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I'm impressed at how quickly the criminal underground pivots. To identify Gittip as a potential money laundering scheme while it is relatively unknown even with

I'm impressed at how quickly the criminal underground pivots. To identify Gittip as a potential money laundering scheme while it is relatively unknown even with Tech circles is, in a slightly discussing way, actually quite impressive. It does make me wonder, did the bad agent happen across Gittip independently or are they active within Tech communities?

pyre 14y ago
Makes me think that it's probably some blackhat with a few stolen credit cards, looking for a way to extract some value out of them (other than using them to pay for hosting). This isn't necessarily a large-scale operation.
jasonlotito 14y ago
Anyone that knows about these things would see this immediately. Anything that involves transferring money from one agent to another is quickly pounced upon. That HN is a popular place for launching new startups would make this an obvious target to watch. And most people starting new money transfer systems are ignorant of the potential for fraud and laundering. Essentially, this is standard practice.
- whit537 14y ago
  For the record, I've been waiting and watching for this to happen. It did happen sooner than I expected, however. Not sure if that means Gittip has grown faster than I expected, or our Jokers are earlier to adopt than I expected. ;^)
neilk 14y ago
I am shocked, shocked to discover criminals on boards dedicated to hacking. Just kidding, but it is funny how outsiders might not understand why you are surprised to find criminals in the "hacking" world. Even so, a significant proportion of the people who go to something like DefCon have done some low-level fraud with credit cards, and some have done much more than that.
moxie 14y ago
What shocks me is the opposite -- that Gittip is only just now thinking about this. Their first round of chargebacks are going to be insane, and if they're this far behind they're going to be eaten alive by fraud.

pyre 14y ago

Makes me think that it's probably some blackhat with a few stolen credit cards, looking for a way to extract some value out of them (other than using them to pay for hosting). This isn't necessarily a large-scale operation.

jasonlotito 14y ago

Anyone that knows about these things would see this immediately. Anything that involves transferring money from one agent to another is quickly pounced upon. That HN is a popular place for launching new startups would make this an obvious target to watch. And most people starting new money transfer systems are ignorant of the potential for fraud and laundering. Essentially, this is standard practice.

whit537 14y ago
For the record, I've been waiting and watching for this to happen. It did happen sooner than I expected, however. Not sure if that means Gittip has grown faster than I expected, or our Jokers are earlier to adopt than I expected. ;^)

neilk 14y ago

I am shocked, shocked to discover criminals on boards dedicated to hacking. Just kidding, but it is funny how outsiders might not understand why you are surprised to find criminals in the "hacking" world. Even so, a significant proportion of the people who go to something like DefCon have done some low-level fraud with credit cards, and some have done much more than that.

moxie 14y ago

What shocks me is the opposite -- that Gittip is only just now thinking about this. Their first round of chargebacks are going to be insane, and if they're this far behind they're going to be eaten alive by fraud.