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Monkey photo on ID activates Philippine SIM cards, exposing loophole in new law vs scammers
(www.straitstimes.com)
this post was submitted on 09 Sep 2023
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Solution to phone scams has nothing to do with sim card issuance. Any restrictions in that regard will only harm legitimate users.
We have to demand companies to strictly verify the incoming caller numbers, like we do with modern day emails. That way, filtering on the receiving side becomes possible.
I often wonder if spam protection would be better if more clearly displayed.
I know DKIM, SPF, DMARC aren't "friendly names" but we could call them "Sender Valid", "Email Valid", "Handshake Accepted" or something and then maybe a "no outside links" and "no suspicious content" — 5 pip marks or green ticks to feel better about it?
Then you could also force-display the domain and page title following links, and warn against mismatching reply-to: addresses. Maybe even show some known technographics from the headers ("Sent via Marketo?")
All that to say, systems like that would help against spam callers and scammers.
Is number spoofing really a problem outside of North America (+1 country code)? Over the past decade or so I've had phone numbers in 5 different countries across several continents and never had any issues with number spoofing or really any spam from phone numbers at all (since a year ago, I get at most 1 spam SMS a month here in Japan, not one call ever), but I keep hearing only Americans talking about it as a problem.
I think it's more widespread in the US but have definitely gotten it in central Europe
I got less than 2 outright scam calls in EU for as long as I have a phone. But if I use a foreign service that allows me to set an arbitrary caller ID, it will get through to my phone no problem.
I have no idea where the filtering happens, but if it fails one day, we're in for a lot of hurt. Oftentimes even the legitimate companies, like banks, will call you, and demand personal information from you "for verification purposes". Then, tries to sell you a loan, or an insurance. They always act surprised I'm not keen on sharing my personal info with a stranger.
It really depends on how liberal you are with your phone number. Do you give it to everyone and anyone? Because once it’s on a spam call list, it stays there for a long while. Even after it’s “tested bad” it gets circulated through to other spammers.
Eventually it will fall off, but it takes years in some cases. And you need to be pretty vigilant with your screening to get there.
I always assumed they just called every single number randomly. Since you don't pay for failed calls, the cost is zero.
Some likely do, but there are other types of responses they will get that do cost. Such as answering services, fax machines, and even dialup endpoints. It’ll always be more cost effective to use a shared list of “good” numbers.
Good point!