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I think one of the easiest way to combat this to make getting phone numbers harder. For example, you need to be a citizen of that country or have a business or
by aquir 1y ago
I think one of the easiest way to combat this to make getting phone numbers harder. For example, you need to be a citizen of that country or have a business or other legitimate reason to get one. After that you can just block all foreign phone numbers.
Also, maybe a warning in OS level for remote access tools or block them by default.
- beeflet 1y agoI get like 7-8 spam texts and calls a day from numbers within my own state. I suspect that something like hashcash or adding some small fee (like $1, that is returned to the spender if the recipient doesn't reply "STOP") would pretty much shut down these spam calls. Please do not suggest these terrible solutions that make SMS/calls an unreliable transport, when it is just a sybil problem.
- frollogaston 1y agoI know this won't solve it, but it's a low-hanging fruit, they need to delete that stupid feature where you can receive SMS from an email address.
- netsharc 1y agoI had (have?) the idea that one could have an off-band signal that "Yes it's actually my number trying to call your number". Anyone who wants to steal it, feel free, but I have a feeling Google/Apple could implement it and eat your lunch. So before I call the number (say the phone number is 9), my phone app will log into a central server and say "My number is 7, and I'm trying to call 9". The phone 9 will check the server and see that "Oh I'm getting a call from 7" and then ask the server, "Is 7 trying to call me?", and will get a confirmation. There'll be different warnings if 7 currently doesn't have data connection, or got a new phone and hasn't logged on for a while, or 7 doesn't even have an account on the server. If 7 has recently pinged the server and then tries to call 9 without notifying the server, the server can say "I can't see any sign from 7 that he's trying to call you." then 9's phone can warn her. There'll be different warnings for different situations. And we can use certificates and do tricks like not needing an account for each phone number, but send a message "Yes this number from Microsoft tech support is actually trying to reach you.", signed with Microsoft's certificate. But then the scammers will get a certificate for "Micro5oft", etc. Looking forward to a reply moaning about centralized authorities monitoring people's calls. Although as I write this I realize telcos can do this already. Perhaps it can be a P2P solution...
- TreeInBuxton 1y agoI believe this is what STIR/SHAKEN was trying to do, however getting global adoption (which is what would be required) is where it fell over
- frollogaston 1y agoAnyone can spoof any phone number, right? Seems like that's on the telco standards.
- martin8412 1y agoIndeed. All these issues with scam calls from spoofed numbers should lead to BCP38, but for phones. Someone calling shouldn’t be allowed to set their own number in the first place, but we could start by limiting country codes. There’s no reason that a phone should be able to spoof the country of origin. If you want a phone number in France, you can go get a number from a French provider.