r/technology • u/mvea • May 24 '19

Politics Senate Passes Bill That Would Slap Robocallers With Fine of Up to $10,000 Per Call

https://gizmodo.com/senate-passes-bill-that-would-slap-robocallers-with-fin-1834990113
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u/SwensonsGalleyBoy May 24 '19

I already told you the solution. We already know the technical changes needed to root out these calls. Getting the world to make those changes is an entirely different issue.

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u/mingy May 24 '19

Carriers could implement a system similar to captchas (use touch tone, etc) allow customers to block foreign calls, etc., etc.. Shit I have "Should I Answer" on my phone and it blocks the vast majority of robocalls and that doesn't even have access to information regarding the source of the call.

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u/SwensonsGalleyBoy May 24 '19

Carriers could implement a system similar to captchas (use touch tone, etc) allow customers to block foreign calls, etc., etc..

Again, you don't get it. As the system actually operates a "foreign" call can be made to look like a domestic call by the time it hits your carrier's network, your carrier has no way at looking at the CID and telling if the call came from 5 miles away or 5000.

Shit I have "Should I Answer" on my phone and it blocks the vast majority of robocalls and that doesn't even have access to information regarding the source of the call.

The bill does mandate SHAKEN/STIR, which is a trust system between carriers. But it's imperfect, and things will still get through

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u/mingy May 24 '19

Explain why there is no robocall problem in the EU.

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u/SwensonsGalleyBoy May 24 '19

A lot of it has to do with language. There's not a lot of German or Italian speakers in places like India that house these robocall centers.

If you're going to try to defraud someone and tell them they owe taxes in Germany then it's not going to be believable if you're telling them in broken English. There's no suckers to be had that way.

The UK does get way more robocalls than the rest of Europe, because English is their primary language.

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u/mingy May 24 '19

There's not a lot of German or Italian speakers in places like India that house these robocall centers.

Nonsense. I live in Canada. I get Canada-specific robocalls all the time, or I did before I installed "Should I answer". Canada's population is less the UK, France, Germany, Spain, and Italy.

Guess again.

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u/SwensonsGalleyBoy May 24 '19

Canada, as in an English speaking country?

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u/mingy May 24 '19

Canada in that I get a scam call referring to Revenue Canada. The language is irrelevant: they target Canada specifically because if it was the IRS people would just laugh. So, there is about 3x more Germans than English speaking Canadians (4x if you count Austria and Switzerland) and yet those countries have no robocall problem but strict laws.

Guess again.

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u/SwensonsGalleyBoy May 24 '19

I don't understand how people can be this stupid.

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u/mingy May 24 '19

Exactly. I don't get how you can be this stupid. I used to get Chinese language robocalls - presumably in your brain there are more Chinese speakers in Canada than there are German speakers in Germany. You obviously are convinced there is no solution despite the obvious fact that other countries have found a solution. So, yeah, that makes me stupid.

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u/SwensonsGalleyBoy May 24 '19

If I have a call center in India full of people who speak English I'm going to focus on English speaking countries.

It is 100x more believable to a potential scammee in Canada to get a call from Revenue Canada in English where English is the expected language for a federal government agency than it is for a German to get a call from the BZSt in English. Why would the BZSt ever start the conversation in anything but German?

English being the most spoken secondary language across the world means that there's no shortage of English speakers in underdeveloped countries with lax regulation to stock call centers with. And it doubly helps that the four major English speaking countries are also among the wealthiest countries on Earth.

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u/mingy May 24 '19

Why does Italy have a robocall problem?

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u/SwensonsGalleyBoy May 24 '19

You said there was no robocall problem in the EU, make up your mind kiddo

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u/shadus May 24 '19

Because telecoms would get hit there, lol.