I get robocalls that spoof caller ID to look as if they’re my boss calling.
1 Like
I suspect that getting collar-blind sentencing through congress would…deeply nontrivial; but the ethical case seems abundantly strong and a system where punishments are automatically adjusted to exist on the same scale would probably inspire some useful criminal justice reform(in both directions).
Imposing scaling would also help compensate for the fact that human moral intuition doesn’t seem to scale that well, with relatively harsh responses at small scales blurring into ‘all large numbers sound the same’ on the actually-most-dangerous end of the scale. If your fraud is of some millions of times the magnitude it’s simple math to scale your punishment accordingly.
(apropos of deeply-not-collar-blind sentencing; I’m reminded of the case of Skinner_v._Oklahoma; where the state’s law allowing sterilization of ‘habitual criminals’ was overturned as being an equal protection violation because as noted in the decision:
“Only one other provision of the Act is material here, and that is § 195, which provides that “offenses arising out of the violation of the prohibitory laws, revenue acts, embezzlement, or political offenses, shall not come or be considered within the terms
of this Act.””
The law just outright stated that white collar criminality wasn’t habitual criminality for the purposes of weeding out those whose germ plasm was of the criminal type; without even a ‘because reasons’; and the court wasn’t amused.)
3 Likes
The cost of doing business. The parking was probably a bigger line item.
5 Likes
Since yesterday I’ve decided to call my Congressman’s DC office every time I get a robo call. The same guy answers the phone. A couple of hours ago…“It’s me again. Got another robo call. This is probably getting a little old, but I’ve been five or six a day and I can’t answer my phone anymore. We’ll talk to you soon.”
I urge everyone to do the same and stay with it.
13 Likes
It probably breaks Ajit Pai’s heart that Big Government is stomping in, stifling business, picking winners and losers, rather than letting the market decide which robocallers have a viable business model.
Fig 1-1. Pai, drowning his sorrows in another cup of java.
3 Likes
Pretty much me now as well. I turned on “do not disturb” on my iPhone some time back and rarely turn it off. When I’m on call, I allow phone calls through, tho.
1 Like
What’s missing from the article: Multi-year prison terms for the CEOs and company owners.
6 Likes
I got one of those yesterday.
I used to block them, but they spoof a random number in my area code, and never used the same one twice. Now I just send it to voice mail if it’s not on my contact list.
I also put the special information tone indicating a disconnected number at the start of my message. Not sure if it helps or not.
For this I would support the death penalty:
1 Like
The Asterisk CAPTCHA I put on my ex-landline has been soaking up at least eight calls a day the last few days, with 13 of them on Monday. All spoofed, and nobody I knew (anyone I know will ring straight through). One of them even spoofed a phone company test line, FFS. The government and the phone companies have a very long way to go if they’re actually serious about doing anything.
I ought to spiff the CAPTCHA up a bit and see if I can get a voice recognition engine working, so a caller could say “I am not a robot” as an alternative to pressing a key.
1 Like
I don’t suppose they’ll ever nail these gentlemen?
But we’re only calling you because you’ve stayed at one of our resorts!
Who are the people behind these faceless company names? They must have been identified in the actual court cases, but that information is never published – even at boingboing.
No one pays the fines. Ever.
Oh hey, look at this:
2 Likes
But now how will I find out WHAT the CREDIT card COMPANIES DON’T want YOU to KNOW…
1 Like
You know, I haven’t had GLADOS tell me how many warrants are out for my arrest over something, something, taxes in such a long time. I kinda miss her. 
3 Likes
Oh, it’s you.
3 Likes
