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A specific practical objection to modern blocking culture (lemmy.world)

submitted 9 months ago by sparr@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

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Android prompts me to "Block and Report Spam" for spam phone calls, in both the Phone app for regular phone calls and the Voice app for calls through Google Voice.

There is no way to report spam in either app without blocking the number.

Spammers and scammers change their phone numbers frequently. Daily or more, in the case of sophisticated large operations. Those numbers get reassigned to innocent users, who will forever be blocked from calling me.

"Dumb" phone number blocks should only last for maybe a month or a year, not forever. And we should have "smart" blocks, that sync to phone number registration databases and expire when the number changes hands.

This is going to become an increasingly impactful problem if we keep using phone numbers as identifiers while most phone number users don't keep the same number for decades.

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[–] xor@infosec.pub 8 points 9 months ago (3 children)

with a 10 digit phone number, that's a 1 in 10,000,000,000 chance someone will get a specific number that you blocked...
it's a little more because not all numbers are valid, and you're blocking more than one number... but i don't think it's going to be a huge problem....

i do think that "blocking culture" (a term that makes no sense) is a problem online, however...

not only is there a completely opaque process for banning you online, and zero opportunity to talk to a human about it... but when individuals block trolls they continue to troll, but with impunity....

[–] AA5B@lemmy.world 5 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Those odds aren’t valid because you’re assuming random fake numbers, when I reality they tend to chose similar numbers to yours. You’re more likely to think a local number may be valid so will answer.

If they fake the same area code, how many legitimate numbers might you talk to there? Make sure to include all doctors offices, schools, local government, and anyone you might do business with, along with their full set of possible numbers. Now you e got a much larger set of possible conflict out of a space three orders of magnitude smaller, and you’re up to X/10,000,000 chances of blocking a legit number

What if they spoof more locally than just area code, greatly reducing the number space? What if they chose a legit number from your local area, not just any possible, reducing the number space still more? What if you have kids, so multiply the number of possible conflicts. Now it’s likely to affect some people, possibly someone you know

[–] Alk@lemmy.world 5 points 9 months ago

Spammers will spoof numbers similar to yours to get you to trust it. I even had a guy text me FURIOUSLY demanding I stop calling him, when I never had. Someone had spoofed MY number, calling him, who had the same area code and next 3 digits.

[–] XeroxCool@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago

Half the spam calls I've gotten have a 1/10,000 chance of being local to me by using the same area and exchange code - XXX-XXX-????. About 1/4 use the same area code, so 1/10,000,000. The other 1/4 are in that 1/10bil chance. Still, unlikely since there aren't too many in the 1/10k bucket with reason to call me, but it's important to not misrepresent the majority of calls having odds off by 3 magnitudes.