# We need to get far more serious about organized cyber-crime scamming

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-need-to-get-far-more-serious-about-organized-cyber-crime-scamming/1014274>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [February 13, 2025, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-need-to-get-far-more-serious-about-organized-cyber-crime-scamming/1014274 "2025-02-13T17:46:51Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 52

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**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\
**Post date:** [March 12, 2025, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-need-to-get-far-more-serious-about-organized-cyber-crime-scamming/1014274/52 "2025-03-12T05:24:21Z")

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> [@What is the purpose of this new spam call tactic?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-purpose-of-this-new-spam-call-tactic/1015418/16):
>
> I wish there was an option to charge the other person for the phone call they made to you. Just a token amount like $0.50. If you wanted to charge them you could, if you didn’t you didn’t have to. The money could go into a fund to stop telemarketing scams and the person reporting it wouldn’t benefit.
> 
> It seems like that would allow free phone calls between people but cut down on spam.

I think 5 cents per call _attempted_ would cut down on this a lot. The scammers do appear to vary their behavior according to small economic incentives.

Answering one of these phone calls increases phone activity. Wasting their time appears to reduce it. Anecdotally, one guy on Reddit stopped calls by telling the Microsoft scammers that he had a Linux machine. I’ve stopped daily calls (at least for the past week or so) by (unconsciously) simulating [Jolly Roger Telephone](https://jollyrogertelephone.com/) and keeping the person on the phone as long as I could (about a minute). I cost them less than a nickel (assuming $2/hr wages) but that was enough to stop the nonsense. So far.

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There is legislation to crack down on Caller ID spoofing, but deadlines have come and gone and the problem seems to remain. STIR/SHAKEN was suppose to go into force in 2021, but I can’t find a good update on this federally mandated technology.

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