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He had to give a postal code to register the card and presumably had his IP address logged. It should be easy enough to trace his real identity. Yes, he says a

He had to give a postal code to register the card and presumably had his IP address logged. It should be easy enough to trace his real identity. Yes, he says a fake address may have worked, but that may be criminal fraud. Also, the given address could be automatically checked against the geolocation of his IP address to make sure he's being honest. And it's not difficult to filter Tor/VPN IPs. Another problem is that while he never gave personal information, he still created a pseudo-anonymous identity that can be profiled and potentially linked to his real identity based on a myriad of potential factors. Whereas if he used something like Monero (which he seems to be aware of), then there would be no such risk. There's really no point to this method anymore, and another commentator pointed out it wouldn't even work in certain countries.

rhacker 7y ago
Postal code can't isolate people. IP Address can be done at starbucks. Or for ++ security, using someone else's open wifi.
gruez 7y ago
>Yes, he says a fake address may have worked, but that may be criminal fraud. How? I get how it might be the case if you're doing it to evade donation restrictions, but merely lying about your identity isn't fraud anymore than giving a fake phone number/zip code to the cashier when asked. AFAIK if you're not benefiting financially from the deception, it's not fraud. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mail_and_wire_fraud#Elements https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mail_and_wire_fraud#Elements
- alasdair_ 7y ago
  >merely lying about your identity isn't fraud anymore than giving a fake phone number/zip code to the cashier when asked. AFAIK if you're not benefiting financially from the deception, it's not fraud. This makes me wonder if giving a fake phone number to a cashier to obtain a financial discount (like a supermarket club card) is fraud...
adrianmonk 7y ago
> may be criminal fraud I can't say it isn't, but I also can't think of a specific reason that it is. Payment processing uses address information for two main purposes: (1) determining sales tax jurisdiction/amount and (2) as an authentication factor (along with card number, CVV, and name). In any normal purchase, giving a fake address could cause you to pay the wrong amount of taxes and/or taxes to the wrong people, which would be a legal issue. But this is a charitable donation, so that doesn't apply here. The authentication thing is probably OK, too, since you are an authorized user of the card. You are giving wrong information, but not in order to gain access to something you're not supposed to have access to. Maybe there's some other reason, though. Also, giving a fake address might violate some kind of agreement with the card company, although I kind of doubt they care if it doesn't cause them a practical problem.
StavrosK 7y ago
> Yes, he says a fake address may have worked, but that may be criminal fraud. This really hits home how different the US culture is from mine (Greek). Here's a crime that really shouldn't be a crime (being able to anonymously spend money), that has an extremely low rate of getting caught (who's going to find who you are if you use Tor or just go to Starbucks?) and is extremely unlikely to prosecute ("your honor, he used the wrong zip code on the card website!"), but people mention "this is a crime" as a deterrent. Over here people would think you were joking. This cuts both ways, of course, and people commit more serious crimes (fraud, corruption, etc) more easily. It reinforces to me the adage that the best things about a country are also the worst things about that country.
- thaumasiotes 7y ago
  > Here's a crime that really shouldn't be a crime [...] but people mention "this is a crime" as a deterrent. Many, many people seem to be missing the mental concept of "a crime that shouldn't be a crime". You know it's wrong because it's against the law, and of course it's against the law because it's wrong.
throwaway2048 7y ago
lying isnt fraud by itself

rhacker 7y ago

Postal code can't isolate people. IP Address can be done at starbucks. Or for ++ security, using someone else's open wifi.

gruez 7y ago

>Yes, he says a fake address may have worked, but that may be criminal fraud. How? I get how it might be the case if you're doing it to evade donation restrictions, but merely lying about your identity isn't fraud anymore than giving a fake phone number/zip code to the cashier when asked. AFAIK if you're not benefiting financially from the deception, it's not fraud. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mail_and_wire_fraud#Elements https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mail_and_wire_fraud#Elements

alasdair_ 7y ago
>merely lying about your identity isn't fraud anymore than giving a fake phone number/zip code to the cashier when asked. AFAIK if you're not benefiting financially from the deception, it's not fraud. This makes me wonder if giving a fake phone number to a cashier to obtain a financial discount (like a supermarket club card) is fraud...

adrianmonk 7y ago

> may be criminal fraud I can't say it isn't, but I also can't think of a specific reason that it is. Payment processing uses address information for two main purposes: (1) determining sales tax jurisdiction/amount and (2) as an authentication factor (along with card number, CVV, and name). In any normal purchase, giving a fake address could cause you to pay the wrong amount of taxes and/or taxes to the wrong people, which would be a legal issue. But this is a charitable donation, so that doesn't apply here. The authentication thing is probably OK, too, since you are an authorized user of the card. You are giving wrong information, but not in order to gain access to something you're not supposed to have access to. Maybe there's some other reason, though. Also, giving a fake address might violate some kind of agreement with the card company, although I kind of doubt they care if it doesn't cause them a practical problem.

StavrosK 7y ago

> Yes, he says a fake address may have worked, but that may be criminal fraud. This really hits home how different the US culture is from mine (Greek). Here's a crime that really shouldn't be a crime (being able to anonymously spend money), that has an extremely low rate of getting caught (who's going to find who you are if you use Tor or just go to Starbucks?) and is extremely unlikely to prosecute ("your honor, he used the wrong zip code on the card website!"), but people mention "this is a crime" as a deterrent. Over here people would think you were joking. This cuts both ways, of course, and people commit more serious crimes (fraud, corruption, etc) more easily. It reinforces to me the adage that the best things about a country are also the worst things about that country.

thaumasiotes 7y ago
> Here's a crime that really shouldn't be a crime [...] but people mention "this is a crime" as a deterrent. Many, many people seem to be missing the mental concept of "a crime that shouldn't be a crime". You know it's wrong because it's against the law, and of course it's against the law because it's wrong.

throwaway2048 7y ago

lying isnt fraud by itself