What happens when people stop trusting their phones?Scammers have made calls, texts, and messaging platforms central to the way they reach and manipulate victims. And as scams become more targeted and move across multiple channels, the challenge is no longer simply blocking spam or stopping robocalls. In this episode of Scam Rangers, Ayelet Biger-Levin sits down with Jaime Zetterstrom, VP of Product & Innovation at Somos, to explore the role of the telecom industry in fighting scams—and the difficult balance between protecting consumers, preserving privacy, and keeping communications open. Jaime explains why modern scams are increasingly “surgical,” how criminals move between platforms to evade detection, and why collaboration between telecom providers, financial institutions, regulators, and consumers is becoming essential. They also explore a bigger consequence of the scam epidemic: the erosion of trust. When people stop answering unknown calls or trusting messages, legitimate businesses, banks, healthcare providers, and other organizations lose an important way to reach them. Rebuilding that trust, Jaime says, may happen one call and one message at a time. In This Episode Why telecom is at the center of many scam journeys How scams have evolved from high-volume spam to more targeted, cross-platform attacks Why stopping scam communications is more complicated than simply blocking suspicious calls or messages What telecom providers are already doing to combat fraudulent traffic How banks and telecom providers can share signals to disrupt scams earlier Why consumer reporting matters—and why consumers need a better feedback loop How scams are damaging trust in calls and messages The opportunity to create more trusted communication between legitimate brands and consumers Why Jaime believes scams are, at their core, an identity problemAbout Jaime Zetterstrom - Jaime Zetterstrom is VP of Product & Innovation at Somos and a longtime telecommunications and fraud-fighting leader. Her career spans technology, fraud prevention, product development, and trusted communications. At Somos, Jaime focuses on building a more trusted telecommunications ecosystem and works across the industry on fraud prevention, phone number intelligence, identity, and collaboration between telecom and financial services.Key TakeawayFighting scams isn't only about stopping a bad call or message. It's also about protecting the trust that allows people and legitimate organizations to communicate. Rebuilding that trust will require collaboration across industries—and will happen one call and one message at a time. About the Host - Ayelet Biger-Levin is the Founder and CEO of RangersAI and the host of Scam Rangers, a podcast exploring the human side of scams and the people working to protect consumers from financial and emotional harm.Through her work at RangersAI and her advisory for the Global Anti-Scam Alliance and Stop Scams Alliance, Ayelet works with financial institutions and industry leaders to advance a more human-centered approach to scam prevention. https://www.linkedin.com/in/ayelet-biger-levin/ To learn more about RangersAI: https://www.rangersai.com/
