A resurfaced video clip has brought renewed attention to Phoebe Gates and her business partner amid fraud allegations concerning their coupon enterprise. In the clip, her cofounder boasts about using an invented male assistant to fabricate success. 

In April 2025, Gates, 23, and Sophia Kianni, 24, made an appearance on the popular podcast Call Her Daddy. During the show, Kianni revealed she created a fictional assistant named Kobe during her college years to secure higher-paid public speaking engagements. 

“I remember thinking, everyone’s going to believe I’m a fraud. It’s just so much money,” Kianni recounted to the host, Alex Cooper, about her unorthodox strategy. 

Kianni’s friend from Stanford initially inspired the idea, suggesting she invent a male assistant to handle her negotiations. Even though Kianni admitted the scheme seemed ‘psychotic,’ she proceeded with it, ultimately securing more lucrative offers. 

“That’s so psychotic. You’re a genius. I’m going to do that,” said Kianni, while Gates laughed and nodded in agreement.  

Kianni even made her actual friend Kobe answer calls to speak with businesses on her behalf to keep the ruse going. 

Eventually, the ploy allowed her to get paid thousands of dollars to speak and have her travel expenses covered as well, she told Cooper.  

‘I was so paranoid. I would change the way that Kobe did his grammar to not sound like me. I would capitalize weirdly,’ she explained.  

‘Then when I had to loop myself back in, I would talk and sign off my emails in a different way. I had a whole elaborate scheme going on.’ 

Cooper, who recently announced her pregnancy, marked the move as ‘genius,’ especially because Kianni made the faux assistant a male as society tends to take men more seriously. 

‘The biggest factor that I took from this, which I wouldn’t have thought of, is that you made it a man,’ Cooper said. ‘It was so smart of you to be like I’m going to advocate for myself through a fake man.’

‘I engineered it,’ Kianni said about her unusual ways to manufacture success. ‘You have to create your own luck. That’s the reality.’ 

When Cooper asked the girls for more business ‘hacks,’ Gates replied that their methods were ‘unhinged.’ 

Kianni also shared that she secured scholarships to help pay her Stanford tuition – which cost $74,000 a year when she enrolled in 2021 – by looking up the hashtag journorequest, where journalists post callouts for sources, to get herself in the news to be able to link to publications on her scholarship applications. 

She began speaking about climate change and her work with the UN, where she was appointed an advisor on the topic in 2020, becoming the youngest to ever be named in that position. 

She also started Climate Cardinals, a nonprofit focusing on climate change, in college. 

This move got the attention of a scholarship committee, who reopened their application specifically so she could apply. 

‘It was a miracle,’ Kianni said on the podcast. 

Now, the pair are in hot water after a Bloomberg investigation found their company, Phia, which helps shoppers find the best deals, has been engaging in ‘fake clicks’ on retail sites, and claiming their app was driving sales when it wasn’t. 

The AI-powered browser extension allegedly registered the ‘fake clicks’ on retail websites, ultimately claiming commission on sales the company never earned, according to a report from Bloomberg. 

The glitch, which Phia has since fixed, was reportedly introduced to the shopping platform’s source code in December.

Phia is an app designed to help shoppers get the best bang for their buck by comparing prices of clothing and accessories from over 40,000 retail and resale sites.

The start-up company works by relying on affiliate revenue, as Phia receives a commission from any sale purchased using their browser extension.

When users discover a clothing item or product through Phia’s app and purchase that item through an affiliate link, Phia earns a percentage of the resulting sale.

However, an investigation by Bloomberg, Capital One Shopping, and Ben Edelman, an independent researcher, discovered that Phia’s app had opened a background tab and injected its own referral code during the checkout process without any user interaction.

Known as ‘cookie stuffing’ or attribution fraud, Phia registered what was called ‘fake clicks’ on retailers’ websites, allowing it to replace another referrer’s unique code with its own and claim commission for sales it never earned.

The practice is largely considered a violation across many digital platforms’ policies. Impact.com, a major affiliate network, told Bloomberg it suspended Phia’s account after identifying behavior in its extension that was ‘inconsistent with our platform policies.’

A spokesperson for Phia acknowledged the issue and told Bloomberg it had been fixed.

‘Within the last 24 hours, we were made aware that in a recent release our codebase was causing misattributions from a subset of users,’ the statement read, noting that the source code was introduced to Phia’s platform in December.

