Spam Texts Are Out of Control, Say All 51 Attorneys General (foxnews.com) 37
A proposal to force cellphone companies to block certain spam texts is gaining momentum. From a report: California Attorney General Rob Bonta has expressed his support for a proposal by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to put an end to illegal and malicious texts. By doing so, he joined attorneys general from the other 49 states and Washington D.C., who had all previously expressed their support of the proposal. In a letter signed by all 51 attorneys general to the FCC, supporting them in their hopes to require cellular providers to block illegal text messages from invalid or unused numbers, as well as blocking any phone numbers found on a "do not originate" list, numbers which have previously been proved to have been used for fraudulent activity.
Congress (Score:5, Insightful)
Meanwhile Congress sits around with its thumb up its collective ass. Want to bet some court somewhere decides the FCC doesn't have the authority to do this? And it's Congress's fault. I know, their average age is so high that most of them don't have a fucking clue, but they damn well have enough dimes to buy one with. Is it any wonder their approval rating is approaching negative values?
Re: (Score:2)
Oh, they don't have thumbs up their collective ass, they have them in our asses. #FTFY
Re:Congress [can't solve economic problems] (Score:2)
I wish that was a joke.
Actually, the joke might be "And I thought it was ONLY my phone!"
Anyway, the problem is that the spamming scammers are making money. If the money is removed, then the spam will stop.
Proof of concept: All of the pump-and-dump stock scam spam you are NOT receiving now. Not so long ago, you got lots of it. Then a couple of researchers published papers showing how it worked. Based on their experience with the timing of the spam, the spammers were effectively printing money. So they fixed
Cat and mouse (Score:2)
Blocking calls based on numbers has absolutely zero chance of success. Malicious and/or spam actors will simply get another batch of numbers to use, and at a minimal cost while blocking numbers will probably take a considerable amount of time.
What we need is some kind of a call/text revolution which would redefine who can contact us and when. I can't help but think that the only viable answer to the spam problem is mandatory, world-wide phone number registration, which is already a thing in majority of coun
Re: (Score:2)
There are too many anonymous phone services now that are used by scammers and CRM call center hacks. These guys run call centers and leverage these anonymous numbers all the time, which needs to stop. It would be very easy for congress to pass a law preventing the use of anonymous numbers but for some reason, they just can't seem to muster up enough ink and paper to do it. They can obviously produce a 4100-page $1.7T funding bill at the last minute but can't seem to block anonymous callers.
Are they? (Score:2)
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I stopped getting the email-to-sms porn spam, at 2am from various gmail accounts, when I asked my carrier turn off email-to-sms.
Not a problem here (Score:4, Interesting)
I never use 2FA for any websites with my cell number. Nobody gets that. Need a phone number? Here's my POTS line (some 2FA systems actually do work with that). Cell phone system security is completely broken. Hook that phone to an important service and just wait to get your number hijacked. eSIMs will make it 100x worse.
And to address the 800 pound gorilla of personal data thievery: Where I absolutely have to have a Google account, the one I created for myself says I'm 16 years old. No binding contracts and bigger penalties for shoveling bullshit onto my phone.
What about spam emails (Score:2)
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Including email-to-sms, much more abused than sms alone.
about time (Score:2)
I've never understood why the PSTN supports the use of phone numbers (at least in the US) that are not allowed in the North American Numbering Plan. Limiting the use of invalid or unused numbers seems like step 1 and should be in place already.
There must be a parallel universe somewhere that planned for security in their public networks, we sure didn't in this one.
Re:about time (Score:4, Insightful)
That would be useless. If they're already faking the numbers, they'd just fake a valid number. What you do is you slap a $0.001 cost on each phone call, billed to the originating caller. If it's from overseas, you bill the company that sent the call.
They've already got a way to know where the originating call comes from, or they couldn't have two way conversations on the phone calls. (And I didn't say anything about phone numbers. For all I know those may be duplicated. Certainly the ones presented for the receiver to view can be duplicated.)
