5 ms·
> SIM farms are devices that can house hundreds of SIM cards, which can send out thousands of scam texts to defraud the UK public of millions of pounds. In addi
by orf 3y ago
> SIM farms are devices that can house hundreds of SIM cards, which can send out thousands of scam texts to defraud the UK public of millions of pounds. In addition to sending scam texts, these devices are used by criminals to run scam call campaigns and to post misleading, false or phishing messages on social media in bulk.
> Whilst there are some potentially legitimate uses of the technology, these are limited and should not require using more than four SIM cards, based on the number of mobile operators in the UK. We have very limited evidence that there are any legitimate use cases for devices that allow the use of more than four SIM cards, and for all such cases alternative options exist.
The justification seems sound. What is the issue here?
- nibbleshifter 3y agoThis is a backdoor way they are trying to introduce mandatory SIM registration.
- dazc 3y agoGovt id is required to purchase a sim card in many EU countries. If the UK Govt decided to implement such a policy based on something like 'security' there wouldn't be a lot of push-back. Let's overlook the fact that such policies just make stolen id a lot more valuable than it is already.
- specproc 3y agoI'm all for it continuing, but it always struck me as wild how you can just pick a UK SIM up at the airport from a vending machine. I don't know of many countries where this is possible.
- nibbleshifter 3y agoI've found that policy trivial to circumvent in most EU countries I've visited (which is most of them). Its also a stupid fucking policy.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- costco 3y agoThey propose a total ban that does not require fraudulent intent to criminalize possession, an unlimited fine, and ignore that most of the use is just bypassing rentseeking A2P SMS charges? Along with the fact that it’s unclear who is even asking for it. UK similarly banned GSM gateways in the early 2000s but recent court rulings said the way it was banned was illegal and is in the appeals process.
- orf 3y agoMost of the use case is spamming people. There are very few other uses for something like this[1]. A2P is also a US specific thing? 1. https://m.aliexpress.com/item/1005004866582019.html?spm=a2g0o.detail.1000014.12.4bb367e27GVbQ6&gps-id=pcDetailBottomMoreOtherSeller&scm=1007.40000.326746.0&scm_id=1007.40000.326746.0&scm-url=1007.40000.326746.0&pvid=5bc43ae6-6a1d-44f7-86cd-cbc702558ad2&_t=gps-id:pcDetailBottomMoreOtherSeller,scm-url:1007.40000.326746.0,pvid:5bc43ae6-6a1d-44f7-86cd-cbc702558ad2,tpp_buckets:668%232846%238114%23731&pdp_npi=3%40dis%21GBP%214450.69%214094.63%21%21%21%21%21%40211b5e2116833856232835735e04f5%2112000030807171677%21rec%21GB%21 https://m.aliexpress.com/item/1005004866582019.html?spm=a2g0...
- costco 3y agoSites like smspva.com would have dozens of those devices, should they be illegal? I can think of uses of these devices, yes most of them are “grey market” but they don’t involve stealing from people. By “A2P fees” I’m referring to the fact that in most countries it costs more to send an SMS with Twilio than a 5000 message or unlimited message retail plan. I won’t deny that some SIM farms are used for scams but if you look at the countries that have banned them the reasoning is not because of fraud it’s because they have a monopoly phone provider and people effectively use these devices to convert international calls or SMS like verification code messages to domestic so that they don’t have to pay higher termination fees which costs the carrier some profits. They can also make tracing calls harder which is why India bans them. But given that there is VOIP I don’t see why banning this would prevent any fraud.
- orf 3y ago