Comment by gruez
8 hours ago
>If the user cannot be trusted with their own data, then there is no solution anyway. They'll just tell their private data to a scammer on the phone instead.
Security isn't binary. Putting up barriers makes it harder for scammers to steal money. There's a reason why they exploit malware to steal money, rather than asking their victims to send them crypto directly.
> There's a reason why they exploit malware to steal money, rather than asking their victims to send them crypto directly.
The vast majority of scams literally work by them asking their victims to buy cryptocurrency or gift cards directly. Malware is exceedingly rare.
You know what would really help against scams? Avoid putting people in situations where they need to decide right now or they'll face punishment.
Modern society has created far too many situations where people need to react without being able to think through the consequences.
The only reason scams work is because there are enough actual situations with unnecessary life-or-death decisions.
>The vast majority of scams literally work by them asking their victims to buy cryptocurrency or gift cards directly. Malware is exceedingly rare.
Source? This article suggests otherwise: https://www.economist.com/interactive/asia/2026/04/10/scam-i...
Moreover it seems to be limited to south east asia for now. Just because you're in the US and all the scams you're getting is cold calls from microsoft tech support, doesn't mean scams with smartphone malware doesn't exist.
>You know what would really help against scams? Avoid putting people in situations where they need to decide right now or they'll face punishment.
>The only reason scams work is because there are enough actual situations with unnecessary life-or-death decisions.
In other words, "if we had world peace and everyone could hold hands and sing kumbaya, then we won't have to worry about scams!"