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Some of the comments here are cruel and missing the entire point. Well yes, as you're slowly reading this entire case, with the prior knowledge that he is gett

by fleddr 5y ago

Some of the comments here are cruel and missing the entire point. Well yes, as you're slowly reading this entire case, with the prior knowledge that he is getting scammed, and having all the time in the world to find the mistake or red flag in his actions, sure enough you'll find it. How very smart and vigilant you are. But as the article already explains, those are not the conditions in which a scam happens. You don't know you're being scammed. The person sounds helpful, exploiting your inner desire to be cooperative. There's a sense of urgency, which disrupts calm and clear thinking. It was a very sophisticated and well prepared scam, which increases trust and makes you glance over or "forgive" small oddities. Ironically, the fact that some of you chose to criticize somebody showing vulnerability is very emotional behavior, not rational behavior. Perfect candidates to be scammed. By the way, are Americans still logging into online banking with a username and password? That's it? Please tell me that's a joke.

marioletto 5y ago
> are Americans still logging into online banking with a username and password? For financial institutions identity verification of existing and new customers is a way more complex topic than most people realize. Fraud is an issue but so it’s friction. If it’s too hard to login or to open a new account, people will use/move to a different service. So in the US institutions use “invisible tools” to authenticate users and minimize the risks. Third party services collect huge amounts of user data which is then used to verify customers’ identities in a probabilistic way. (For instance the odds that a fraudster is logging in into your bank account from your phone and from an IP that you have used numerous times in the past are very low) So while the impression is that only a username and a pw are used, that’s not the case. So in short: security is not the only goal of the financial services available to the masses. The goal is finding a balance between security and friction.

by fleddr 5y ago

marioletto 5y ago

> are Americans still logging into online banking with a username and password? For financial institutions identity verification of existing and new customers is a way more complex topic than most people realize. Fraud is an issue but so it’s friction. If it’s too hard to login or to open a new account, people will use/move to a different service. So in the US institutions use “invisible tools” to authenticate users and minimize the risks. Third party services collect huge amounts of user data which is then used to verify customers’ identities in a probabilistic way. (For instance the odds that a fraudster is logging in into your bank account from your phone and from an IP that you have used numerous times in the past are very low) So while the impression is that only a username and a pw are used, that’s not the case. So in short: security is not the only goal of the financial services available to the masses. The goal is finding a balance between security and friction.