61–70 of 326 posts
I don't use WhatsApp (or any FB sites), but is Facebook not able to control this? Or do they make money from it somehow?
Terrified to consider what happens when these scammers get hold of large language models here in a year or so. Rather than fading into the background as this article posits, I expect people to have models finetuned on convincing them to make purchases/send money. Probably trained by being pitted against other models which have been trained on the mark's social media feeds. Train the scambot to perfectly push your but…
They have, per the article, buildings full of slaves to do the selling. I doubt GPT-4 will be able to compete on price with that.
Well researched for sure, good read as I had some of these recently too and am glad now to understand more about it. What I do want to highlight is the deeper "why", and that is "why" are these people doing this? There must be a fundamental survival mechanism here, in a larger chain. These people may not have opportunities, the ones holding others captive. What kind of environment is needed to create this type of beh…
Stuff like this just erodes my faith in humanity. Humans are not fundamentally good. So many people want to prey on the weak or gullible, not only because it can be easy and lucrative, but because they get off on that kind of power dynamic.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I'm pretty sure you are mandated to have mail in the US, or rather the mails are mandated to deliver to you. IIRC it's constitutional. You'd be incorrect. Ask your postmaster.
They are correct. The USPS has a universal service obligation. If you send a letter or parcel to any address in the US, the post office must deliver it.
This means it is an org mandated to accept your request for service at a reasonable price regardless of your location of residence. There is an important distinction between that, and being mandated to receive mail service. That is not a stipulation of being alive in USA.
[0] - https://www.uspsoig.gov/blog/postal-service-and-its-obligati...
Wow, how interesting. I started getting these a few months ago, right after starting a new job in a somewhat high-profile area. I have been getting 1-2 per month but found them quite unusual because none of them ever progressed to an actual scam - just a few messages back and forth about the fabricated "wrong number" situation and then each thread would stop, seemingly earnestly. Since there was no obvious scam, I've…
In this case, the victim deposited the money into a fake crypto platform that told him his investments were performing well, presumably to entice him to deposit even more. Of course, once he tried to withdraw the money, he found he was unable to. That sounds just like the "binary option" business which used to be run out of Israel. The Times of Israel blew that apart with "The Wolves of Tel Aviv" investigation series…
My head just exploded here. I think I need to go lie down. Please nobody tell the Florida legislature about this.
Terrified to consider what happens when these scammers get hold of large language models here in a year or so. Rather than fading into the background as this article posits, I expect people to have models finetuned on convincing them to make purchases/send money. Probably trained by being pitted against other models which have been trained on the mark's social media feeds. Train the scambot to perfectly push your but…
They have, per the article, buildings full of slaves to do the selling. I doubt GPT-4 will be able to compete on price with that.
In this case, the victim deposited the money into a fake crypto platform that told him his investments were performing well, presumably to entice him to deposit even more. Of course, once he tried to withdraw the money, he found he was unable to. That sounds just like the "binary option" business which used to be run out of Israel. The Times of Israel blew that apart with "The Wolves of Tel Aviv" investigation series…
the binary options guys were obvious scams to everyone but their victims, but if someone cold calls you to sell investments and you give them money you'd probably fall for a bunch of different scams.
Having been on the internet a long time, I have seen a lot of people on forums, this one included, do the how-dumb-are-they routine about scams. I suspect a notable fraction of those people have gotten taken in the meantime. Look at how much of the cryptocurrency space, for example, plays on people's wanting to be seen as smart, superior, and technically savvy. That motivation drives a lot of learning and technical exploration, but it also makes people vulnerable.