One thing I did not notice in the article is that the frequency of spam and scammers might make people more cynical and mistrustful of others in general. Just speculating based on my own experience. People treating me and people close to me like trash reinforces my belief that the world in general just sucks. And if I want to resist that attitude for the sake of my emotional well-being, I have to consciously go looking for counterexamples. It's tiresome.

I know that catching scammers is rare but if they gave the ones that they did catch 25 years in solitary confinement, widely publicized, I think it would go quite a way to reducing the problem.

While I'm sure we all hate scammers with a passion, I don't think actual literal torture is the solution here.

And what is it that those scammers are doing to millions of senior citizens? I would think that actual literal torture could describe it.

Luckily our (and probably your) justice system isn't built on "an eye for an eye" then, and instead on punishment and rehabilitation.

You're right. Public executions it is, then.

This is why I hate it when some services requite me to enter my phone number for "security" or whatever reasons.

It's easy to burn/block a dedicated Spam email for a website. But it's difficult to change the primary phone number I've been using for over 10 years once it's out on some scam list.