Re Nearly half of cellphone calls will be scams by 2019, report says

["Dave Farber" <farber () gmail com>]

> Begin forwarded message:
>
> From: Doug Humphrey <doug () joss com>
> Subject: Re: [IP] Nearly half of cellphone calls will be scams by 2019, report says
> Date: September 20, 2018 9:37:31 JST
> To: dave () farber net
> Cc: ip <ip () listbox com>
>
> Two things that puzzle me; first, why whitelisting (only allowing known contacts) in email and, after reading this, 
> cell phones, isn’t more popular, and second why email programs allow clicking on a URL contained in an email....
>
> On 1) I can see an argument for strangers calling you in an emergency, or someone you know calling from an unknown 
> number, but there is a little engineering in the UI that should help with that.
>
> On 2) there is no excuse to allow a clickable URL except “it is convenient, and yeah, a little, so maybe with hard 
> white listing you could trust them more? 
>
> Seriously, I know it’s the wide open way that we have “always done it” but it is killing us, and not slowly....
>
> Doug
> “No really get off my lawn”
> Humphrey 
>
> On Sep 19, 2018, at 7:19 PM, Dave Farber <farber () gmail com <mailto:farber () gmail com>> wrote:
>
> > Begin forwarded message:
> >
> > > From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com <mailto:dewayne () warpspeed com>>
> > > Date: September 20, 2018 at 07:49:59 GMT+9
> > > To: Multiple recipients of Dewayne-Net <dewayne-net () warpspeed com <mailto:dewayne-net () warpspeed com>>
> > > Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Nearly half of cellphone calls will be scams by 2019, report says
> > > Reply-To: dewayne-net () warpspeed com <mailto:dewayne-net () warpspeed com>
> > >
> > > Nearly half of cellphone calls will be scams by 2019, report says
> > > By Hamza Shaban
> > > Sep 19 2018
> > > <https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2018/09/19/nearly-half-cellphone-calls-will-be-scams-by-report-says/ 
> > > <https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2018/09/19/nearly-half-cellphone-calls-will-be-scams-by-report-says/>>
> > >
> > > Nearly half of all cellphone calls next year will come from scammers, according to First Orion, a company that 
> > > provides phone carriers and their customers caller ID and call blocking technology.
> > >
> > > The Arkansas-based firm projects an explosion of incoming spam calls, marking a leap from 3.7 percent of total 
> > > calls in 2017 to more than 29 percent this year, to a projected 45 percent by early 2019.
> > >
> > > “Year after year, the scam-call epidemic bombards consumers at record-breaking levels, surpassing the previous 
> > > year, and scammers increasingly invade our privacy at new extremes,” Charles Morgan, the chief executive and head 
> > > data scientist of First Orion, said in a blog post last week.
> > >
> > > The barrage of fraudulent calls has taken a more dire turn in recent months as scammers have targeted immigrant 
> > > communities with urgent calls claiming ambiguous legal trouble. Across several U.S. metropolitan areas with large 
> > > Chinese populations, scam callers have posed as representatives of the Chinese embassy while trying to trick 
> > > Chinese immigrants and students into revealing their credit card numbers. The scammers told people that they have a 
> > > package ready to be picked up at the Chinese consulate office, a first step in a ruse, or that they need to turn 
> > > over information to resolve a legal issue, according to the Federal Trade Commission.
> > >
> > > Other prominent spam calls involve fraudsters pretending to be a representative from a bank, a debt collector or 
> > > cable company.
> > >
> > > The Internal Revenue Service has also warned taxpayers about phone scams. Callers use telephone numbers that mimic 
> > > actual IRS assistance centers, claim to be IRS employees and use fake names and phony badge numbers. The IRS says 
> > > victims are falsely told they owe money to the government and are urged to pay through a gift card or wire 
> > > transfer. Scammers may also take advantage of the devastation caused by Hurricane Florence, the IRS warned. 
> > > Scammers can pose as a charitable organization, preying on the generosity of Americans who want to help those 
> > > affected by the storm.
> > >
> > > Scammers also trick people into answering their calls with a scheme known as neighborhood spoofing, in which they 
> > > manipulate caller ID information so that their actual phone number is masked. Instead, the calls appear to have 
> > > been placed locally. A person looking at their caller ID will see a number that matches their own area code, as if 
> > > the caller is a neighbor or a relative. Because the number appears familiar, people are more likely to answer the 
> > > call.
> > >
> > > More than half of all complaints received by the Federal Communications Commission — more than 200,000 of them — 
> > > are about unwanted calls. The FCC said Americans received about 2.4 billion unwanted, automated calls each month, 
> > > according to 2016 estimates.
> > >
> > > Charles Kennedy, a senior adjunct fellow at the tech policy think tank TechFreedom, said the problem of spam calls 
> > > is difficult to solve because many of the offenders are hard to track down. It’s illegal for telemarketers to call 
> > > someone whose number is on the national do-not-call registry, unless they have an existing business relationship or 
> > > the phone owner’s explicit written permission. But Kennedy said that people who ignore the list or engage in 
> > > deception are often hard to hold to account. They make calls from abroad, obscure their locations and place a 
> > > tremendous number of calls. Technological, rather than legal, solutions hold more promise, Kennedy said, as phone 
> > > carriers develop methods to block scammers before they reach consumers and to unmask their spoofed numbers.
> > >
> > > [snip]
> > >
> > > Dewayne-Net RSS Feed: http://dewaynenet.wordpress.com/feed/ <http://dewaynenet.wordpress.com/feed/>
> > > Twitter: https://twitter.com/wa8dzp <https://twitter.com/wa8dzp>
>
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