Re:Money-Laundering Practices in the Online Scam Industry
by AnthonyMouse on Friday September 27, 2024 @10:14PM
(#41677349)
> You don't see how a bank not doing KYC and thereby financing terrorists and Pyongyang could be seen as behaving recklessly?
Even if that were a reasonable premise, the analogy would then be automakers not doing KYC and thereby enabling drunk drivers to have cars. Which is a much more controversial claim, and it's not at all obvious why carmakers should be the ones deciding who gets to drive.
Which is the reason the premise is unreasonable. Is it reckless for a general store to sell ski masks without investigating their customers? That's not the right place to address the problem.
> It's why a lot of anti-money laundering isn't prosecuted and why OP's complaint strikes me as silly.
Laws that are commonly violated and selectively enforced are bad laws.
> U.S. AML law is actually somewhat terrible for mass surveillance.
Just having it inside of megabanks is already mass surveillance, because then the bank is using it for things and the user can't switch to a bank that doesn't collect the information because the law prohibits that.
Moreover, the data is dangerous as soon as it's collected even if it isn't currently being centrally indexed, because its existence allows the central database to be created ex post facto. Turnkey totalitarianism is bad.
> The practical arms of mass surveillance are the credit/debit card rails.
How are you distinguishing this? Those companies are financial institutions that have to do KYC/AML.
Even if that were a reasonable premise, the analogy would then be automakers not doing KYC and thereby enabling drunk drivers to have cars. Which is a much more controversial claim, and it's not at all obvious why carmakers should be the ones deciding who gets to drive.
Which is the reason the premise is unreasonable. Is it reckless for a general store to sell ski masks without investigating their customers? That's not the right place to address the problem.
> It's why a lot of anti-money laundering isn't prosecuted and why OP's complaint strikes me as silly.
Laws that are commonly violated and selectively enforced are bad laws.
> U.S. AML law is actually somewhat terrible for mass surveillance.
Just having it inside of megabanks is already mass surveillance, because then the bank is using it for things and the user can't switch to a bank that doesn't collect the information because the law prohibits that.
Moreover, the data is dangerous as soon as it's collected even if it isn't currently being centrally indexed, because its existence allows the central database to be created ex post facto. Turnkey totalitarianism is bad.
> The practical arms of mass surveillance are the credit/debit card rails.
How are you distinguishing this? Those companies are financial institutions that have to do KYC/AML.