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Americans duped into losing $10B by illegal Indian call centres in 2022: report

timesofindia.indiatimes.com

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Re: Americans duped into losing $10B by illegal Indian call centres in 2022: report

#141

Post by ghaff »

hikingsimulator wrote: post #100
mrsuprawsm wrote: post #78

It's mind-boggling that the United States allows this kind of thing to happen. In the EU I get maybe one spam call every couple of months. From the stories you hear from Americans on HN, Americans get multiple spam/scam calls a day, and the vast majority of their inbound calls are spam/scams. What is going wrong in the US that isn't going wrong in the EU? Language barrier? Regulatory capture?

Lucky you. I usually get one or two spam calls a day in Europe (France/Germany) but they are marked as spam. Bless the people keeping that red list up to date. This thread makes me wonder if Americans have such info (whether a call is a likely spam) automatically pop up when receiving text or calls.

>if Americans have such info (whether a call is a likely spam) automatically pop up

Sometimes but not consistently.

Though honestly in the US I get maybe one SPAM call or text a week these days.

Re: Americans duped into losing $10B by illegal Indian call centres in 2022: report

#143

Post by mrsuprawsm »

username_my1 wrote: post #122
mrsuprawsm wrote: post #78

It's mind-boggling that the United States allows this kind of thing to happen. In the EU I get maybe one spam call every couple of months. From the stories you hear from Americans on HN, Americans get multiple spam/scam calls a day, and the vast majority of their inbound calls are spam/scams. What is going wrong in the US that isn't going wrong in the EU? Language barrier? Regulatory capture?

I think it's because of the language. No one in the EU (outside UK) will receive a call in English and think this is legitimate In the US if you call any company you would expect someone with an accent

Ireland is also in the EU :)

Here in NL, however, it does seem like scammers are occasionally taking advantage of the comparatively high English proficiency and are trying to scam people in English - this one was doing the rounds for a while: https://www.fraudehelpdesk.nl/alert/engels-telefoontje-namen...

Re: Americans duped into losing $10B by illegal Indian call centres in 2022: report

#144

Post by CoastalCoder »

CoastalCoder wrote: post #87
HamSession wrote: post #23

A lot is caused by the forwarding services that mask the numbers. Really each should be held liable for any damages.

I think for that to be meaningful, there would need to be some mechanism to prevent fly-by-night operations formed to isolate the liability. Maybe requiring them to post a large bond (proportional to the liability) and/or have insurance?

Could someone explain why the reply from @calimac was killed?

I'm guessing it has something to do with the snowshoe-spamming reference, but I'm totally in the dark.

Re: Americans duped into losing $10B by illegal Indian call centres in 2022: report

#145

Post by tester457 »

grammers wrote: post #82

I once had an issue with Microsoft at work and had to get MS support to help me. They literally called me on the landline and asked for remote control of my computer. It was totally legit. Still I felt uncomfortable and asked for a Teams session with screensharing instead (and not remote access), but this 'was not possible'. So, how are people to distinguish between 'fake' calls and real ones if companies still use s…

Maybe their email domains, I don't think scammers can get a hold of domains like "microsoftsupport.com"

Re: Americans duped into losing $10B by illegal Indian call centres in 2022: report

#146

Post by _Algernon_ »

e_i_pi_2 wrote: post #107
weakfortress wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The police in India are paid off to allow this. Indeed, the best solution would be economic sanctions on India until it is resolved.

That sounds an attack on the people of India for something a private company is doing. I also don't think the US has jurisdiction there, so I'd much rather see an investment in education or public infrastructure to help with it. If this was similar to the Russia stuff where the goal was to affect the election and was sponsored by the govt then sanctions kinda make sense, but this is a problem of international communi…

Why should the US invest in Indian education and infrastructure when India, by its inaction, is responsible for such parasitism against US citizens? It sucks that sanctions would cause collateral damage, but India is a democracy. No voting citizen is absolved of guilt.

Re: Americans duped into losing $10B by illegal Indian call centres in 2022: report

#147

Post by mrsuprawsm »

Macha wrote: post #109
mrsuprawsm wrote: post #78

It's mind-boggling that the United States allows this kind of thing to happen. In the EU I get maybe one spam call every couple of months. From the stories you hear from Americans on HN, Americans get multiple spam/scam calls a day, and the vast majority of their inbound calls are spam/scams. What is going wrong in the US that isn't going wrong in the EU? Language barrier? Regulatory capture?

Certainly most of my inbound calls in Ireland are scam calls. Not sure this is solved EU-wide, maybe just in your specific EU country? As far as I know the solution is to require more anti-spoofing techniques (e.g. SHAKEN/STIR) for caller ID and then cut off the carriers who don't provide that, plus the carrier providing the numbers enforcing stronger terms on their users.

I'm in NL, and it seems to be solved here. I'm not sure _how_ it was solved (or they avoided it becoming a problem in the first place), mind you.

Re: Americans duped into losing $10B by illegal Indian call centres in 2022: report

#148

Post by reaperducer »

tenebrisalietum wrote: post #66
zippergz wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also caused me to completely miss an appliance delivery because the driver called me from his personal cell, I forgot I had "unknown callers" filtered, and he gave up when he couldn't reach me. Even though I get way more spam calls than legitimate calls, I realized that fully half of the legitimate calls I get are from numbers not in my contacts: delivery drivers, doctors offices, restaurants confirming reservations,…

Should have had them text you.

Yes, he should have totally gone to the dispatch warehouse the day before and looked up the delivery driver schedule and called the delivery driver at home to let him know that when he delivers his appliance the next day, he should text instead of call if communication was required the next day.

Or even simpler, put on his Beam-a-Thought helmet and sent a message back in time directly into the noggins of every delivery driver at the warehouse.

Victim blaming at its most absurd.

Re: Americans duped into losing $10B by illegal Indian call centres in 2022: report

#149

Post by Fnoord »

arcturus17 wrote: post #125
code_runner wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Edit: I was thinking of a totally different gift card scam. Whoops Gift cards should require some amount of destruction in order to get to the actual barcode… something to make tampering obvious. The same way clothes have a little ink exploder the clerk removes… just a quick easy step that is destructive to the packaging… but still presentable when you give it to someone

Wait, how would this stop phone scams?

Nothing can stop that. The goal is lowering the victims / profit. How to do that, that's the question. It comes to no surprise to me poor countries (with bribed police force) try to scam rich ones.

Re: Americans duped into losing $10B by illegal Indian call centres in 2022: report

#150

Post by mclightning »

bbbbb5 wrote: post #135
jacquesm wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Telco's could put a stop to this if they really wanted to. Start with disabling number spoofing for international calls, if the number presented isn't in the country of origin then reject the connection request. Another choke point is the gift card system.

No they can't. The scammers will just hire a random person from indeed/monster/whatever, ship them a SIM box and tell them to fill it with prepaids.

no, not with that mindset. security is about creating obstacles. obstacles create friction and traces, even when they fail.
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