‘As soon as we were notified, our team worked overnight to identify, mitigate, and has since resolved the issue.’

The company also said that Phia is audited regularly by its affiliate network partners and has ‘always maintained compliance.’ Researchers then retested Phia’s browser extension in July and found it had stopped automatically claiming a referral click.

Gates is the youngest daughter of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and his ex-wife Melinda French Gates. In April 2025, she launched Phia alongside Kianni, her former Stanford roommate. 

In just one week after launch, Phia was ranked number 21 on the App Store and reached 20,000 downloads. Three months later, they reached over 370,000 downloads.

By September 2025, Phia surpassed a reported 500,000 downloads and received $8 million in funding. That was followed by another $35 million in funding last January, valuing the company at $185 million just one year after launch.

Phia also boasts an impressive list of celebrity investors, including Kris Jenner, Hailey Bieber, SPANX founder Sara Blakely, Fanatics founder Michael Rubin and former Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg.

The Daily Mail has reached out to the founders for comment.  

You can’t overlook the presence of large trucks along the bustling stretch of Interstate 94 in southeastern Michigan.

This highway serves as a crucial artery for freight, connecting Detroit to the U.S.-Canada border at Windsor, and facilitating the flow of goods between the two nations.

For Scott Grenerth, who is the director of engagement at Truck Specialized Parking Services, this constant traffic highlights just how vital trucks are to our everyday lives.

Grenerth emphasizes, “The saying ‘if you bought it, a truck brought it’ is remarkably close to the truth.”

However, the moment drivers exit the highway, they encounter an all-too-common and persistent issue.

At rest areas and truck stops, parking can fill quickly, especially later in the day.

Arkevian Lenoir is a Memphis, Tennessee-based driver who takes his 18-wheeler across the country.

At a rest stop in Belleville, outside Detroit, he says the search for parking often becomes part of the route itself.

Lenoir says: “After around, maybe, 5 o’clock, you might as well consider every parking spot gone. So, the plan is, honestly, to drive until you find one. That’s the only option you’ve got, really.”

Detroit-based tech company Birdstop says drones could help make that search less uncertain.

During a demonstration, one of its drones flies above a parking deck, showing the kind of aerial view the company wants to bring to truck parking sites.

It’s not just taking pictures of the lot.

It flies over the site to capture aerial imagery and telemetry data, then Birdstop’s AI and computer vision software analyses that view to detect trucks and identify which parking spaces are still open.

That information is then fed into Truck Specialized Parking Services’ platform, so drivers and parking operators can see availability in real time.

The company is testing the system in Detroit, close to the Canadian border and the freight traffic moving across the water to and from Windsor.

Keith Miao, Birdstop founder and CEO, says: “This is a great place to do it, being at the busiest trucking corridor in the whole nation, across the water from Windsor, facilitating the trade between U.S. and Canada through trucking.”

Some highway signs already tell drivers how many spaces are available at upcoming rest areas.

But they don’t solve the wider shortage.

If a driver has already tried several truck stops and the next sign shows little or no space ahead, the information is useful but still leaves them with few options.

Lenoir says: “If you had a bad day and you think, ‘Man, I’ve been to five truck stops already, and I haven’t found one parking spot, so I’m going to go to this rest area.’ It’s kind of disheartening, honestly. It’s like, ‘I don’t know what I’m going to do now.’”

Birdstop has deployed drone systems at two truck stops in Detroit monitored by Truck Specialized Parking Services.

The aim is to connect that drone-based monitoring with TSPS’s real time parking platform, so drivers can see more accurate information before they arrive.

Grenerth, a former driver, says the drones can also show what happens after marked spaces are full, when truckers start using the rest of a lot in unofficial ways.

Grenerth says: “The key thing for the trucker is it’s letting you know in real time: This many spaces are available. It can go up and fly as many times as is needed throughout the day, throughout the night. And part of the extra information is about the utilization of the facility, because truckers, when all the marked parking spaces are taken up, no matter whether it’s a rest area or a private truck stop, they will get creative immediately and start creating other spaces.”

Birdstop says the Detroit deployment is an early phase in a wider effort to test and scale drone-based infrastructure monitoring across the U.S.

