Here's the thing. Phones fucking suck. Anyone can call anyone, and that's insane. It's like the phone book, it's a dated concept that just does not scale. Phon

Here's the thing. Phones fucking suck. Anyone can call anyone, and that's insane. It's like the phone book, it's a dated concept that just does not scale. Phone numbers as a proxy for "who is calling me" is terrible. Numbers change, numbers can be spoofed, numbers can be stolen. All identification that happens via a phone is fundamentally bad and it is only getting worse. The trick is, don't use phones. Really. Block every number that isn't someone you know, for starters. If someone calls you and it's a bank ask them to contact you via email, and only use the phone to confirm what has already been discussed via email - for example, if you are performing a wire transfer, initiate that via email, and if you confirm information via the phone never offer any information, just validate what they say. This issue is so common and pervasive that, as the author demonstrates, we just assume everything is horribly broken and when something is suspicious we just think "well, everything's horrible, so why wouldn't this be horrible?". "Silly but plausible" - this is the cost of security theater. I have to jump through hilariously stupid loops sometimes. But ultimately I blame phones being used as proxies for identity.