3 ms·

Forget PayPal, what about the 5 grand that "vanished into the Brazilian banking system"? That seems like the kind of line-item that merits explanation.

• nkassis 17y ago
  And the 5K paypal took doesn't matter? Title should be something like 10K lost by X.org in one conference. (Unless the 5K to the banking system is something like horrible fees or something).
• _delirium 17y ago
  Messages later in the thread say that it was money wired to two Brazilians that they were sponsoring to fly to the conference with the travel scholarships, that never got to the intended recipients. Unfortunately, money wires frequently have problems like that. The security is basically entirely at the receiving point, which is supposed to not hand over the wired cash to anyone except the person it was wired to, and is supposed to properly check IDs and such. But if someone else gets it, either because of lax checking, fake documentation, or unscrupulous employees at the bank, it's basically gone; unlike with credit cards and such, you can't chargeback a wire transfer (which is why 419 and Craigslist scammers ask for money to be sent that way).
  • kevingadd 17y ago
    After trying to pay a contractor via wire once and losing hundreds of dollars in fees after his bank botched the transaction (mercifully, I didn't lose the entire amount), I will never wire money again. I would recommend the same to anyone else. You don't even have to be dealing with a bad bank; it's just not a safe way to send money to anyone. The funniest part is I only tried a wire transfer because I didn't want to use PayPal. After that disaster, I ended up choosing the devil I knew and sending all his payments via PayPal after that.
    • jordanb 17y ago
      Postal money orders are much more secure if you're sending money within the US. I understand they can be a bit dodgy too though internationally, depending on the professionalism of the national postal service.