Posted on 11/15/2024 12:54:33 PM PST by nickcarraway
Our government can put a man in the Moon (supposedly). Yet they can do nothing to stop these filthy scammers from preying on the vulnerable.
My advice to Trump 2.0: Set up a team of clever computer guys (you wouldn’t need many) to figure out how to counter-strike those pigs.
Oh, and maybe invest a few dollars in public service ads. I myself wouldn’t know anything about this racket if I hadn’t accidentally come across a few YouTube videos.
When my niece was about 1, 1.5 years old, my brother had a marvelous technique for telemarketers and scammers. He handed the phone to his little girl. She thought it was sooooo special that she got to do what the adults do! She would make all kinds of sounds, and a few words. Sometimes, we could not stop laughing as the telemarketer continued his sales pitch.
There was one other time, a salesman came to the door. My brother has one of those very secure screen doors with a deadbolt lock. As the salesman started his spiel, dad had his daughter do the same thing. Fun!
My password is “GFYS”................
Sounds like Jolly Roger bot, 214 666 4321
Hopefully the banks are in on it. Prohibit wire transfers out and When the scumbag scammer tries to withdraw money in person from the fake account he gets immediately arrested.
My dad loved getting junk calls. He would start telling them about his ailments and how they occurred. I would sit at the table and spit coffee laughing so hard.
Back when I used to get scam calls I would just say, in the most doofus voice I could muster: “I ain’t got no money” over and over until they hung up. My wife hated it but to me it was good fun.
Consider this analogy (the phone system or the internet as the "highway"):
You wish to / need to drive on the highway, along with all your fellow citizens.> Oh, and maybe invest a few dollars in public service ads.There are some nasty people also driving who like to throw rocks at you, swerve into you and run you off the road, maybe shoot at you. They have cars just like yours, can't tell them apart from the type of car. The only way to identify them is when they attack you; until then they're just another driver on the road.
Propose a means for "how to counter-strike" the bad guys without restricting your rights to drive.
Turns out it's damn difficult, often impossible, until damage has been done.
Here it is: "DRIVE DEFENSIVELY". Whether you're on the highway or the phone or the internet, practice defensive "driving". Be skeptical by default. Interacting with the outside world is dangerous.
There is a huge existing body of public information about how to be on the defensive, but people have to read it or see it on TV. Most people ignore it.
Whaddyagonnado?
Love Kitboga!
My friend got a call from some vitamin scammers. Since he was sitting and watching a football game and had nothing else to do, he decided to play along. He asked many intelligent questions. Often the scammer had to go ask his supervisor. My friend would start giving him his credit card number, then think of another question right in the middle of the number that would send the scammer back to the super.
He managed to keep the guy occupied for 3 hours. They finally hung up.
> Propose a means for “how to counter-strike” the bad guys without restricting your rights to drive. <
There are YouTubers who call-flood scammers. That would be a good start. Just do it on a larger scale.
For those not in the know, call-flooding is using a computer program to call a specific phone number over and over, thousands of times. This usually shuts the number down, at least temporarily.
This counter-strike would have limited value against scammers who call you, as they usually spoof their own numbers. But it would be VERY effective against scammers who must use their real numbers in email scams.
Scams like: “You have won a $1000 Visa gift certificate. Call (whatever) to claim your prize.”
Or,
“This is your last notice from the IRS. Call (whatever) to avoid legal action against you.”
Call-flood ‘em.
Call flooding can work in a few specific cases, like the email ones you mentioned. But it comes at a cost to you, and it’s only a temporary measure. Either you purchase an outbound phone line which costs you actual dollars, or you use a calling service like Skype, but in short order the scammers figure out your outbound number and block it, and I’m sure they already know how to identify computer service outbound calls, and similarly block them. So although flooding would work, it would only work for a little while and it would probably be more trouble or cost than it’s worth.
My 80+ year old husband loves to aggravate the scammers if they call when he doesn’t have anything else to do.
In our area the scammers often co-op local private phone numbers that list the owners name.
One time he got a call that caller ID said came from himself!
One time about 10 years ago, I was at a relatives house waiting for a ride. Everyone was asleep, including babies, so I was just sitting there doing nothing. I got a call from a scammer, so since I was bored I indulged. I would argue for a while, then ask to speak to a manager. I was on the phone with them for 45 minutes, and was up three levels in management.
I LOVE Kitboga.
Call coming from out the country should be limited to 3 calls per day from any given phone number that is not authenticated to be legit. That would stop them. Also charging for all incoming over seas calls beyond a set allowance would slow them down. Back in the day when the originator had to pay for these calls then the scam model would have never worked.
Phew! So complicated. Just don’t take calls from unknown numbers. Isn’t that what voicemail is for?
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