The company and TSPS say better parking data could reduce the time drivers spend searching and give truck stops a clearer picture of how their lots are being used.

For Lenoir, the need is more immediate, however.

Driving hours are limited, routes are tight and a driver can’t always keep moving from one lot to another hoping space opens up.

Lenoir says: “You don’t have much time to go anywhere most of the time. And if you can go somewhere, you hope that a parking spot’s there. It’s kind of aggravating.”

While it makes it easier for truckers to navigate busy parking lots, the system doesn’t fix the crucial problem that is limited spaces. That will require more lots, spaces and solutions.

Grenerth says: “We have three states in a row. Indiana, Ohio and Pensyllvania, all between them adding 4,000 truck spaces being added by the end of next year (2027) going into the following year. Indiana’s a little slower with their deployment but Ohio and Pensyllvania are already on it. My home state of Ohio is already adding a total of 1,400 spaces. You need to have the number of spaces and capacity, and you need to have truckers have a way to find that capacity.”

Birdstop’s drone system is being tested at a small number of sites and if it’s successful could be rolled out more widely.

Following the Knicks’ historic victory, capturing their first NBA championship in over five decades, Jose Alvarado Jr., a standout guard, welcomed his father into the locker room for a memorable celebration filled with exclusive team gear.

“He handed over everything—his uniform, jersey, shorts, sneakers, headband, even the championship shirt. He told me, ‘Dad, take this. It’s damp, but wear it,’” 49-year-old Alvarado Sr. recounted.

Reflecting on the emotional moment, the father, a Brooklyn-based electrician who brought up his son in the Roberto Clemente housing on Wythe and Division Avenues in Williamsburg, admitted he “wept with joy” following the monumental victory.

“Considering he hails from New York and triumphed with a New York team, it was simply incredible,” he expressed.

Growing up in Crown Heights, Alvarado Sr. became a father at just 19. With foresight, he ensured his son’s time was filled with sports to steer him clear of trouble.

“Williamsburg now, it’s not the same, but when I was growing up, it was drug-infested, gang-infested, a lot of killing. So I was trying to keep him out of the streets,” said Jose Sr.

Junior’s early sport of choice was football, and there were no tackle football leagues for kids in Brooklyn, so his dad would take him two and a half hours by train and bus to a pee-wee league on Staten Island.

“I came out of work at 1:30 p.m., got home at 3, got on the bus to the R train, and then back on a bus to go over the bridge, and then walk from Hylan Boulevard,” said Alvarado, a union electrician with Local 3.

When Jose Jr. was 8, the family moved to Flushing, Queens. Young Jose played basketball at P.S./M.S. 200 and was on six streetball teams — ultimately getting noticed by Nick Sanchez, the assistant coach of the storied Christ the King High School team. He invited him to their basketball camp.

“I said, ‘Yeah, how much is it?’” Jose Sr. recalled. “He goes, ‘It’s about $225 a week. I said, ‘Alright, I’ll take a week.’

“When I went to pick him up for the last day, Coach Joe Arbatello came to me and was like, ‘Can we keep him here for another two weeks?’ I said, ‘As long as it’s free,’” he recalled, laughing.

“He said, ‘I’ll take care of it.’”

Jose Jr. went on to attend Christ the King and play with the AAU program, which Jose Sr. had to work overtime to afford, plus sacrifice entire weekends to get him to games in different states.

“I used to hope at times they lost. I was like, ‘I gotta go to work tomorrow. I can’t drive at 12 o’clock at night and get to work at 4 in the morning,’” said Alvarado Sr., whose 20-year-old son Jeremy also played basketball at Christ the King.

But college scouts began to take notice.

“The first person that came to me was Georgetown. And then, after that, it just started flooding,” he said. “Then, one day, Coach Pastner [of Georgia Tech] came by and rang my bell.”

When Jose Jr. played at Georgia Tech, where he earned the nickname “Grand Theft Alvarado” for his uncanny stealing ability, his dad couldn’t attend many of his games due to his work schedule.

“So I supported him through the TV. I texted him before the game, after. I was his hype man,” he said.

Jose Jr. — who’s credited his dad for his grit — signed with the New Orleans Pelicans in 2021, but in February, FaceTimed his father to tell him he was traded to the Knicks.

“He had mixed emotions, because he loved the Pelicans, he’s a loyal kid,” he said.

