The phone system has become useless, with seemingly 90 percent of calls and texts being from scammers (SMS: “Hi”). The USPS is losing money and trying to justify its existence as a sink for taxpayer dollars. What if the USPS launched a competing voice/text/email service in which every participant was authenticated? People could sign up by going to a Post Office and showing an ID or by receiving a PIN code at their regular physical mailing address. Instead of giving your phone number to a bank or doctor’s office, you’d give your USPS “RealNumber” and then the institution could contact you without getting lost in the tide of spam. Because the security would be guaranteed to be as good as physical letters carried by USPS, medical records could be exchanged via this service instead of by FAX(!). This would be a good way to receive bills because they wouldn’t get buried in the daily tide of spam.
Inevitably, of course, someone would start spamming within this system, but USPS could kick spammers out much more easily and durably than other services (the spammer couldn’t sign up again without getting an ID in a different name and getting a new residential or business address where mail was being received in that name). On the third hand, the USPS makes nearly all of its current revenue by delivering spam (unsolicited mail) so maybe they wouldn’t be able to resist selling the right to spam everyone in the system.
As others have noted, USPS could also start a bank as post offices in many other countries have done (taking advantage of their many physical locations). Then the authenticated bills received via the RealNumber could be paid directly.
Readers: Does this idea make sense?
A recent Facebook post of mine:
Why can’t pig butchers be more specific? Text today: “Hi, Monica. This is Linda. Do you have time to take care of my pet? I need to go on a business trip for a few days and I hope you can help me. I will treat you to a seafood dinner when I come back”. Who says “pet” in this context? And “seafood”? That’s a supermarket section, not a colloquial dinner plan. Is there some language in which the above umbrella terms would make sense in a text message or conversation? If so, which one?
Related:
Some aspects make a ton of sense. This isn’t a new idea, but the US should have an authentication/authorization system like Estonia. The USPS is ideally situated to authenticate and establish an account held by a central authority. Then the citizen can authorize the central authority to confirm identity to any entity the citizen wants without giving up the stored number held by the authority. Of course, the US is bound to screw up the implementation in any number of ways.
Whether the USPS should also perform the other functions you suggest is less obvious, but would be facilitated by them being involved in this system.
How is that different from requiring phone numbers to be tied to SSN/EIN? 90% of scammers spoof their ANI. Spoofing ANI is technically illegal but widespread, since one can only prosecute if an intent to defraud is established, and for all practical purposes, one would need to have been defrauded in the first place to prove it.
We have to admit that for people in power kicking scammers is not a priority – they have secretaries and/or don’t answer calls from unknown numbers
Couldn’t someone else besides the USPS offer authentication, like an X checkmark? Verizon or similar? What is gained by the PO being involved in this – besides giving it something to do? Most people try to avoid the PO because of its incompetence and bureaucracy. Is there any reason to think the PO venturing into this activity would be an improvement? Is there any indication that anyone wants this service? I guess like most people I got rid of my fixed line & I think I was only paying $10 a month or similar, because it was only a receptacle for junk calls & ignore anything on my cell that i don’t recognize. I miss things that matter every once in a while. I suppose a system that authenticated would be worth something to me but not a lot.
Video at the moment it departs from normal flight (@5:40). Flying straight, then spins and falls immediately = something broke?
https://youtu.be/U8Q8XuqlyMQ?t=340