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I just received a scam call a few minutes ago; your social security number has been "suspended." Call us immediately. I think of all the elderly these people

I just received a scam call a few minutes ago; your social security number has been "suspended." Call us immediately. I think of all the elderly these people are terrifying and my civility slips a bit. Kitboga is great and all but that's not a solution. > the only reason people fall for it is ignorance That's not correct. Mental faculties deteriorate with age; mindful people that would never have fallen for this nonsense become vulnerable every day. Ultimately no amount of 'education' can fix that. That's what these scammers are really preying on.

catalogia 7y ago
Things like this make me think there might be value in an "elderly mode" on phones wherein the phone only accepts inbound calls from numbers that the user has made outbound calls to in the past. Businesses you haven't called yourself would have to use the postage system instead, which seems like a positive improvement. Of course, such a system would not necessarily be worth much until the number spoofing problem has been resolved. Two phones both in elderly mode could whitelist each other using NFC perhaps. (Maybe that's not a great name for it. In truth, I think I would use this elderly-mode too.)
- vonseel 7y ago
  Not too dissimilar from just putting the phone into whitelist mode where it ignores every number unless it is from one of your contacts.
thaumasiotes 7y ago
>> the only reason people fall for it is ignorance > That's not correct. Mental faculties deteriorate with age; mindful people that would never have fallen for this nonsense become vulnerable every day. Ultimately no amount of 'education' can fix that. That's what these scammers are really preying on. On this analysis, the problem could be solved by organizing society into large family groups instead of a bunch of small independent households. When "the family finances" are a thing and several different people can see them, this is a pretty unlikely failure mode. You can achieve something similar in the US, but first you have to notice the problem and then you have to have the victim legally declared mentally incompetent.
- tremon 7y ago
  This assumes that families are always safe and trustworthy, and that every individual is content with sharing their life details with their family. We're moving away from the model you propose because that assumption is not universally true. That said, many banks (at least in EU) already offer shared accounts or multiple-reader accounts to consumers, though multiple person transaction sign-off is reserved for business accounts.
- astura 7y ago
  No thanks, family members are some of the worst scammers out there. 90% of perpetrators of fraud are known to their victims. https://www.aarp.org/money/scams-fraud/info-2018/family-fraud.html https://www.aarp.org/money/scams-fraud/info-2018/family-frau... On a personal note, if my dad had access to my bank account it would be completely drained the next day.
- topspin 7y ago
  > organizing society into large family groups I think I prefer our largely clan free 'society.' The vast bulk of these scammers are the dregs of our species and could be effectively thwarted with fairly simple policies. Limiting gift cards to domestic redemption, for example. No need to re-engineer everything around some sociologic noble savage fantasy.

catalogia 7y ago

Things like this make me think there might be value in an "elderly mode" on phones wherein the phone only accepts inbound calls from numbers that the user has made outbound calls to in the past. Businesses you haven't called yourself would have to use the postage system instead, which seems like a positive improvement. Of course, such a system would not necessarily be worth much until the number spoofing problem has been resolved. Two phones both in elderly mode could whitelist each other using NFC perhaps. (Maybe that's not a great name for it. In truth, I think I would use this elderly-mode too.)

vonseel 7y ago
Not too dissimilar from just putting the phone into whitelist mode where it ignores every number unless it is from one of your contacts.

thaumasiotes 7y ago

>> the only reason people fall for it is ignorance > That's not correct. Mental faculties deteriorate with age; mindful people that would never have fallen for this nonsense become vulnerable every day. Ultimately no amount of 'education' can fix that. That's what these scammers are really preying on. On this analysis, the problem could be solved by organizing society into large family groups instead of a bunch of small independent households. When "the family finances" are a thing and several different people can see them, this is a pretty unlikely failure mode. You can achieve something similar in the US, but first you have to notice the problem and then you have to have the victim legally declared mentally incompetent.

tremon 7y ago
This assumes that families are always safe and trustworthy, and that every individual is content with sharing their life details with their family. We're moving away from the model you propose because that assumption is not universally true. That said, many banks (at least in EU) already offer shared accounts or multiple-reader accounts to consumers, though multiple person transaction sign-off is reserved for business accounts.
astura 7y ago
No thanks, family members are some of the worst scammers out there. 90% of perpetrators of fraud are known to their victims. https://www.aarp.org/money/scams-fraud/info-2018/family-fraud.html https://www.aarp.org/money/scams-fraud/info-2018/family-frau... On a personal note, if my dad had access to my bank account it would be completely drained the next day.
topspin 7y ago
> organizing society into large family groups I think I prefer our largely clan free 'society.' The vast bulk of these scammers are the dregs of our species and could be effectively thwarted with fairly simple policies. Limiting gift cards to domestic redemption, for example. No need to re-engineer everything around some sociologic noble savage fantasy.