Jose Sr. said he’s happy his son — who has two little girls with his long-term girlfriend, and a boy on the way — just signed a three-year contract with the Knicks for over $14 million.

“He can take care of his family forever now,” he said.

The proud dad is still basking in the glory of the championship — and the surreal moments that came with it, including saying hello to Hall of Famer Patrick Ewing.

“He sits right next to me, and he looks at me and goes, ‘Who you with? I said, “With Alvarado.’ He goes, ‘Who?’ I said, ‘GTA 5 [acronym for his nickname, ‘Grand Theft Auto,’ and his jersey number]. The small guy on the team.’ He goes, ‘I’m only messing with you man, I love that kid.’”

Alvarado Sr. couldn’t have been more proud on the float alongside his son at the ticker-tape parade down the Canyon of Heroes — especially seeing kids’ reactions.

“They were like, ‘Don’t touch my hat, he signed it!’ That’s when I was like, ‘This kid could change people’s lives.’ It was beautiful,” he said.

As we anticipate tonight’s 10 p.m. kickoff, let’s delve into a heartfelt story featuring ex-England striker Alan Shearer.

Shearer recently made a memorable gesture to his local community by surprising Newcastle Panthers Football Club with brand new training kits. Remarkably, the Panthers are the sole LGBTQIA+ inclusive football club in the North-East.

Moreover, the Panthers had already benefited this year from a grassroots grant via the Cash4Clubs program, a £500,000 initiative by Flutter that supported 250 community clubs across the UK and Ireland. The club received a special video message from Shearer himself, who unveiled their new training attire funded by Flutter.

In the message, Shearer enthusiastically stated, ‘Newcastle Panthers FC, I’m thrilled to announce you as one of the 250 grassroots sports clubs awarded a Cash4Clubs grant this year.’

He further explained, ‘This initiative is part of Flutter’s £500,000 commitment to grassroots sports. The grant celebrates your remarkable efforts in unifying individuals, promoting active lifestyles among adults, and fostering the growth of community football.’

‘I’m gutted I can’t be there in person.  But I’m delighted to tell you that, in addition to your grant, Flutter have bought you a new kit – and they’ve donated the sponsorship of it to The Alan Shearer Foundation – meaning you’ll play with that logo on your strip, raising awareness of the work we do in helping profoundly disabled children and adults in our area.  I hope you’ll wear it with Pride.’

Top class from Shearer and from Flutter because it’s tournaments like the World Cup that inspire the next generation to want to get out and play and giving them a helping hand en route to doing so is key to developing the next batch of stars.

Newcastle Panthers Football Club, the only LGBTQIA+ friendly football team in the North-East, were recipients of a grassroots grant from the Cash4Clubs programme – a £500,000 scheme funded by Flutter which supported 250 community clubs across the UK and Ireland this year.

The New York Yankees and the Washington Nationals are set to face off this Saturday at Nationals Park located in the heart of Washington, D.C.

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What our Post expert thinks about Yankees vs. Nationals

Cam Schlittler takes the mound for the Yankees, aiming to replicate his success against the Nationals from August, when he threw 6 scoreless innings, allowing only 4 hits and 3 walks, with 8 strikeouts.

James Wood continues to be the Nationals’ top slugger, ranking among the top six in home runs and leading the MLB in leadoff homers. 

Subject to regulatory approval. Limited time offer. T&Cs Apply.

Why Trust New York Post Betting

Mike Turay is a sports journalist and editor who closely follows the NBA, NFL, college sports and UFC. He has demonstrated expertise in both NBA and NFL player prop bets for nearly three years. Mike is also highly knowledgeable about the sportsbook offer landscape, frequently trying and reviewing the latest apps and sites.

A familiar face from the world of 1980s and 1990s cinema was recently seen enjoying a leisurely walk under the sunny skies of Los Angeles.

The actor, who was already well into middle age by the time he made his mark in Hollywood, gained fame with his menacing portrayal of a crime lord in the classic film, RoboCop.

Over the years, he showcased his talent in enduring films such as Dead Poets Society and A Time to Kill, and even starred alongside Sylvester Stallone in Rambo III.

However, one of his most cherished roles was on the sitcom That ’70s Show, where he shared the screen with a youthful cast that included Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis.

Spotted in Southern California this week at 83, he still exuded vitality and energy, although he used a cane to support his step.