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> That would be useless. If they're already faking the numbers, they'd just fake a valid number.
Much harder with Shaken and Stir.
Anti-spam measures (Score:2)
...are only as good as the companies running them. I know of several companies who have been inappropriately blocked because ATT can't get their shit together, so instead of recognizing a campaign as legitimate, they just block the provider. Takes a month to fix, because it's ATT and they're absolutely a garbage company to have to interface with.
I've done everything I can to avoid working with ATT, yet I still have to deal with their incompetence.
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I've done everything I can to avoid working with ATT, yet I still have to deal with their incompetence.
They only understand Telephones and Telegraphs -- it's right there in their name. :-)
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Oh, I'm going to tell you right now; they know dick all about telephones. I've even had issues with fax lines from them, and that's as close to a telegraph as I want to get.
No exceptions please (Score:2)
Please vote for (your party). How do you feel that (your party) is doing? Please support (your party).
You know what? If I didn't care about the platforms, if the parties were truly equal I'd simply vote for the party that didn't spam me. When I get around to it, I'm thinking of re-registering as independent but I'm concerned this might just make matters worse--doubling the solicitations because both parties will be trying to "get me back" along with any other parties that can afford to spam (though I do
Re: (Score:1)
This was my policy during the last few elections. If you text spammed me, you lost my vote. That does not mean that your opponent got the vote, it just means that you lost it. Most of the political spam comes from private numbers doing texting to blocks of numbers, so I was glad to tell them they had actually lost my vote, then blocked their number.
start with political spam sms (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
I absolutely hate the political sms spam. I put my phone number on a mail-in ballot once (appeared to be required), now I seem to be on everyone's list twice. I even get political sms spam for my ex-wife on my number.
The political volunteer fucking idiots that send those messages never seem to understand why people hate them. The same list will be given to multiple volunteers, so when you unsubscribe only volunteer knows and the printed lists with your name on them are still with other volunteers, so you'll
CONgress is to blame (Score:2)
All America's CONgress has to do is follow the same steps as estonia: digital certificates just like we issue state IDs, drivers license, passports, SSN, etc.
is this just a US problem? (Score:1)
I've never received any of such. Robocalls? Unsolicited calls? Never.
How is this even a thing?
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Yes, it's a plague here. However, I admit that as the war in Ukraine has drawn on I've started to see significantly less of it...
Chage a Dime back up the line (Score:2)
Baffled (Score:1)
Why is it so friggen easy to fake caller identity in the system? I don't get it. Why is that hole not repairable?
Re: (Score:1)
Because the phone companies are being paid "dark money" not to repair it, and won't admit it.
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Politicians: want to get re-elected? (Score:2)
Then solve the spam problem.
Seriously, with all the gridlock in DC, the spam nuisance (email, text, phone) is something everyone agrees on except for the 0.01% of people that are the actual spammers.
Easy example. I get at least 1 spam text and 2 spam calls a day. Both of those take me maybe 5 seconds to check and delete. Of all my email spam I get maybe 20 that squeeze through my filter. If each of those takes 2 seconds to deal with that's 40 seconds. So I'm dealing with spam for 55 seconds of my day.
So the question is. (Score:1)
are they really just supporting the CIA spying on all your and everyone's communications?
Just think f all the googleplexes of data storage they are sucking up with such ads.
So here is what to do, get all the junk you can and filter it. If you want to be funny, bounce it to the spys. But do it in a way that you can say...opps! it was a technical error.
Political TXTs exempted? (Score:1)
Obligatory anecdotal account (Score:2)
I am a U.S. resident, have a cell phone with a U.S. number, and have received no more than 3 SMS spam texts in the past year. It's not a thing on my phone, and I give out my cell number quite liberally.
Resolved: Works for me. Fight me if you want to change my mind.
Huh? (Score:2)
I used to get a lot of span texts. Now I get none. I dunno why.
I used to get a lot of spam phone calls. Now I still get a lot of spam phone calls I dunno why.