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We've become so desensitized to spam and robocalls due to the scale of the problem - but these should absolutely be treated as attempted theft. If there were a
by mikeyouse 3y ago
We've become so desensitized to spam and robocalls due to the scale of the problem - but these should absolutely be treated as attempted theft. If there were a gang going door to door trying to con elderly or otherwise gullible people into giving them thousands of dollars, there would be task forces formed and police patrols on every block. Instead, since it happens over the internet and on the phone, we give it benign names and treat it like a minor hassle and let everyone fend for themselves.
How did we become "okay" with having most of the communication that reaches people be malicious? What is Federal law enforcement doing? Why the hell hasn't the FCC nuked these companies' ability to operate? Who is lobbying for this shit?
- Nextgrid 3y agoPoliticians use the exact same companies and tactics to solicit votes, so why would they fight against themselves? A politician's job is to stay in power and work towards their reelection, not make your life better. In some cases those goals happen to align but that's merely coincidence and should not be taken for granted. In this case, effective anti-robocall legislation would also work against their own interests.
- datapolitical 3y agoPoliticians do not use the same companies. There are very specific firms that primarily handle political communications and text messages and phone calls. And political communications are exempt from CAN-SPAM
- dragontamer 3y ago> Politicians use the exact same companies and tactics to solicit votes, so why would they fight against themselves? Say what you will, the 27th Amendment passed. (IE: makes it constitutionally illegal for Representatives to give themselves payraises immediately. They have to give pay-raises for the _next_ congress, which means it may give a pay-raise to the opponent if they lose the election). Politicians do, and have, been forced by the people to make bad choices for themselves for the good of the country. And its not like its an easy thing to pass a Constitutional Amendment like the 27th. --------------- We also used to have very strong laws with regards to campaign finance. It was actually our judges who took those laws away in the Citizen's United case. But our politicians actually put those laws into place to allow the people to trust them more during campaign finance season. Etc. etc. Plenty of examples. All we need is to convince enough people that a particular law is a good idea, and then that law will happen.
- RobAtticus 3y ago>Say what you will, the 27th Amendment passed. Sure, but the Congress that approved it never felt its consequences because it took another 200 years for it to become ratified. So the first group it affected was definitely not the same group that voted for it.
- lenkite 3y ago90% of the US congress is re-elected. AFAIK, they have given themselves pay-raises several times. Besides there is an automatic annual hike that is self-implementing and doesn't need a vote. It requires a vote to block the hike, lol.
- Eisenstein 3y agoDo you think representatives live off their DC salary?
- pirate787 3y agoThe salary is not the primary compensation. It's the network, the favors/jobs for friends and family, and the cash-out reward position taken after leaving office.
- SenAnder 3y ago[dead]
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- themitigating 3y agoIn some cases those goals happen to align but that's merely coincidence and should not be taken for granted. Explain the Martha Wright-Reed Just Reasonable Communications Act of 2022 Consent. It passed the house with unanimous consent, had bi-partisan support in the senate, and Biden signed it. The main feature is that it caps prison phone call costs. This helps inmates and hurts companies. So explain to me how this slots into your view https://www.npr.org/2023/01/01/1146370950/prison-phone-call-cost-martha-wright-biden https://www.npr.org/2023/01/01/1146370950/prison-phone-call-...
- superchroma 3y agoamerica doesn't care about inmates, this is some kind of sick joke you're making
- creato 3y agoI think this is overly cynical. The playing field would be level with or without these companies existing. This is one of many problems where the profits are concentrated among a few players highly motivated to preserve their existence, at the expense of annoyance among vast numbers of people but not to the degree that they act.
- joering2 3y ago[flagged]
- tehwebguy 3y agoWeird how police are the most funded they've ever been (every year going back like a hundred years with rare and negligible exceptions) and yet they are so bad at stopping this alleged crime wave.
- capitainenemo 3y agoI think they're referring to California upping the cutoff for shoplifting being a misdemeanor to $950. A quick search found this (right leaning) source that might have been the one they were reading. https://www.hoover.org/research/why-shoplifting-now-de-facto-legal-california https://www.hoover.org/research/why-shoplifting-now-de-facto... Police tend to spend a lot less time on misdemeanors for obvious reasons, so makes sense why funding wouldn't impact that much.
- m-ee 3y agoLooting a couple handbags or iPhones easily gets you over the felony limit, still no action. The police in the Bay Area just really don’t want to do their jobs unless there’s a gun involved. The law change provides a convenient scapegoat but doesn’t actually explain the inaction.
- decremental 3y ago[dead]
- aweiorjtawlierj 3y agoThere are gangs going door to door attempting to coerce and extort elderly people. My grandmother invites them in for tea. They try to sell her funeral insurance and extended car warranties or they tell her that her grandson whose name they can't say is in jail and this is their one and only chance to ever get bailed out or would she like to donate to their political campaign.