Can you guess who he is?

He is none other than Kurtwood Smith, who remains beloved by fans as the formidably gruff patriarch Red Forman on That ’70s Show.

With Debra Jo Rupp as his wife Kitty, Smith formed part of an iconic TV couple throughout the sitcom’s run from 1998 to 2006.

Their family included their children Eric (Topher Grace) and Laurie (first Lisa Robin Kelly, then Christina Moore) and their adopted son Hyde (Danny Masterson).

Kurtwood Larson Smith was born in Wisconsin in July 1943, less than two years before his father was killed in the Second World War.

Although he grew up in the Los Angeles suburbs, he summered in Wisconsin on his grandparents’ farm, which ‘was a great way to grow up,’ he reflected.

His interest in showbiz was ignited in college, when he grew sick of his studies and alighted on the idea: ‘You know what? Maybe I should try an acting class.’

Once he played a scene, he thought: ‘Oh, I like this. I know what I’m doing here. I feel comfortable with this,’ he shared with Smashing Interviews.

Smith began his career on the stage in the San Francisco Bay Area, both in repertory and at a Shakespeare festival he regarded as ‘my real training ground.’

One summer in the 1970s, he acted in three plays with a young theater student he already ‘knew was going places’ called Robin Williams.

In 1987, Smith achieved his big break in Hollywood with the role of the ruthless mob boss Clarence Boddicker in Paul Verhoeven’s classic sci-fi picture RoboCop.

Boddicker commits the grisly murder of policeman Alex Murphy (Peter Weller), who is subsequently reconstructed into a cyborg and launched back into the world of law enforcement to apprehend the villainous gang.

A couple of years ago, Smith revealed that during the movie’s famous riot scene, his jacket actually caught alight in real life and had to be hurriedly torn off him, for which he earned an extra $400 in stunt pay, on The Rich Eisen Show. 

In 1988 he played a US Embassy field operative who helps Sylvester Stallone’s title character in Rambo III, which placed its lead in the Soviet-Afghan War.

One year later he featured as the father of Robert Sean Leonard’s lead character Neil in the boarding school drama Dead Poets Society.

The authoritarian parenting of Smith’s character drives his son to seek a mentor in the shape of the kindly English teacher played by none other than Robin Williams.

Smith recalled Williams as a ‘very sweet and wonderful guy’ whose genuine temperament was much more similar to that of his gentle Dead Poets Society character than the manic comic persona he adopted as Mork on Happy Days.

‘If it was you and a couple of people, he was very sweet and down-to-earth, but he’d bring in three, four, five people and bang! He’s on,’ Smith remembered.

His career as a top-flight character actor continued through the 1990s with such films as the John Grisham adaptation A Time to Kill, a legal drama about racism starring Sandra Bullock, Matthew McConaughey, Samuel L Jackson and Kevin Spacey. 

Smith played the Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan, amid a cast that included both Donald and Kiefer Sutherland as well as a then-unknown Octavia Spencer as a nurse.

In 1998 he began playing his best-remembered role of Red on That ’70s Show – the father of the Wisconsin family whose garage plays host to the group of friends played by such names as Wilmer Valderrama, Laura Prepon, Kutcher and Kunis.

Red was particularly adored by fans for his propensity to issue various rephrased versions of a threat to put his foot in someone’s rear end.

Another one of his frequently quoted bon mots was one to Eric: ‘Son, you don’t have bad luck. The reason bad things happen to you is because you’re a dumba**.’

Although the show ended in 2006, Smith retained a warm bond with a number of his castmates with – at one point – controversial results.

In 2023, after Danny Masterson was convicted of raping two women, Smith joined a claque of his That ’70s Show co-stars including Ashton Kutcher, Mila Kunis, Debra Jo Rupp in pleading unsuccessfully for mercy from the judge.

Apart from That ’70s Show and its short-lived Netflix spin-off That ’90s Show, Smith’s TV career has included guest shots on such shows as The X-Files, various Star Trek programs, 3rd Rock from the Sun, Everybody Loves Raymond, Malcolm in the Middle, 24, Robot Chicken, Suits, Rick and Morty and The Simpsons.

From 2017 through 2020 he also held a recurring role on The Ranch, a Netflix sitcom that reunited Kutcher and Masterson as brothers.