Hacker News Reader

Comment by IG_Semmelweiss | Hacker News Reader

You can easily inform the end user, so the conversation is transparent and the victim is giving implicit, informed consent.

"NOTICE: The user appears to be in XXX, Nigeria. The User's hometown and usual IP is XXX , USA. Beware of scams or impersonations by people hijacking your friend's accounts"

But Social media companies would never do this because it would destroy their so called "brand-trust"

View on HN

Agreed on this being a basic first step, although any scammer of any value would just get a VPN.

Another user noted that OnlyFans is analyzing text and bans anyone saying anything approaching blackmail.

Odd (but maybe not odd at all) to think that OnlyFans might be the leader on this.

I agree. Yet, I assume professionals (with VPN) would definitely attract more law enforcement action due to size of transfers.

But if you can prevent script kiddies, why not? The current barrier to entry is so damn low. Paying VPN is indeed a barrier to entry.

There are databases sold by the likes of Maxmind to identify a lot of the common VPNs so this could also be detected. Of course it's a game of cat and mouse but still better than nothing.

I work for IPinfo, where we provide a VPN detection service. Some people think that our VPN detection service restricts access to various services through a VPN. However, if someone is paying for their internet and then chooses to pay an additional $15-$20 a month for a VPN service, it is likely to be a source of good traffic.

From the point of Facebook, I think they use SMS verification and their app also requires location permission. Facebook is pretty good at preventing bad signups. What they need to do is invest that effort in keeping their user base safe.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com