4 ms·
And? Did you tell them? Your surname may be the same word as something else that gives cause for concern.
by hgsgm 4y ago
And? Did you tell them?
Your surname may be the same word as something else that gives cause for concern.
- aidog 4y agoToo bad if you don't know what your surname means.
- bombcar 4y agoOr your surname is something like Al Qaeda (which is just "the base") or is "Ira" or any other combination of letters that could trigger very dumb 'watchlist' code.
- uncletaco 4y agoI've lost jobs over getting flagged in automatic resume systems due to my last name seeming "fake".
- bombcar 4y agoReminds me of https://www.wired.com/2015/11/null/ https://www.wired.com/2015/11/null/
- bentcorner 4y agoSimilarly, Fnu: https://uxdesign.cc/what-the-fnu-fa72cf4ad5bd https://uxdesign.cc/what-the-fnu-fa72cf4ad5bd
- foobarbecue 4y agoCorrect answer: "My surname, Smith, is a string of characters that identifies people in my family. It designates a person or set of people."
- HeavyFeather 4y agoA set of people you say? Sorry, our policy does not allow x-smiths to use this service.
- tmtvl 4y agoMy surname designates a bag of people.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- koolba 4y agoWhen you replace “Smith” with “ISIS” or “Bin Laden” that’s likely not enough of an explanation for them to lift the freeze.
- DebtDeflation 4y agoWhy is this included in the logic in the first place? Are terrorists sending payments via PayPal and including "ISIS membership fee, annual renewal" in the comments? It would seem to me that a keyword search like this is not an effective way to stop the flow of funds to sanctioned organizations. It's like scanning cancelled checks for the word "bribe" on the memo line.
- orthecreedence 4y ago"Yes, hello, I'd like to renew my subscription to Terrorist Weekly. Oh, you take Venmo? Great!"
- jimnotgym 4y agoOn the other hand, if they did it would be very embarrassing for PayPal.
- anigbrowl 4y agoNo it wouldn't. A cursory search indicates that about 80 million people have the surname 'bin Laden.' Paypal is an international company. If a name gives you a 1 in 80 million possibility of a connection to terrorism without any other details, it's not actionable. The end.
- DangitBobby 4y agoSurnames often don't mean anything. If mine means anything I don't know it. It's just a name.
- Karellen 4y ago> Surnames often don't mean anything. That depends on where you're from. Often in the English-speaking world, they do. To take the another commenter's example, "Smith" comes from a word meaning, roughly, "craftsperson", as in "blacksmith". The ancestor that the surname comes from was likely either a blacksmith, or some other type of crafter whose profession can be described as "smithing". https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/smith https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/smith Likewise, the surname "Wright" comes from a word with a similar meaning, as in "playwright", "wheelwright" or "cartwright".
- frumper 4y agoIt's more fair to say those names meant something at some point. Now they just mean you are descended from someone with that surname.
- JohnFen 4y agoThey haven't lost those meanings at all. They may not have any special significance for you, but the meanings of the names remain nonetheless. When I meet a "Johnson", my mind immediately goes to "John's son" even though "John" is probably a distant ancestor of the person, not their father. The name's meaning has not changed.
- anonymouskimmer 4y ago"Johnson", and similar names in other languages, can also indicate connection with the early Christian church, not a literal connection with a person named John. "Johnson" in this sense means someone who is a 'son' of John the Baptist (aka, a Christian). Or so I've read.
- agilob 4y agoMy surname doesn't have any modern meaning, it's a middle age Slavic surname. It's pretty unique and only a few 100s people in the world have it. It's so wild to me that it got flagged by some kind of a list.
- ryandrake 4y agoOP and the article OP's situations are relatively easy in that the company actually told them what triggered the ban, and that presumably an explanation is all that's needed. I don't understand making a big deal about it. Tell them you don't know what your surname means and that "ALEP" is just an acronym that means "A Less Evil Product" and be on your way. Why does everything have to be a fight? Sure, when the company says "We're banning you and not telling you why. Hahahaha!" it's infuriating, and probably worth even more than an angry Twitter rant. But "Can you explain what this specific thing means?" is not worth the rant IMO. Just explain and go on living your life.
- thatguy0900 4y agoI think this is giving the companies involved a lot of credit. I'm assuming if it took multiple days to resolve it then they didn't find "it's a name, it has no meaning" as an acceptable answer. The companies have no real incentive to be reasonable.