Scammers and spies

Good morning. Travel app Skyscanner dropped its annual travel trends report for 2027 tracking the interests of Canadian travellers. This year’s big winner is Cardiff, Wales, which was the No. 1 trending destination — seeing a monumental 1,046% jump in searches — and also topped the ranking of biggest price drop for Canadian travellers.

Along with this surging interest, we also predict a similar surge in well-meaning Canucks butchering the pronunciation of diolch yn fawr.

Today’s reading time is 5½ minutes.

Markets: New data showed U.S. inflation rising to 3.7% last month, outpacing expectations and sending jitters throughout Wall Street and Canada’s top stock index. Elsewhere, shares in so-called neocloud companies plunged as Nvidia-backed CoreWeave saw debt yields surge; this development has sparked more AI bubble fears.

Fraudsters, beware: a quarter of the Canadian economy is now working together to catch you. 

What happened: Canada’s big banks and telecoms are rolling out a new anti-fraud platform to share intel about scammers who have already stolen — or tried to steal — from the institutions or their customers. 

Why it’s happening: Banks, telecoms, and tech firms have all been fighting scams in their own lane, but they haven’t really been comparing notes. By working together, experts say they can do a better job of tackling new schemes before they reach Canadians.

Why it matters: Canadians lost a record-high $704 million to scams last year, though only 5% to 10% of fraud victims actually report their losses. That puts the real number somewhere closer to $7 billion to $14 billion. 

Bottom line: With AI making already successful scams even more believable, stopping bad actors before they have the chance to dupe victims has become all the more important. Exhibit A: an 86-year-old Ontario woman lost more than $900,000 last year to a scam that used an AI deepfake video of Mark Carney.—LA

TD and BMO accused of debanking U.S. customers over politics. A U.S. regulator claimed a group of nine banks, including the two Canadian lenders, discriminated against customers based on a number of factors, including their support for Donald Trump. Trump himself accused JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America of rejecting his business on political grounds. (Bloomberg News)

Netflix plans largest round of layoffs in four years. As it struggles to maintain its growth from years past, the streaming giant is reportedly cutting about 6% of its total workforce, or ~1,000 employees. A major concern for Netflix’s investors has been time spent on the platform, as TikTok and YouTube continue to poach eyeballs with cheaper, user-generated content. The company’s stock is down more than 40% over the past year. (Reuters) 

Ukraine says SpaceX disrupted its drones. The country’s military officials claim that the Elon Musk-owned company has restricted its use of Starlink for its drone operations without explanation, blindsiding troops during missions. Poland, which foots the bill for Ukraine's Starlink subscriptions, called out Musk directly, with Poland’s foreign minister writing on X,  “Hey, @elonmusk, big man, are you playing politics with your products again?” (Reuters)

📡 What else is on our radar: 

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In a key milestone, B.C.-based General Fusion was able to heat plasma inside its LM26 machine to more than 12 million degrees Celsius. The breakthrough shows that the company’s cheaper, more practical approach — squeezing plasma with a metal wall instead of using pricey magnets or giant lasers — could potentially achieve the temperatures fusion needs. 

Why it matters: Only a few other fusion companies have cleared this temperature hurdle, all using different methods. With a novel (and cost-effective) approach, the Canadian firm is a real contender in the race to create commercially viable fusion energy.

Spy games are afoot at the world’s top AI labs.

Driving the news: OpenAI engineer and Saudi national Abdulrahman Alfozan was arrested by the FBI for allegedly spying on his (now former) employer. The arrest happened after OpenAI found a listening device hidden behind a TV in a boardroom reserved for execs. The company pointed a camera at the spot and caught Alfozan snooping around.

Why it matters: The AI industry is quickly becoming a breeding ground for corporate espionage cases, with widespread concerns about top companies’ reliance on pools of foreign workers — particularly those from China. 

Zoom out: In other AI spying news, court proceedings for Apple’s lawsuit against OpenAI began yesterday. Apple alleges that former employees now working at OpenAI took trade secrets with them on the way out the door and shared them with OpenAI. Interestingly, in a new filing as part of the case, OpenAI claims one of its ex-employees who left for Apple did the same thing, sharing more than 100 files about an unreleased product with Apple.—QH

CIBC Mellon’s Student Investment Fund Conference is back for 2026, taking place October 27 at CIBC Square in Toronto. The action-packed afternoon will connect post-secondary students from across Canada with industry professionals and recruiters.

Attendees can explore careers in the institutional investment sector, hear insights on early career development, recruitment and executive leadership, visit recruiter booths, and watch case competition finalists compete for $10,000 in prizes.

Space is limited, so register to secure your place.

💄 $530. What the average Alberta household spends on beauty products per year, the most of any Canadian province and 60% above the national average, according to a study by Laserbody MD. Quebec residents spend the least on cosmetic products at $245 per year.

Kick your feet up and settle in with today’s mini-crossword, the daily sudoku, Codebreaker, and Who’s Who!