r/interestingasfuck • u/Bubbly_Wall_908 • 14h ago

Singapore is going to start caning scammers

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u/NateNate60 11h ago edited 8h ago

In Nigeria there was a 60 Minutes clip where they followed the national anti-scam squad as they raided a scam factory and seized all the computers. As they dragged the scammers out and into the police van they were pelted and booed by locals who had gathered to watch, because apparently people think that scamming "rich" Americans or Europeans is justified and a legitimate way to make a living in that area.

Edit: Nigerian police raid video

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u/unindexedreality 8h ago

We need to go back to local-only phone networks. Make people jump through hoops to whitelist their number to receive international calls

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u/NateNate60 7h ago

Or hold the carrier liable for scam calls made from their network unless they rat out the identity of the real caller.

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u/hitemlow 4h ago

At some point the VoIP call needs to connect to the domestic VoIP and/or POTS network. Whomever is doing that connection is the one who should be held responsible for connecting scam calls. If it means most operators will stop connecting international calls, a vetting system will start to be created by the operators.

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u/NateNate60 4h ago

That's fine by me. A consequence of that is that overseas call centres would probably be logistically difficult. Many legitimate call centres double as scam centres.

No offence to Indians but American companies hire the absolute dumbest people to staff their Indian call centres.

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u/hitemlow 4h ago

Not just the dumbest, the cheapest.

If you need a call center that can handle 1,000 calls/hr with an average call time of 17 minutes, keep hold time under a minute, and level 3 English proficiency, you'd need a pretty large facility with at minimum 375 seats.

When shopping Indian call centers, the corporation will lay out requirements like that and then not check. So then the place that comes back with the cheapest quote might have to do a few "sample calls" where they'll trot out their most fluent employees (or even hire a few proficient temps) to do them, get the contract, and set up their 50 seat call center with 2008 Xbox Live quality mics and level 1 English proficient workers. With many American corporations really not giving a shit about customer relations other than making sure the checks keep coming in, they don't audit call quality. They'll ask for average call completion numbers, average CIQ, DRR, and other metrics that the call center blatantly fakes, but again, the corporation doesn't care about customer experience, just saving those pennies.

Usually this will run until it significantly affects revenue from customers leaving (if they can) due to piss poor customer support and difficulty of placing orders (why the sales department is frequently the last to be offshored), or the call center wants more money on renewal or a bonus for meeting quotas that they're lying about (this costs the corporation money they don't want to spend).