Also note that when (not if) they hack the wrong target, these people become criminals. That is a primary reason why warfare and offensive intelligence operations never get handed to the private sector.

Obviously, "Hacking back" is abysmally stupid as well, because everybody uses hacked machines belonging to other people as proxies, often long chains of them. Hence it is pretty much impossible to not do massive collateral damage. And as to the changes of success? Well. How many of these attackers have been identified so far and how many are in prison? Wight, basically a tiny number. Because this approach does not work.

You are a dumb American that thinks everybody is always after money. NO. European privacy laws are something you are probably completely unfamiliar with: Laws that protect citizens. The financial penalties are not a revenue mechanism.

Hidden recording and then posting that on social media without consent can land you in prison in Germany. Now, component (!) sales are legal, but making a "covert surveillance device" is not. Even possession is illegal.

I think I will pass.

And the DSA does specifically NOT allow operators to do that. US law has no validity in Europe.

Same as any habitual liar and serial scammer.

He just needs to put tariffs on hot weather and it will stay away! Right?

Exactly. The most important part of deterrence against most people is a good show and a person visibly being there is the easiest and most reliable way to do it because people all can imagine being stopped by other people. By a toaster on wheels? Not so much. Too abstract for most people.

This number is way too high. It is clearly gamed in some way.

It can be done if there is political will. I have had 3 of these calls in the last 20 years. The thing that does the trick is that the telcos are required to block the sources within hours or _they_ get fined. Also notice that the scam calls in the US that use "local" numbers do nothing of the sort. All that is local is the caller ID. But the telco knows where the call really comes from, because otherwise it would not even connect.

Easy: Fine the telcos if they do not block the sources very fast. I have gotten 3 of total marketin/scam calls in the last 20 years with that legal situation where I live. Oh, and when a domestic call center violated all these rules, they were raided and shut down the next day. This can be done and it works.

The reason this does not work in the US is that politicians and political parties are allowed to make these calls for election .... well, fraud essentially. Those are illegal as well in most (all?) of the EU.

The important second component is that the Telcos need to be required to block aggressively as well or they pay. With that, I have had 3 (!) fraud/spam/marketing calls in the last 20 years.

Not directly intentional, no. Bureaucracies are designed to be slow and careful. The "careful" part may not always be present, but the "slow" part is always there and it is not a question of technology.

Same in Europe. The only armed civilian guards I have ever seen are for armored transports and they get special permission for that. They are only allowed to defend themselves though.

The DSA has teeth, but bureaucracy is slow. It may also be necessary to level some impressive fines under the DSA before it becomes respected by the usual US social media asshole companies. If you do, say, a GDPR data request (which does include data on why something was banned, demonetized, etc.) even YouTube reacts fast, because they all know this can get extremely expensive and can get them shut down in Europe if they mess it up too often.