- School-Cotton 3y agoWhere does she live?
- wisconsiway 3y agoI don't know where OP's grandma lives, but my own grandmother contends with this sort of scammer in suburban Milwaukee.
- School-Cotton 3y agoThat's so sad, I had no idea this sort of thing existed in the US but I suppose it doesn't surprise me.
- ShepherdKing 3y agoThe innovation needed here is for everyone to be able to have a premium rate phone number, and be able to set fee rates for contacts or "classes" of callers. Spam & robocalls need to become too cost-prohibitive to pursue. Everyone's time has value, so it seems mad that we can't set fees for incoming calls or texts.
- LadyCailin 3y agoI find it interesting that Americans are so afraid of regulation that suggestions like these get thrown out in response to calls for regulation. Just effectively regulate via government and move on. Don’t make everything a private toll thing.
- kortilla 3y agoWhat would you like to regulate that is better than letting people set inbound fees?
- ianlevesque 3y agoHow about banning calling people with robots? Then enforcing it.
- ghaff 3y agoHow about appointment reminders from my doctor? Should those be banned?
- AnthonyMouse 3y agoObviously you would need an exception for calls you've given consent to receive. But then companies would stick consent in every form license on the internet. So you'd need some kind of cookie banners that require you to give consent explicitly. But then you might miss the box you actually wanted to check opting in to appointment reminders from your doctor and then miss your appointment. So maybe we allow default opt in under some byzantine circumstances that require everyone to hire a lawyer to understand which also has the effect of exempting political donors so that everyone can continue to be inundated with calls. What was the downside of letting people set inbound fees again?
- rtpg 3y agoHow much of a problem is this outside the US? In Japan I get maybe 1 call like this a month (always from a "weird" area code). Meanwhile everyone in the US seems to be constantly getting these calls. Surely other countries also have marks! (I know about the scam calls to old people in Japan being a thing. Having a cell phone probably removes me as a mark)
- zenkalia 3y agoIf you apply for a home loan, you will get about 100 calls per day for the first week and it will trickle away over the next two months. I still get 3~ per day. It's insane.
- Epskampie 3y agoNot a problem in the Netherlands. Unsolicited calls from companies you where never a customer of where made illegal a while back. In the last year i've had 1 robo spammer call and 1 telemarketer, so it seems to be working.
- coding123 3y agoLol, that was made illegal a long time ago in the US as well. In fact since I was a kid and I'm 43 now.
- queuebert 3y agoEmail has been more thoroughly ruined than phones and SMS. Would be nice if the government actually stood up for the people for once.
- ke88y 3y agoDoor-to-door missionaries and college endowment call centers are the scum of the earth that intentionally prey on old folks looking for meaning and/or legacy. But I have yet to see dedicated police forces.
- midoridensha 3y agoI'd love to see SWAT teams called to deal with door-to-door missionaries.
- mschuster91 3y ago> What is Federal law enforcement doing? Probably negotiating with India behind closed doors to shut down the scam callcenters, but as a recent scambaiter video (I think it was Jim Browning) showed, corruption in their police is endemic and callcenter operators still get warnings before raids. The profit these centers can make is utterly insane, and so they can afford a lot of bribes. > Why the hell hasn't the FCC nuked these companies' ability to operate? SS7 is an international system with seriously lax access controls, it's many decades old and as a result it's extremely difficult to get everyone to upgrade their systems - you don't want to cut off entire countries, particularly poor ones, from international telephony, the fallout would be catastrophic.
- pirate787 3y agoActually I do want to cut off entire countries, if those jurisdictions are waging criminal war against our citizens. Clean up if you want to participate in the global community.
- mschuster91 3y agoNo disagreement from me here - if I had anything to say, Russia, North Korea, Iran, China and on the cybercrime side Turkey (a hotbed for scam callcenters targeting Germany) and India would be completely cut off from Internet and telephony networks. It's time to hold bad actors accountable. Unfortunately, the cost of doing so would put way too much money at risk, I'd even see some of these escalating into outright war.
- tjpnz 3y agoTrade is a big issue in some places. Elderly New Zealanders regularly lose their life savings to these crooks with hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of dollars leaving the country every week. The government is hesitant to do anything about it.
- mschuster91 3y agoSame here in Germany, just it's Turkey instead of India. Alone the "fake policemen" scam is estimated at hundreds of millions of euros a year [1]. [1] https://www.spiegel.de/panorama/justiz/telefonbetrug-wie-die-callcenter-mafia-millionen-euro-erbeutet-a-1221993.html https://www.spiegel.de/panorama/justiz/telefonbetrug-wie-die...