Yes, but as soon as scammers find their current methods ineffective they will swap to VPN and find a way to get "in country" phone numbers.

There is a fundamental problem with large scale anonymous (non-verified) online interaction. Particularly in a system where engagement is valued. Even verified isn't much better if it's large scale and you push for engagement.

There are always outliers in the world. In their community they are well know as outliers and most communities don't have anyone that extreme.

Online every outlier is now your neighbor. And to others that "normalizes" outlier behaviors. It pushes everyone to the poles. Either encouraged by more extreme versions of people like them, or repelled by more extreme versions of people they oppose.

And that's before you get to the intentional propaganda.