The obviously FAKE SMS scammers...

[GlennSprigg]

We all get them, from the usual assholes that try to get the 'ignorant' to click on some fictitious link
and give away all our personal details etc...   These make me MAD for a multiple of reasons!!!!   

Firstly, WE, (everyone on the planet!), need to inform/tell/educate our friends & family to NOT respond
to them, but also to inform them WHY!  Initially, there is the 'obvious' that NO Bank etc worth anything,
would EVER contact you in such a way. But 'Grandma' will maybe ask... "But what if it's real!"... Argh...

Ok, I'm sure that this has been done to death on the Internet!.... however, I wonder how quick the
authorities respond & close down such scum bags!!!  And I know it is obviously in the 'Banks' interest.
 I ALWAYS report these scammers, and their details, but I never hear about the Follow-on!!!
Surely, (unless I'm dumber than I think, yea, haha), if the powers to be within our own countries would
hopefully be able to 'find' a single/group of numbers, that must have originally been set up for, or be able
to track these total assholes through servers/providers etc...   

The fact remains that we NEVER hear any feedback as to these scum/assholes that (are?) caught!!??   

[hexreader]

Check out the Jim Browning scammer videos on youtube (but be prepared to lose many hours of your life watching all the follow-up videos)

Jim gets back at some of the scamming operations in India and Pakistan and had one shut down.

Somewhere one of the "Scam Baiters" explains that it is impossible to trace phone calls to originator, only IP addresses used for computer hacking scams. Even then it requires a lot of tools, effort and knowledge to hack into scammer computers while remaining anonymous.

Scammers put much effort into avoiding being caught, or constantly moving office if they are caught.

The depressing news is that the scams are increasing and punishment is rare.

North Korea is paying for it's nuclear missiles using state controlled scamming on an industrial scale

[jmelson]

Well, they are mostly in India, China, Africa, etc.  The phone system, as it now is, allows ANYONE to alter their outgoing caller ID!  This is a HUGE hole in the system.  The FCC has clearly identified this as something that MUST be changed, they have a plan (shaken/stir) but the phone companies are REALLY dragging their feet.  Providing an outgoing caller ID makes sense for large companies that have outgoing and incoming trunks, and they want to provide a valid phone numner to anyone that wants to return a missed call, so it gets to their incoming voicemail system and can be answered.

But, the scammers have NO such need, they should NOT be able to provide a phony caller ID number.  The phone companies need to set up a system for verifying any phone number that needs to change their caller ID and blocking anyone from providing any other ID #.
I cans ee why this would be a big hassle for phone companies, but it really only affects LARGE businesses.  I'm talking about HMOs, insurance companies, LARGE banks, the IRS, etc.  Anyone else just needs to live with their real number as the outgoing ID, and if they try to provide a different ID, the phone system will not transmit the number.  This ought to be programmed into the phone switches.

I don't know how the FCC will deal with calls coming in from overseas, it is up to the foreign phone companies to implement something similar.  Ajit Pai, where are you when we NEED you?

Jon

[Stray Electron]

Well, they are mostly in India, China, Africa, etc.  The phone system, as it now is, allows ANYONE to alter their outgoing caller ID!  This is a HUGE hole in the system.  The FCC has clearly identified this as something that MUST be changed, they have a plan (shaken/stir) but the phone companies are REALLY dragging their feet.

  My wife was in very senior management for one of the largest land line phone companies in the US for over 40 years and that company is RAPIDLY going belly up due to the fact that so many people are fed up with the endless calls from telemarketers and are completely disconnecting their land lines. But somehow the TOP management in Phone Companies just don't get it!  Her company was the 2nd largest PC in the US not long ago but expects to be completely out of both the land line and cell phone business within the next very few years. 

   The telemarketers and scammers have destroyed the US phone system. To me, it's unbelievable that the Phone Companies and the US Government have stood by and allowed this to happen!

   As far as the US not be able to control scammers in other countries, IMO if the other country doesn't control it's scammers then the US phone companies should block all connections to and from that country until they do.

[Bud]

In Canada, the government itself spam people with calls and SMS during election campaigns. This is outrageous. And you can't opt out.