4 ms·

Telegram is full of scammers. Something something bricks and a glass house.

by nubinetwork 2y ago

izacus 2y ago
I've started getting a lot of spam scam messages on Signal as well lately. What's going on with these platforms?
- hmmm-i-wonder 2y ago
  Personally I've never received a scam or spam message on Signal.
  - cuu508 2y ago
    I am in a Signal group which has an invite link discoverable on public internet (it's a local OpenStreetMap group). From time to time, a bot joins and proceeds to spam the group's members one-on-one.
    - RicoElectrico 2y ago
      The same happens on the Telegram OSM group. Now, the easy and 99% effective mitigation is to make a "bridge group" where you need to click something to join the real deal but changing that would invalidate any existing links.
- swores 2y ago
  Isn't it an expected issue with popular services, particularly ones with proper e2e encryption? Things like WhatsApp and iMessage get scam messages too, and the less visibility the operators have for contents of messages the harder it is to proactively filter out spam.
- epicide 2y ago
  It feels like any platform that allows for one-way initiation of a conversation is bound to increase in spam as the platform grows in usage (phone calls, email, SMS, various social media, various messengers, etc.). Do any platforms require that both parties add one another? (And/or allow for restricting an account to such a mode) e.g. if user123 and user789 wish to communicate, then user123 must add/contact user789 AND user789 must add/contact user123. Until both do so, then nothing happens. It's more work to legitimately establish contact with someone, but that seems like it pales in comparison to the effort produced by spam/scams. Same thing with verifying identities. In order to actually establish proper contact with someone, you need to communicate with them via some outside means (ideally in person) in order to establish the connection. Requiring both parties to enter/scan some ID/code/whatever seems like it would only facilitate proper verification (though not guarantee it, of course). I'm sure that I'm missing something, though. I assume I'm just not familiar enough with these platforms and that some/all of them provide such a feature. It's just odd to me that spam sounds like such a problem when it feels like the above solution would be highly effective and simple to include.

Telegram is full of scammers. Something something bricks and a glass house.

izacus 2y ago

I've started getting a lot of spam scam messages on Signal as well lately. What's going on with these platforms?

hmmm-i-wonder 2y ago
Personally I've never received a scam or spam message on Signal.
- cuu508 2y ago
  I am in a Signal group which has an invite link discoverable on public internet (it's a local OpenStreetMap group). From time to time, a bot joins and proceeds to spam the group's members one-on-one.
  - RicoElectrico 2y ago
    The same happens on the Telegram OSM group. Now, the easy and 99% effective mitigation is to make a "bridge group" where you need to click something to join the real deal but changing that would invalidate any existing links.
swores 2y ago
Isn't it an expected issue with popular services, particularly ones with proper e2e encryption? Things like WhatsApp and iMessage get scam messages too, and the less visibility the operators have for contents of messages the harder it is to proactively filter out spam.
epicide 2y ago
It feels like any platform that allows for one-way initiation of a conversation is bound to increase in spam as the platform grows in usage (phone calls, email, SMS, various social media, various messengers, etc.). Do any platforms require that both parties add one another? (And/or allow for restricting an account to such a mode) e.g. if user123 and user789 wish to communicate, then user123 must add/contact user789 AND user789 must add/contact user123. Until both do so, then nothing happens. It's more work to legitimately establish contact with someone, but that seems like it pales in comparison to the effort produced by spam/scams. Same thing with verifying identities. In order to actually establish proper contact with someone, you need to communicate with them via some outside means (ideally in person) in order to establish the connection. Requiring both parties to enter/scan some ID/code/whatever seems like it would only facilitate proper verification (though not guarantee it, of course). I'm sure that I'm missing something, though. I assume I'm just not familiar enough with these platforms and that some/all of them provide such a feature. It's just odd to me that spam sounds like such a problem when it feels like the above solution would be highly effective and simple to include.