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With almost 40k subscribers on Reddit, r/ScamNumbers is one of the most useful online databases for tracking down scam phone numbers. Some use the information for awareness, while others take advantage by prank calling scammers to waste their time.

Whatever the case may be, we have a zero-tolerance policy towards personal phone numbers. We have enforced this rule severely on Reddit and will do the same here.

We also have a Matrix space!

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[-] RedditRefugee69@lemmy.world 36 points 10 months ago

Can someone explain to me how to use this data to block calls?

[-] nilloc@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 10 months ago

I was under the impression that (at least in the US) scammers don’t reveal any real phone numbers with Caller-ID. That they just chose random numbers with your area code and similar exchange digits to try and convince you it’sa let local call (like you drs office or whatever you may be waiting on). Is that not true?

[-] RedditRefugee69@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago

All my scam calls come from numbers in my area code or close by

[-] otter@lemmy.ca 18 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Welcome! Consider sharing on !communityPromo@lemmy.ca

Also these are a universal links and they makes it easier for people to subscribe from other instances

  • !scamnumbers@lemmy.zip (simplest, but some apps don't support it)
  • link (more complicated and requires someone to be on Lemmy when viewing the link)

Otherwise people can use something like the instance assistant browser extension

[-] Rocketpoweredgorilla@lemmy.ca 14 points 10 months ago

Don't a lot of scammers spoof their numbers?

[-] Cqrd@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 10 months ago

Not the ones that want you to engage over a period of time. A lot of scams, especially for old people, involve long back and forth conversations over days. These are usually very profitable for the scammers, who sort of gain a passive income for doing nothing other than stealing from old people.

[-] Rocketpoweredgorilla@lemmy.ca 3 points 10 months ago

Ah ok, that makes sense... trying to build up trust I suppose.

[-] A_Very_Big_Fan@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago

One of the main goals of scam baiting is getting a number to call them back on. But yes

[-] WanderingVentra@lemm.ee 8 points 10 months ago

I didn't know there was a subreddit for this. That's cool. Definitely subscribing.

[-] tkk13909@sopuli.xyz 6 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

But why is it hosted on a .zip domain? Edit: for clarification, I don't have anything against having different instances. I'm just wary of anything using the .zip tld.

[-] DripGeronimo@lemmy.zip 26 points 10 months ago

I've switched instances from lemmy.world to lemmy.zip as .world was very slow with updating their server

[-] ZeroCool@slrpnk.net 23 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

It's for the best anyway. It's better for the health of the fediverse when communities are spread out across a wide array of instances. The consolidation of communities on lemmy.world is not ideal. Good luck with the community!

[-] Blaze@discuss.tchncs.de 6 points 10 months ago

Well done, good luck with your community!

[-] Blaze@discuss.tchncs.de 17 points 10 months ago

lemmy.zip is a tech oriented instance. They have !technology@lemmy.zip and !databreaches@lemmy.zip which are quite interesting

[-] Levsgetso@lemmy.zip 5 points 10 months ago

Saw you recently created an account here. You truly are everywhere lol

[-] Blaze@discuss.tchncs.de 6 points 10 months ago

Yes, I'm trying to promote that instance a bit, the admins put a lot of work into it

[-] Levsgetso@lemmy.zip 2 points 10 months ago

They really are amazing. Glad to have you with us 😊

[-] brbposting@sh.itjust.works 10 points 10 months ago
[-] tkk13909@sopuli.xyz 4 points 10 months ago
[-] potvanherb@lemmys.hivemind.at 2 points 10 months ago

Great writeup and easy to understand. What would be a solution to this problem?

[-] 418teapot@lemmy.world 6 points 10 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

I hate that Google is exerting even more control on the internet with their TLD, but I don't really think this attack is made all that much worse with .zip TLD. I can already bury a .com in a long URL and end it in .zip just fine like so:

https://github.com∕foo∕bar∕baz@example.com/foo/bar/baz.zip

Or even use a subdomain to remove the @:

https://github.com∕foo∕bar∕baz.example.com/foo/bar/baz.zip

The truth is most people don't look much at URLs outside of a domain to verify its authenticity, at which point the .zip TLD does not do much more harm than existing domains do.

For mitigation, Firefox already doesn't display the username portion of the URL on hover of a link and URL-encodes it if copy-pasted into the url bar. It also displays the punycode representation when hovering or navigating to the second example.

Edit: looks like lemmy now replaces 0x2215 which is a character that looks like forward slash with an actual forward slash, so my comment is a bit more confusing. For clarity, the slashes before example.com in the above urls were 0x2215 and not "/".

[-] Da_Boom@iusearchlinux.fyi 4 points 10 months ago

Another problem is if you're trying to sub to a community on lemmy.zip, it can be impossible if the server hosting your instance has blocked all .zip domains through their hosts file or even their Lemmy instance. You would be able to see it, but your instance won't.

People and admins not trusting that TLD can be just as detrimental to people interacting with legit sites on that TLD, as its potential for abuse is at making it untrustworthy to begin with

[-] testeronious@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago

cool, subscribed.

[-] ademir@lemmy.eco.br 2 points 10 months ago

!scamnumbers@lemmy.zip

this post was submitted on 21 Jan 2024
307 points (98.1% liked)

New Communities

17179 readers
3 users here now

A place to post new communities all over Lemmy for discovery and promotion.

Rules

The rules for behavior are a straight carry over of Mastodon.World's rules. You can click the link but we've reposted them here in brief, as a guideline. We will continue to use the Mastodon.World rules as the master list. Over all, be nice to each other and remember this isn't a community built around debate. For the rules about formatting your posts, scroll down to number 2.

1. Follow the rules of Mastodon.world, which can be found here.

A. Provide an inclusive and supportive environment. This means if it isn't rulebreaking and we can't be supportive to them then we probably shouldn't engage.

B. No illegal content.

C. Use content warnings where appropriate. This means mark your submissions NSFW if need be.

D. No uncivil behavior. This includes, but is not limited to: Name Calling; Bullying; Trolling; Disruptive Commenting; or Personal Criticisms.

E. No Harrassment. As an example in relation to Transgender people this includes, deadnaming, misgendering, and promotion of conversion therapy. Similarly Misogyny, Misandry, and Racism are also banned here.

2. Include a community title and description in your post title. - A following example of this would be New Communities - A place to post new communities all over Lemmy for discovery and promotion.

3. Follow the formatting. - The formatting as included below is important for people getting universal links across Lemmy as easily as possible.

Formatting

Please include this following format in your post:

[link text](/c/community@instance.com)

This provides a link that should work across instances, but in some cases it won't

You should also include either:

!community@instance.com

or instance.com/c/community

FAQ:

Q: Why do I get a 404?

A: At least one user in an instance needs to search for a community before it gets fetched. Searching for the community will bring it into the instance and it will fetch a few of the most recent posts without comments. If a user is subscribed to a community, then all of the future posts and interactions are now in-sync.

Q: When I try to create a post, the circle just spins forever. Why is that?

A: This is a current known issue with large communities. Sometimes it does get posted, but just continues spinning, but sometimes it doesn't get posted and continues spinning. If it doesn't actually get posted, the best thing to do is try later. However, only some people seem to be having this problem at the moment.

Extra FAQ information

Image Attribution:

Fahmi, CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons>>

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