There has been a marked increase in threats via phone calls and texts. These threats come from people representing themselves as cartel members and threatening hobbyists and their families with violence if they are not paid. They are advertising on various sites pretending to be providers and when a hobbyist responds to the phone number -- they are threatened a few hours later.
So, this is my question. Due to increased state surveillance of phone calls and texts and now these threats would providers consider offering a Threema handle as an option for booking?
For those who don't know -- Threema is an app from Switzerland that allows completely private and encrypted conversations. You don't have to provide any personal info to use the app and it generates a random ID something like "HJNEKSJ". Switzerland has the most rigid privacy laws in the world -- so that avoids the state surveillance -- and with no personal information anywhere in the app it completely takes the edge off threats.
I realize this means folks would need to come up with alternative ways to screen. That's the only thing I see as a hurdle. However, Threema does have encrypted video chat functionality so maybe that would be a good way to validate a potential new client?
Thoughts? Would y'all consider downloading Threema and offering that ID as an option for booking in your ads?