It takes 1-3 business days for a US bank to transfer any amount and I am sure it will be even higher if the transaction is not matching a usual pattern of your victim. So 144 million bank accounts mean nothing with such long processing delays

One of the few instances where American Banking still being in the 1990s is a benefit[1] .. but not really.

Australia, NZ, Singapore, most EU countries all have instant person-to-person transfers with little to no fees and supported via the government. 500 euro can be gone like that. Poof. But it's all within the same country. And when it's within the same country, it's traceable, reversible and enforceable by law.

So the 1-3 business days isn't where the protection is at. It's the way we mark and track transactions. The real danger, is SWIFT transfers. Once that money leaves the country, it's very unlikely you'll ever see it again.

[1]: http://penguindreams.org/blog/the-american-banking-system-is...

Payments are immediate between countries too. On my vacation in Armenia (you know, former USSR and a pretty poor country) I paid in the supermarket with my Dutch debit card (chip with PIN), I immediately popped my phone and opened the banking app for my (small, Dutch local) bank, and it showed the withdrawal.

Tell that to all the banks that had been sued for millions for losses due to phishing attacks. My mom's bank was one of them. The criminals got the money out successfully somehow.

It does not mean they were not caught later by bank insurance company