Do you think regular desktop computer should be locked down like this too? Scammers can also tell people to run Windows programs. Should that be banned too?

I'm fine with an opt-in lock-down feature so people can do it for their parents/grandparents/children.

Also, just let people get used to it. People will get burned, then tell their friends and they will then know not to simply follow what a stranger guides them to do over the phone. Maybe they will actually have second thoughts about what personal data they enter on their phone and when and where and who it may be sent to.

Same as with emails telling you to buy gift cards at the gas station. Should the clerk tell people to come back tomorrow if they want to buy a gift card, just in case they are being "guided" by a Nigerian prince scammer?

Let's say I'm sitting outside of your office with a bazooka and boxes of high explosives. You ask my why, and I say, "someone might try to rob this office." You say, "somehow, that does not persuade me that a stranger should loiter outside of my workplace with a massive stockpile of ordinance." I reply, "what's your solution to combat robberies?"

'Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.' - Benjamin Franklin

Would you support Microsoft doing the same thing to Windows?

These are general purpose computing devices. It's sure taking a long time, but Cory Doctorow's talk on the war on general purpose computing is sure starting to become a depressing reality: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUEvRyemKSg

All apps should be open source and subject to verification by nonprofit repositories like F-Droid which have scary warnings on software that does undesirable things. For-profit appstores like Google and Apple that allow closed source software are too friendly to scams and malware.

Not the parent or agreeing/disagreeing with them, but to your question: if you get creative, there are a lot of things you could do, some more unorthodox than others.

Tongue-in-cheek example, just to get the point across: instead of calling it Developer Mode, call it "Scam mode (dangerous)". Require pressing a button that says "Someone might be scamming me right now." Then require the user to type (not paste) in a long sentence like "STOP! DO NOT CONTINUE IF SOMEONE IS TELLING YOU TO DO THIS! THIS IS A SCAM!"... you get the idea. Maybe ask them to type in some Linux command with special symbols to find the contents of some file with a random name. Then require a reboot for good measure and maybe require typing in another bit of text like "If a stranger told me to do this, it's a scam." Basically, make it as ridiculous and obnoxious as possible so that the message gets across loud and clear to anybody who doesn't know what they're doing.

I'm going to break your kneecaps. Oh, what's that? You don't like it? Well, what's your solution to P=NP?

If I proposed putting mandatory cameras in all homes and you objected, would it then be fair for me to demand that you justify your position by proposing a better alternative to combat domestic violence?

Locking down computing is just fundamentally wrong and leads to an unfree society.

If cooldowns work, put them on granting permissions.

There are just as many scam apps in play store and this system does nothing to help with those.

The choice is not between "individuals are on their own against scammers" and "users are locked into Google vetting their phone". Users should be able to choose another organisation to do the vetting. They bought a phone, they didn't sell their life to Google.

Enable unknown sources in developer options, have the user type out in order to proceed "If I am typing this and don't know what I am doing, I am likely being scammed".

Tell the unsophisticated users that they would be safer inside the ecosystem that has always been a walled garden.

Why destroy the ecosystem that gives you the freedom to shoot yourself in the foot?

Turning Android into another walled garden removes user choice from the equation.

I suppose you could make the cooldown apply to the actual installed app. Like... when it's first installed it won't work for 24 hours and the clock doesn't start until you reboot. And then on boot it scares you again before starting the clock. And then "scares" you again after the cooldown.

Education is the only solution to this.

You can’t feasibly protect someone that believes the person on the phone is their family member or the chief of police.

This kind of thing has to be verified like how they try drugs. Just randomly doing things will surely be useless, similar to how randomly optimizing parts of a program is generally worthless.

Are scammers using sideloaded apps when they can use whatever remote connexion the apps in the store allow ?

I think a big warning in red "Warning :If you don't personally know the person asking you to install this app, you are getting scammed. No legitimate business or Institution will ask you to install this app"

Like the ones constantly advertising across Google's plethora of platforms without any repercussions or possibility of recourse with Google? For my safety, of course.

"Warning: if someone is talking to you and walking you through this screen, you may be being scammed!"

Done.

As if Google Play itself isn't a cesspool full of scammers, or Google ads, or Youtube. As long as Google get their cut they don't give a shit about scams. For a reality check, turn off your adblockers and you'll see how much Google profits from scams. Any solution to scamming can't involve Google, since they long have been a willing tool for scammers.

Pretending that this is about anything but Google's greed is giving them far too much credit.

Something called personal responsibility and intelligence.

...which clearly companies don't want, because complacent mindless idiots are easier to brainwash, control, and milk.

> what's your solution to combat scammers?

I'd wipe the Play Store off the face of the earth. Have you looked at the garbage on there that Google considers legit?

This: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47447600

is is the shit people are exposed to when they go through the Play Store. You don't find that on F-droid.

The second thing I'd do to combat scammers is the same thing I'd do to combat child porn and disinformation: educate people. This silly process is a technical answer to a social problem, and those rarely work well.

So there's no scamming happening in Apple's fully walled garden, "Only approved apps allowed" system, right?

https://blog.lastpass.com/posts/warning-fraudulent-app-imper...

Oh, turns out they just let you pretend to be the real company to sell your scam app.

What a load of good that "Approval" process does.

Arrest the scammers

Force the phones to be open so I can install my own OS on them.

Then Google can do whatever they want with their OS and I can do what I need with mine. You might actually get phone OS competition. This is what the walled garden is actually meant to prevent.

China just executed couple of them that operated in Myanmar. Since we are hurling towards the bad parts in their dystopia anyway, why not also get the good ones?

We need to remove the play store from Android phones. People have been scammed there more than any other store.

I wonder how this will help combat scammers. Do you really think they don’t have $25 for a fee?

Furthermore, this verification system also functions as a US sanction mechanism—one that can be triggered against any entity the US decides to ban.

education

Don't install crap on your phone

But this has nothing to do with combating scammers in the first place, have you never used the play store before? It's overwhelmingly scam apps with the most intrusive ad/tracking shit imaginable. There are scammers openly buying sponsored search results for names of popular apps so their malicious app with similar name appears as the first result.

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