooth media images.

To identify and catalogue music that was made by computers, Deezer uses a detection tool which looks for hallmarks of AI music, made by programmes like Suno and Udio.

Alexis Lanternier, CEO, said: ‘Following a massive increase during the year, AI music now makes up a significant part of the daily track delivery to music streaming and we want to lead the way in minimizing any negative impact for artists and fans alike.

‘Our approach is simple: we remove fully AI-generated content from algorithmic recommendations and we don’t include it in editorial playlists.

‘This way we ensure the impact on the royalty pool remains minimal, while providing a transparent user experience. And most importantly, we continue to fight fraudulent activity, which is the main driver behind uploading fully AI generated content.’

A study last year by CISAC and PMP Strategy found that nearly 25% of creators’ revenues are at risk by 2028, which could amount to as much as €4 billion by that time.

The report warned that even if listeners aren’t seeking out the tracks directly, AI music could become the go to for background music such as used in public places, or on social media.

Meanwhile, it could be used to cut costs for licensing music in lower budget films, series or games.

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For millennials growing up in the blossoming internet era, LimeWire was an essential part of life.

They wouldn’t want to be caught dead on the school bus without the latest Beyoncé, Eminem or Linkin Park track on their mp3 player or iPod nano.

That’s where filesharing sites like LimeWire came in – a site notorious for sharing pirated music.

Sure, your download might include a snippet of a radio DJ introducing a track, or release a virus onto the family desktop computer, but it was all worth it, right?

LimeWire was shut down in 2010 by a judge and in 2011 its founder ended up paying the record industry $105million in damages.

But the brand was resurrected as a crypto and file sharing company in 2022, and it has just made a major acquisition – the infamous Fyre Festival.

Both LimeWire and Fyre Festival are well known names in the music world for different reasons.

LimeWire was known for enabling rampant piracy, costing the music industry huge amounts of money, while Fyre Festival promised a luxury music festival but was cancelled after a series of problems related to security, food, and artist relations.

The rights for Fyre Festival were put up for auction on eBay in July, and LimeWire bought it with a successful bid of $245,300.

Julian Zehetmayr, CEO of LimeWire, said: ‘Fyre became a symbol of hype gone wrong, but it also made history.

‘We’re not bringing the festival back – we’re bringing the brand and the meme back to life. This time with real experiences, and without the cheese sandwiches.’

Marcus Feistl, LimeWire’s COO, added: ‘We’re not here to repeat the mistakes – we’re here to own the meme and do it right.

‘Fyre became a symbol of everything that can go wrong. Now it’s our chance to show what happens when you pair cultural relevance with real execution.’

LimeWire described Fyre Festival’s revival as ‘bold, self-aware, and impossible to ignore – staying true to its chaotic legacy, but with a new layer of credibility, creativity, and control’.

They also said it will ‘expand beyond the digital realm’, which could signal a third attempt at hosting an in-person festival after the first two failed spectacularly.

LimeWire won the bidding war on eBay against a number of other interested parties, including creative agency Maximum Effort which was co-founded by actor Ryan Reynolds.

He said: ‘Congrats to LimeWire for their winning bid for Fyre Fest. I look forward to attending their first event but will be bringing my own palette of water.’

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