For irony, turn on showdead and notice the scam post on this thread.
UN says scam call centers are epidemic and expanding globally
31–39 of 39 posts
Re: UN says scam call centers are epidemic and expanding globally
#32It boggles the mind that Apple and Google don’t take meaningful steps to combat this. Is it really that hard of a problem or do they just not care?
They already are doing something. Google will warn about potential scams in their phone app, for example. Same for Gmail. I think the most important issue is one of trust, which is one the scammers are trying to exploit. Do you trust Google saying "this might be a scam" over a person on your phone assuring you that there is some urgent need to do something? The answer depends obviously on how you view technology, gen…
Here's an idea. If a call is detected as a scam, provide an OS level hook for the call to be diverted to an app that can access an API. That'd be all that Apple and Google would do.
At that point, App makers would get access to the call and could do a variety of things with it.
So for instance, you might have a vulnerable grandparent you want to protect, so you install an aggressive AI screener app to handle these things.
Or, you might just send a log of calls to a loved one.
Or, you might send a transcript of that call to a loved one, or an AI, or both for protection.
Basically, Google and Apple saying "Potential Scam" says to me that they can know when a call is risky. They need to do more with that and open up an ecosystem of defensive software.
Re: UN says scam call centers are epidemic and expanding globally
#33The story of minor Chinese celebrity Wang Xing who was abducted in Thailand forced into a scam call center in Myanmar as really shined a light on this scam call center issue. As a result of these scams in Thailand, the Telecoms and Banks have added restrictive measures like limiting person to person transfer amounts and KYC on all SIM cards. We can't have nice things.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/14/china/china-actor-thailand-sc...
Re: UN says scam call centers are epidemic and expanding globally
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
It is called pig butchering. Your online girlfriend teaches you how to invest in crypto. Both you and her get incredibly rich and you pour more and more money into your investment. Until one day you learn everything was a lie. Your online girlfriend. The riches you supposedly earned. The answer for these scam centers and for ransomware is to declare any nation that harbors them as state sponsors of terror. https://cy…
Seems like a way to use lax consumer protection as an excuse to bomb people.
That is an odd take. Ransomware gangs had held hospitals and cities in the US hostage for years. The scam centers are making elderly destitute who then have to fall back on the state for subsistence. If nations do not attempt to rein in these terrorist gangs, yes, they should be held accountable.
Re: UN says scam call centers are epidemic and expanding globally
#35Why not make a warning, for example when someone calls from certain Asian country to US, warn that this call comes from this country and can be a scam?
Re: UN says scam call centers are epidemic and expanding globally
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
Seems like a way to use lax consumer protection as an excuse to bomb people.
That is an odd take. Ransomware gangs had held hospitals and cities in the US hostage for years. The scam centers are making elderly destitute who then have to fall back on the state for subsistence. If nations do not attempt to rein in these terrorist gangs, yes, they should be held accountable.
How about holding hospitals accountable for connecting sensitive systems to the internet.
And not some poor country where government are hardly in control and some guy has some vpn server running in a closet somewhere.
> If nations do not attempt to rein in these terrorist gangs, yes, they should be held accountable.
I recognize this...
Re: UN says scam call centers are epidemic and expanding globally
#37[dead]
Re: UN says scam call centers are epidemic and expanding globally
#38I have a land line that was installed as part of a simple alarm system for insurance purposes, that was only used to test the line and get the number, and never given out , and it is hitched up to an old answering/message center phone, so every time I walk past it I can see the calls pilling up. The real issue is that the whole phone system is porous, well realy ,all comunications and data, so we lurch along, the sca…
whoever had the number before you probably gave it out plenty. "fresh" numbers are not really a thing anymore.
true.
the other thing, as I have gone through, is having
my number given out by some random scammer, who in my case must have been unusualy successfull, given the rather excited and agitated nature of the calls I was getting from people trying to contact that person....I finnaly was bumped up to someone who had enough experience to just take me at my word, that no, not who they want, zero knowledge of the situation, no fucking way I am giving them
MY name, to be attached to whatever it is they wont detail to me.....and it stopped.
But scamming it is realy a problem , so engaging strictly on my terms with whatever is going on.
No end to it, unless there is a strong will to remove these horrible distractions, permanently.
Re: UN says scam call centers are epidemic and expanding globally
#39[dead]