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Twilio’s toll fraud problem

billychasen.medium.com

1–10 of 221 posts

Re: Twilio’s toll fraud problem

#3
The idea that you can contact a phone number without any idea how much it will cost in 2023 is crazy.

At the least, there should be a list of phone numbers known to not result in surprise charges so you can block all others.

Re: Twilio’s toll fraud problem

#4
post #2

https://nitter.kylrth.com/benjaminnetter/status/153085292888... If you want to read the tweet on how it works.

I'm surprised/confused: Why is it hard to detect premium rate numbers, or at least set a flag to not allow sending to them? Like, I can't think of a time when twillo should ever be sending to a premium rate number; why is this even possible?

Re: Twilio’s toll fraud problem

#5
When you want to grow revenue at all costs, reducing/preventing fraud isn't a priority.

E.g. why don't they have KYC controls during account opening? Because it would reduce the # of people who open an account.

Re: Twilio’s toll fraud problem

#6

The idea that you can contact a phone number without any idea how much it will cost in 2023 is crazy. At the least, there should be a list of phone numbers known to not result in surprise charges so you can block all others.

You'd think they'd have an option simply not to let you connect to those toll numbers at all.

Re: Twilio’s toll fraud problem

#7
There’s no way to set up an account such that it isn’t permitted to text premium numbers? Throttling to prevent the same number being messaged more than a certain number of times in a given window? Or throttling to prevent charges accumulating faster than a set rate?

Re: Twilio’s toll fraud problem

#8
I loved Twilio many years ago, but they've become the new Google/SendGrid/Shopify/Stripe/Uber/(soon to add CloudFlare).

They retain the right to any/all the upside of any risk/scale, and you retain the obligation in any downside. No questions.

It's despicable.

Re: Twilio’s toll fraud problem

#9
The fact the Twilio is allowing toll numbers at all is clearly their fault, not that of their customers. Turning around and claiming that customers should be paying for twilio’s bad choices is BS

Re: Twilio’s toll fraud problem

#10
post #5

When you want to grow revenue at all costs, reducing/preventing fraud isn't a priority. E.g. why don't they have KYC controls during account opening? Because it would reduce the # of people who open an account.

Why on earth should Twilio have KYC controls during account opening?
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