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Nobody seriously tries to stop spam because they make money off it. If someone tells you that it's impossible to trace the origins of spam, ask yourself how th

Nobody seriously tries to stop spam because they make money off it. If someone tells you that it's impossible to trace the origins of spam, ask yourself how they can know whom to bill. The reality is that it's possible and easy but only when the bottom-line is concerned.

noodlesUK 3y ago
This is why there needs to be regulation with teeth. It needs to make business sense to prevent spam/scams by there being penalties for screwing things up, and incentives for doing well. Otherwise you're right, unscrupulous telco companies like to make money by charging scammers to send messages to customers.
- Nextgrid 3y ago
  We need regulation and regulators with a minimum of technical skills, common sense and bribery/lobbying being adequately punished that it's no longer seen as worth it. Currently that's not the case, so the excuse of not being able to trace the source of the spam is successfully preempting regulation as nobody involved has the skills and/or financial incentives to ask "hold on, how come you know who to bill but not who's originating the spam?".
  - ryandrake 3y ago
    We need a proactive and inquisitive press that questions PR and asks these companies to clarify why they say what they say. Our current media simply reports “In a statement, Company X said Y” and leaves it at that.
ianburrell 3y ago
I don't know if the phone providers are making money on scams. Phone calls that have gotten so cheap that VoiP calls from overseas may not be charged anything. It is also likely that the overseas scammers are using US machines to make the calls. My guess is that the scammers don't want to pay anything since greedy and don't want charges that can be traced. Simpler explanation is that the phone companies don't care about the scams because it doesn't affect them. They aren't liable, and there is no mechanism to report scams to them, and make them spend money investigating.
- Nextgrid 3y ago
  Calls and texts are of course cheap on a per-unit basis, but they're still not free. So not only it means that in aggregate, telcos will lose maybe 10% of revenue if they do fight it, but most importantly that detail actually means every bit of traffic has a paper trail associated to it (since this traffic must be billed for) and thus all the information required to trace the source of the spam is there, just that everyone (including regulators) are financially incentivized to look away and pretend it isn't.
  - rightbyte 3y ago
    I would pay 10% more for a phone plan some with spam blocking. Like, even just as simple as blocking all voip phones or foreign numbers.
lazyeye 3y ago
Yes how easy would it be to auto-detect unusual activity on their systems likely to be scammers? How many people ring random numbers 24/7 in foreign countries for legitimate reasons for example?
- nickff 3y ago
  The scammers are much more sophisticated than you suppose. One common trick they use is to “hack” local PBXs, and use them to place vast numbers of calls.

noodlesUK 3y ago

This is why there needs to be regulation with teeth. It needs to make business sense to prevent spam/scams by there being penalties for screwing things up, and incentives for doing well. Otherwise you're right, unscrupulous telco companies like to make money by charging scammers to send messages to customers.

Nextgrid 3y ago
We need regulation and regulators with a minimum of technical skills, common sense and bribery/lobbying being adequately punished that it's no longer seen as worth it. Currently that's not the case, so the excuse of not being able to trace the source of the spam is successfully preempting regulation as nobody involved has the skills and/or financial incentives to ask "hold on, how come you know who to bill but not who's originating the spam?".
- ryandrake 3y ago
  We need a proactive and inquisitive press that questions PR and asks these companies to clarify why they say what they say. Our current media simply reports “In a statement, Company X said Y” and leaves it at that.

ianburrell 3y ago

I don't know if the phone providers are making money on scams. Phone calls that have gotten so cheap that VoiP calls from overseas may not be charged anything. It is also likely that the overseas scammers are using US machines to make the calls. My guess is that the scammers don't want to pay anything since greedy and don't want charges that can be traced. Simpler explanation is that the phone companies don't care about the scams because it doesn't affect them. They aren't liable, and there is no mechanism to report scams to them, and make them spend money investigating.

Nextgrid 3y ago
Calls and texts are of course cheap on a per-unit basis, but they're still not free. So not only it means that in aggregate, telcos will lose maybe 10% of revenue if they do fight it, but most importantly that detail actually means every bit of traffic has a paper trail associated to it (since this traffic must be billed for) and thus all the information required to trace the source of the spam is there, just that everyone (including regulators) are financially incentivized to look away and pretend it isn't.
- rightbyte 3y ago
  I would pay 10% more for a phone plan some with spam blocking. Like, even just as simple as blocking all voip phones or foreign numbers.

lazyeye 3y ago

Yes how easy would it be to auto-detect unusual activity on their systems likely to be scammers? How many people ring random numbers 24/7 in foreign countries for legitimate reasons for example?

nickff 3y ago
The scammers are much more sophisticated than you suppose. One common trick they use is to “hack” local PBXs, and use them to place vast numbers of calls.