I'm the author. I'm not blaming cheap domains. I'm saying that spam like this is a consequence of cheap domains.
The blame lies at the feet of the spammers.
And, I've worked for a couple of mobile providers. This spam was likely sent from a disposable pre-paid SIM. There's no realistic way to check who sent it.
> I'm saying that spam like this is a consequence of cheap domains.
Technically correct, but the thing is, spam like this is a consequence of a lot of things. Why draw attention to that specific cause out of everything else?
You could just as accurately say that spam like this is a consequence of human-readable domains. If humans weren't visually validating URLs, it would be impossible for a scammer to use unicode tricks to make a URL look legitimate.
A lack of gatekeepers means we'll have more scammers, yes. But, gatekeepers almost universally don't scale well in any system as large as the Internet, and they come with so many additional problems that they're not worth paying special attention to or prioritizing as a solution to any problem on this scale.
Chances are the scammers didn't even pay the domain name or the SMS. Maybe the real issue is the state of payment services. You provide some random numbers in an unknown form....and this is since forever. How stupid is that? Things like Apple Pay seem to go a bit in the right direction but at the root you still use that random card number as identity/authentication.
The sending network may have a record of the IMEI, but I don't think the receiving one gets it.
But SMS sending devices are cheap and disposable. Sure, it's illegal to alter your IMEI in the UK - but if they're already committing one crime, I don't think that'll stop them.
If you watch kitboga (youtube / twitch) and in the odd chance kitboga gets to talk about why they do it the spammers fall into a couple of categories:
1) The angry/evil spammer. Doesn’t give a shit and wants make his dollars. Usually someone higher up.
2) The worker. Just his bills paid. Usually rather uncaring what they are doing, although they acknowledge its wrong
3) Playing oblivious, just ignoring and avoiding any sense of blame or justice
It’s lucrative and as long as we keep falling for it, it will stay. Making domains more expensive will make the barrier of entry higher, but the top players will likely just consolidate more resources vs little scammers.
If a domain is like an address then maybe we could or should enforce some more legitimacy, but such a thing would be hard to implement in the countries where spam usually originates from.
And who sent it shouldn't be recorded. Your problem is not the spammers but the reason users fall for the phish. Why are prepaid pins special and free email is not?
The blame lies at the feet of the spammers.
And, I've worked for a couple of mobile providers. This spam was likely sent from a disposable pre-paid SIM. There's no realistic way to check who sent it.