Live data from Hacker News

Meta projected 10% of 2024 revenue came from scams

sherwood.news

491–500 of 549 posts

Re: Meta projected 10% of 2024 revenue came from scams

#491
post #301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I am scared and this close to setting up a secret passphrase in case they need to tell me appart from a clone. do that sooner rather than later. Voice mimicry is so much easier now, that you might not be able to tell from the phone. This is why a verbal password from family is important, esp. in unusual situations.

Probably wouldn't hurt to add an "I'm being coerced into this" version of the secret passphrase while they're at it.

while ostensibly true, the more different types of passphrase/words you have, the less easy it is to remember.

You probably only need just one, for authentication purposes. I doubt grandmother can perform this sort of "spycraft" well if it's more complicated. Better to have something simple and easy, than to forget and panic later.

Re: Meta projected 10% of 2024 revenue came from scams

#492

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>but it was higher than 50% I don't relate with this at all. I get ads for normal insurance companies, uber eats, air bnb, and gacha games to name a few. None of them are scams, so I can't understand understand why so many people on hacker news complain about scams. Do you live in a region with barely any ad inventory?

> air bnb > gacha games How are these not scams?

Being overpriced or having a bad value is not the same thing as a scam.

Re: Meta projected 10% of 2024 revenue came from scams

#493
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see how the yearly tech support I do with my parents at Christmas will not one day converge to an outright ban of the internet. I am now demoing the level of sofistication of AI powered scams, telling them that it is now entirely possible they will get a VIDEO CALL from me that's not actually me asking for God knows what in a very convincing way using my face and voice. I am scared and this close to setting u…

My guess is the already-existing trend towards walled gardens will simply continue. When a public space is dangerous, people retreat into "safe" enclosed spaces. - "Never download anything unless it's from the Apple App Store" - "Never buy anything unless you're on amazon.com" - "Dont use the internet outside of ChatGPT"

We can also fight back and jail people that are ruining lives.

Re: Meta projected 10% of 2024 revenue came from scams

#494

A new car built by my company leaves somewhere travelling at 60 mph. The rear differential locks up. The car crashes and burns with everyone trapped inside. Now, should we initiate a recall? Take the number of vehicles in the field, A, multiply by the probable rate of failure, B, multiply by the average out-of-court settlement, C. A times B times C equals X. If X is less than the cost of a recall, we don't do one.

Not sure the other responses caught the reference there, Tyler.

Re: Meta projected 10% of 2024 revenue came from scams

#495
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but observe how that for all three of the things that immediately came to your mind, you have respectively 1. a thing that still has a lot of scams in it (though it may be the best of the three) [1] 2. A thing so full of scams and fake products that using it is already a minefield (one my mother-in-law is already incapable of navigating successfully, based on the number of shirts my family has gotten with lazy-A…

I don’t accept the excuse it’s too hard. If they have to spend $10 billion per year to maintain an acceptable level trust on their platforms then so be it. It’s the cost of doing business. If I went into a mall and opened up a fake Wells Fargo bank branch it would be shut down pretty instantly by human intervention. These are the conditions most businesses run under. Why should these platforms given such leeway just…

YouTube regularly shows me ads that fit that analogy quite well. The ECB and Elon Musk take turns offering me guaranteed monthly deposits in my account for one time 200 and 400 euro fees. The deep fakes are intentionally bad enough to filter for good victims.

You don't even need a human to review these ads but inserting one wouldn't be expensive.

Re: Meta projected 10% of 2024 revenue came from scams

#496

So Meta made billions of dollars so that your mom could lose her entire life savings?

Meta makes hundreds of billions on people collectively spending trillions of hours doom scrolling and you're worried about scams?

I forgot because the worst thing exists, nothing else is important. I bow down to thee oh smart one.

Re: Meta projected 10% of 2024 revenue came from scams

#497
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My guess is the already-existing trend towards walled gardens will simply continue. When a public space is dangerous, people retreat into "safe" enclosed spaces. - "Never download anything unless it's from the Apple App Store" - "Never buy anything unless you're on amazon.com" - "Dont use the internet outside of ChatGPT"

The walled gardens belong to the Big Tech billionaires creating the scams. You're actually safer out on the web than in Facebook, for example.

i was surprised to learn that meta had any ads that weren’t scams.

Re: Meta projected 10% of 2024 revenue came from scams

#498

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I already setup a secret passphrase with my family. My mother is particularly naive when it comes to what's online. Of course she is going to get abused. A passphrase is cheap. If you never need to use it, so what?

And if she got a desperate, pleading call from "you" and "you" claim you can't remember the passphrase, then what? These scams are imaginary. Yes they have probably happened but it's far more likely that your mother will get scammed by a "legitimate" financial advisor than some stranger using an AI to impersonate you.

Then it failed. Things fail. It's ok. Especially if it's cheap.

And no need for AI. I already had family members getting scammed by facebook or mail impersonation.

But at some point, the capability for AI is going to get so cheap it will be mass-produced by bots from millions of identities like SMS or email scams.

It's not an "if". It's a "when".

I'd rather have my mother at least have the reflex to try to send me a message if I can't remember the passphrase to check if it's indeed me.

And if it doesn't, work, it doesn't. I'm not working for a 3 letters agency and my mum is an old tech illiterate lady. There is a limit.

Re: Meta projected 10% of 2024 revenue came from scams

#499
post #16

Alongside a password manager and keeping things up to date, using an ad blocker is truly a foundational security practice these days. The big advertising players simply have all of the wrong incentives to control this problem. They could massively reduce the volume of scams advertised on their networks, but it’d be worse for them on two fronts: they’d have to pay for more moderation, and they’d lose billions in reven…

I don't see how the yearly tech support I do with my parents at Christmas will not one day converge to an outright ban of the internet. I am now demoing the level of sofistication of AI powered scams, telling them that it is now entirely possible they will get a VIDEO CALL from me that's not actually me asking for God knows what in a very convincing way using my face and voice. I am scared and this close to setting u…

Explaining the concept of a "safe word" to your parents is not a conversation I expected to have.
Post reply on HN