Josephus Brown: And we have officially ceded an entire communications medium to thieves because nobody can be arsed to do anything about it

The first rule of avoiding scam calls is to never answer unknown numbers, and even some known ones. Curious? Bored? Worried it’s an emergency? Wait the extra minute it takes for the call to go to voice mail, then decide if it’s legitimate.

Sick of scams? Stop answering your phone.www.washingtonpost.com Phone scams are still hugely popular — and they depend entirely on people curious enough to answer.

And we have officially ceded an entire communications medium to thieves because nobody can be arsed to do anything about it

Government exists to do just that but ours is so utterly broken by the plutocrats that nothing can happen anymore.

This one in particular baffles me because who the fuck is taking money from these scam companies? I think it’s more the GOP has gotten so deranged they have no idea how to even accomplish anything anymore, and will never let anything good happen on a democrat’s watch

idk i think it's less that they don't know how, or that they're taking money from the scammers, and more that doing something about it would cost money

No, it's that the Reagan-Republican belief is that government should never do anything good for anyone. If government is doing something that improves society, that's bad.

Also a problem in Australia. Few people use landlines anymore for a number of reasons, non stop scam calls being one. On mobile devices we either rely on spam detecting software or call screening. Needs addressing for sure. It's damaging society.

Landline goes to voicemail, cell gets screened.

They've been trying, and some of it has gotten better, for example, we are getting closer to being able to trust caller id using STIR/SHAKEN www.fcc.gov/call-authent... and they are blocking most of the providers that enable it.

Combating Spoofed Robocalls with Caller ID Authenticationwww.fcc.gov Caller ID authorization is a new system aimed at combating illegal caller ID spoofing. Such a system is critical to protecting Americans from scam spoofed robocalls and would erode the ability of call...

Is the FCC one of the organizations that Trump wants to disband?

I mean, is there any other kind? They all tell rich people no, so they must go.

The current Republican party's ethos is don't allow anything that Democrats might get some credit for.

Maybe too simple an explanation, but I've wondered how much of it is because of our gerontocracy in congress. octogenarians who have no idea how email works much less phishing and cookie storage and no desire to learn so the rest of us are just stuck

“This thing I broke doesn’t work!”

Not sure about the %, but I'd wager majority of scam calls aren't from "companies" per se. They're overseas, often used by criminal orgs. My best guesses on why things don't change: - regulation is taboo - writing regulation that would end scam calls but allow for robo-donation calls would be hard.

I think it's a combination of the US government being mostly lazy or incompetent at implementing regulations, and that in India for example the government is often paid off to let the scam centers keep doing their thing

Thank Ajit Pai for killing Net Neutrality, otherwise maybe the FCC could have regulated this stuff

You'll probably be glad to know that the current administration of the FCC (far past Pai) voted to officially restore net neutrality, and if allowed to work will probably work at fixing this problem too.

i mean what's the other option, having the federal agency that is supposed to make sure that communications media are usable make sure that this communications medium is usable

I wrote a bill aiming to improve this a few years back and was told that people try basically every year, but it's impossible to do anything about it at the state level and very difficult at the federal level because they mainly originate outside of the US...

... and the tech is accessible enough that it's whack-a-mole/not worth the resources to prosecute. OTOH: the FCC did implement an authentication protocol to cut down on number spoofing, but it's still not everywhere...because requiring it would cost companies $ www.fcc.gov/call-authent...

Combating Spoofed Robocalls with Caller ID Authenticationwww.fcc.gov Caller ID authorization is a new system aimed at combating illegal caller ID spoofing. Such a system is critical to protecting Americans from scam spoofed robocalls and would erode the ability of call...

I suppose getting that last bit done would do a lot, especially for the real terrible scams

Legit though I appreciate your actual informed response!

Thank you so, so much for trying!!

I have noticed a sharp decline in spam calls and some of it is probably because of new features on my Google phone and some of it is because there is a little bit being done at the executive branch this past year.

But maga be like, "that's government overreach to not allow me to be scammed on my own phone!"

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