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from the http://www.archersecuritygroup.com/dont-fall-double-digit-phone-scam/ dept.
Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984
By next year, nearly half of the mobile phone calls we get will be scams, according to a new report from First Orion, a company that provides calls management and protection for T-Mobile, MetroPCs, Virgin Mobile and others.
The percentage of scam calls in US mobile traffic increased from 3.7 percent last year to 29.2 percent this year, and it's predicted to rise to 44.6 percent in 2019, First Orion said in a press release Wednesday.
The most popular method scammers use to try to get people to pick up the phone is called "neighborhood spoofing," where they disguise their numbers with a local prefix so people presume the calls are safe to pick up, First Onion said. Third-party call blocking apps may help protect consumers from known scam numbers, but they can't tell if a scammer hijacks someone's number and uses it for scam calls.
"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," First Orion CEO Charles Morgan said in the press release.
Source: https://www.cnet.com/news/almost-half-of-us-cell-phone-calls-will-be-scams-by-next-year-says-report/
(Score: 2) by Pslytely Psycho on Saturday September 15 2018, @08:44PM (2 children)
Wow, so the number is going down, this should be great news.
I have had something on the order of around eighty percent in the last few years. The only actual phone calls I have had are emergencies from work (thankfully no family emergencies) and a few for impromptu family get togethers. My wife face-times my grand-kids a few times a week, everything else is text.
I tend to answer them, always the same way if it's a person (or at least a bot that sounds reasonably like one), "Oh great, hang on a second so I can get a pen and paper," and leave them hanging. Well unless it's a "This is windows calling, you have a virus." If I have time those are just too much fun to fuck with. I also like fucking with the IRS scammers, talk to them a couple of minutes, have the wife yell out "I've got them!" and inform the caller to remain on the line until the authorities arrive...this usually results in a quick hang up or an expletive and hang up. Those numbers rarely call back.
All obvious robots get a hang up and block.
Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.
(Score: 2) by Beryllium Sphere (r) on Sunday September 16 2018, @04:10PM (1 child)
I fantasize about lecturing one of the IRS spammers about Federal prison conditions and explaining that turning her boss in might get her brownie points with the prosecutor.
(Score: 2) by Beryllium Sphere (r) on Sunday September 16 2018, @04:58PM
'Cause they're in a super vulnerable position. If they're charged with conspiracy rather than aiding and abetting, they can be sentenced just like the kingpin of the operation. That's how someone could get life without parole for handling a drug dealer's phone messages.
But wait, there's more! Suppose there's one mastermind and 15 headset people. If the US Attorney breaks up the operation, the organizer can buy a lighter sentence by shopping out the headset people. Then the US Attorney gets credit for sixteen convictions, and yes it's unjust that the headset people get longer sentences than the criminal mastermind, but that is the way it works. Not hypothetical, I know someone this happened to.
I daydream about telling the fake IRS agent to hire a defense attorney specializing in Federal cases and having their attorney try to get them a deal. If the numbers aren't an issue, then it's a simple Prisoner's Dilemma. I've heard there's a tendency for the best deal to go to the first person who cooperates.