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>Prosecutors dismissed the idea that many legitimate businesses used Liberty Reserve. After the takedown, they noted, users were encouraged to contact the U.S.
by zipwitch 7y ago
>Prosecutors dismissed the idea that many legitimate businesses used Liberty Reserve. After the takedown, they noted, users were encouraged to contact the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan if they wanted their money back. According to prosecutors, only 35 people did so.
Was that because only 35 users were legitimate, or because the users - even if completely legitimate - were reluctant to risk potentially destroying their lives by admitting their identities to federal investigators?
- cascom 7y agoAdditionally size of average account would matter, I don’t see people wading into those waters over $50 or probably even $200
- CamelCaseName 7y agoI was not even aware this was possible. My loss from the LR takedown was ~$600 and this is the first time I ever heard that any such recourse that was available. In my personal experience, LR was easier to use and more widely accepted at the time than competing services. (namely PayPal) This article focused a lot on the carding scene, which no doubt was heavily reliant on LR, but to paint all 1MM+ users of LR as carders is simply incorrect. As the article mentions, it was trivial to open an account (as easy as signing up for HN really) and many would do so to make a one-off payment.