221–230 of 303 posts
So the garbage dump we call a USPS mailbox doesn't rise to the same level of concern for some reason still?
USPS gets paid to deliver spam... why would they want to stop it? actually, they even give cheaper rates to the spammers because they spam so much...
"At the telelphony-infrastructure level, it’s a supremely difficult problem that lacks a short-term fix because the underlying protocol is hopelessly insecure." This is only partly true. Technologically the solution is difficult, but it's easy from the social side as carriers can blacklist the smaller carriers that allow this fraud to take place. The real problem is that everyone except the consumer benefits from thi…
So, the MAPS RBL (and most of the following dns-based blacklists) did this for spam; and it helped a lot - I mean, I think it's the primary reason that ISPs don't actively serve spammers (spammers as defined by the RBL)
On the other hand, it didn't solve the problem; if your mailbox isn't behind serious spamfilters, an address that has been on the internet for any period of time still gets hundreds of spam mails a day.
My solution to robocalls is to answer them and then be totally silent. After a few seconds, they disconnect. The number of robocalls I receive has plummeted since I started doing this. I receive hardly any these days. My theory is that due to silent answers, the autodialers eventually mark the number as bad, or as a machine-answered number. I have no proof of this, though.
I answer and have fun pretending that I’m a lunatic. I generally get hung up on within a minute, and at least that minute is a bit of fun.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
There already is a proposed technological solution to this: https://transnexus.com/whitepapers/stir-and-shaken-overview/ The FCC has recently "demanded" US telecoms to implement this [0], but at this point I don't believe there is actually a regulatory requirement to do so. [0] https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DOC-354933A1.pdf
How about people in your contact list get to call and text you for free and everyone else has to pay 10 cents? Telecoms definitely have the tech to do such billing. They could even take a cut. 9 cents for me and 1 cent for the telecom. This would solve almost all spam immediately and would be a long term solution.
"At the telelphony-infrastructure level, it’s a supremely difficult problem that lacks a short-term fix because the underlying protocol is hopelessly insecure." This is only partly true. Technologically the solution is difficult, but it's easy from the social side as carriers can blacklist the smaller carriers that allow this fraud to take place. The real problem is that everyone except the consumer benefits from thi…
There are so many simple solutions to this it's not even a challenge. Here's some simple ones: 1. If you want to make more than ~5k calls per month from a number, you must deposit $50,000 for every 10k calls you wish to make. If your number gets reported more than some cutoff number of times, you forfeit this bond money. 2. Call throttling. As a certain number (or customer) makes more calls, the interval between call…
(Last time I setup asterisk with a T1, this was also trivial, but that was like a decade and a half back. I couldn't tell you how to fake your number today.. it's just clear that it's easy for the scammers to do.)
The first problem we need to solve is to make it hard to fake your number.
Apple provides a fix: get an Apple Watch and make your phone silent. Then you get a notification on your watch which you can suppress by placing your hand over it. I make this comment in jest because obviously this is a very user-unfriendly "solution" unless you planned to buy an apple watch for some other reason. However I do use this feature. As for the post's comment that dismissing the call leaks info: I don't kn…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I like in the UK and get maybe 5 robocalls a year. I'm not at all cautious about giving out my phone number and I've had the same number for at least 10 years. Why is this such a problem in America but not elsewhere?
i am guessing that robocalls go after specific demographics. so people in more popular groups get more calls than others
But, I get a lot of robocalls; 3 calls a day is light. So clearly, some people get more calls than others, I'm just saying, I don't think the filtering criteria is particularly smart.
Problems that need solving
* Robocalls
* Companies using SMS for 2FA
* Companies still using phone numbers as part of my ID all. I'd much prefer companies contact me first via email/secure-text (whatsapp/line/messenger/...) and only later via secure voip
I feel like Google/Apple/Microsoft/Facebook whoever should basically design a new standard to replace the phone system and the government should then mandate that companies must support it (no more asking for phone numbers)
I'm sure there are lots of issues. I don't want one id to reach me, like email I want multiple IDs and if you want to know the ID I give you is me then send me a confirmation (I can crypto-sign it if need be)
I'm sure it's easier said than done but it does seem like it's getting to the point phone numbers are basically as useless as fax machines. Most people call me via Line, Hangouts, FB, Facetime, etc.. No one calls via phone number
Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are so many simple solutions to this it's not even a challenge. Here's some simple ones: 1. If you want to make more than ~5k calls per month from a number, you must deposit $50,000 for every 10k calls you wish to make. If your number gets reported more than some cutoff number of times, you forfeit this bond money. 2. Call throttling. As a certain number (or customer) makes more calls, the interval between call…
The problem with both those suggestions is that it's trivial to fake the "from" phone number, as evidenced by the number of spam calls that share my area code and exchange numbers. (Last time I setup asterisk with a T1, this was also trivial, but that was like a decade and a half back. I couldn't tell you how to fake your number today.. it's just clear that it's easy for the scammers to do.) The first problem we need…
You're right about there being a lot of little legacy problems though; The issue I see is that the carriers aren't on the hook for it: They've made it so cheap to call someone these scammers simply need to find people whose time is worth less than mine.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The problem with both those suggestions is that it's trivial to fake the "from" phone number, as evidenced by the number of spam calls that share my area code and exchange numbers. (Last time I setup asterisk with a T1, this was also trivial, but that was like a decade and a half back. I couldn't tell you how to fake your number today.. it's just clear that it's easy for the scammers to do.) The first problem we need…
It's easy to fake the "caller-ID" field, but this doesn't fake the ANI: If it did, you could call 1-900 numbers and bill the White House. You're right about there being a lot of little legacy problems though; The issue I see is that the carriers aren't on the hook for it: They've made it so cheap to call someone these scammers simply need to find people whose time is worth less than mine.