re: Windows 11
Every possible telephone number in the US is known, and a computer can text them all.
Everybody gets scam text messages too, as VoIP servers get compromised, and as carriers can be slower than we’d all like to detect and block the resulting messages.
It becomes a game of whack-a-mole, with callback numbers blocked, and with VoIP servers getting re-secured, and other callback numbers and VoIP servers getting compromised.
re: “coffee shop” VPN services
On Apple platforms, the “coffee shop” VPNs are useful for geoshifting for website or CDN testing or such, but are largely otherwise useful for added overhead, and to the VPN vendor for purposes of personally-identified metadata collection for tracking and advertising.
Various purportedly-no-logging VPN services have been caught logging when their “non-existent” logs were found leaked onto the ‘net, too. And absent details such as responses to warrants, I’d assume all such “coffee shop” VPN services log data.
As for Windows 11 and “coffee shop” VPNs, I’d hope Microsoft has been encouraging app developers away from unencrypted traffic too, their fondness for app compatibility means old bugs can continue to bite. Put differently, an add-on VPN might be helpful, but I’d look to run my own (such as the Algo VPN server, or a firewall-based VPN server on my own network) if privacy was a concern.
TL;DR:
millions of these scam texts get sent out, and millions of scam emails such as “hey pervert” also get sent.
