ATM For Anonymous Online Payments 254
prichardson writes "The New York Times has an article about a way to anonymously transfer cash online (NYT registration required)." The inventor, Carl Amos, believes the target market for his newly-patented 'Aunty IM' ATM machine "..might be teenagers.. [who] do not usually have their own credit cards, they usually have cash and are more than willing to spend it to download music or games", as well as "those who were worried about identity theft on the Internet, or who simply wanted the privacy it provided."
Perfect. (Score:5, Interesting)
How can I pay you? (Score:4, Interesting)
a credit card or Paypal at someone's web site...how could this be
done from an ATM? (No, I'm not gonna try to punch in the recipient's
URL!)
That's a rather critical detail not mentioned in the article.
Hrmmmm, terrorist concerns? (Score:0, Interesting)
I remember Timothy McVeigh went to the trouble to use calling cards and hide his money trail to avoid raising suspicions... wouldn't terrorists be able to more conveniently purchase necessary wares now? Instead going into a farming goods store and buying large amounts of fertilizer, they could now do it anonymously online (but don't worry about that scenario anymore, the govt has taken care of that... but there are still other scenarios the govt hasn't taken care of).
Sure someone could sign up for a credit card under false credentials, but wouldn't that leave more of a money trail than an anonymous ATM?
The market (Score:5, Interesting)
Whoever steps in to fill that gap make a friggin mint. The frontrunner seems to be CitiBank's C2It, though I know nothing of such services.
Re:How can I pay you? (Score:5, Interesting)
. You could then use that number like any other card (visa/mastercard/etc). Jsut a thought. The article didn't really specify.
Been Done..... (Score:1, Interesting)
Very useful if properly implemented (Score:2, Interesting)
As a teenager, I can definitely see a use for this (Score:2, Interesting)
Somethings not right... (Score:3, Interesting)
Sure, you don't have the logs of cash coming out of your account (credit, savings, etc), but there is cash being sent somewhere, and that somewhere has to be well-defined for the cash to get there.
Also, the product, assuming something is bought, has to go somewhere, again a well-defined location, even if it is a mail-drop.
AFAIK, all wired money transactions are logged in some fashion, and for this to be approved by the government, it would have to be as well. I still don't see how super-beneficial this gimmick might be.
disposable credit card numbers (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Too Much Freedom? (Score:5, Interesting)
I have read that organized crime transfers money from country to country by wiring small amounts (under the amount that must be reported) constantly. Even though there is a paper trail of sorts, it is very hard to sort through. But again, most of the people who wire money are not organized criminals. Should we stop this practice because some of the people are?
Means of moving illegal money secretively already exist. I think the idea with this system is it could allow people to make online purchases, even if they are from an area of the world that does not have the financial systems and identification systems that we take for granted in the West. I am inclined to think the net effect of this would be good. Many people do not have any sort of identification or formal bank account (as required for a service like paypal, which is apparently unavailable in much of the world), but if they could get to a kiosk with some cash, they might be able to order something - provided someone was willing to ship it to them. This could be a big improvement in the lives of many people. It could also help economic growth, facilitating transactions at greater distances and of greater complexity than was possible before.
Should we not build any infrastructure because criminals could use it? Criminals can drive on the roads, too, but that does not mean we stop building them. We police them. This system would have to be policed.
Re:Going to need alot of work (Score:5, Interesting)
Yes, and since you have the anonymous purchase card you don't have to register the gun or go through the other processes. "Here's my anonymous cash card!" "Right, here's your pistol and ammo." You do know that you have to register to buy a gun, right? You also know you can buy a gun with cash, right?
Anybody who accepts these cards will accept cash, and you have no benefit over them. For some reason I doubt that most private gun sellers will offer support for these cards.
Re:How can I pay you? (Score:3, Interesting)
MMM
Re:Hrmmmm, terrorist concerns? (Score:5, Interesting)
Every slashdot discussion will eventually mention terrorism.
Many problems this solves are *already* solved... (Score:1, Interesting)
These payment systems are worldwide, do not suffer the chargeback problem, and seem to be fine with gambling and adult sites. They are also not linked to any particular national currency so should appeal to more libertarian among us.
Example: Wanna gamble now [thegoldcasino.com] with them?
Suuuuuuure... (Score:2, Interesting)
But it's primary use will be for drug dealers to launder money. For married men(and women) to pay for hookers and strippers. For people to turn petty cash into petty lap dance...
Big market for those things tho
Re:How can I pay you? (Score:2, Interesting)
He's trying to sell it to banks. Ergo, the routing can take many shapes -an easy solution will be a virtual credit card number granted by that bank. Other solutions may well work on existing systems, but something using Visa and MasterCard networks is the most likely option (since they're not slow as hell like wire transfers.)
As to why this is necessary? Because not everyone has a credit card. Because not everyone has even a bank account. Because everyone doesn't have internet access and don't want to buy stuff online using the library computers. And because PayPal is the only other option.
'It can be used in money laundering', 'you can fund terrorists with it!'
At least it doesn't take all your money, rape your family, pillage your domestic animals and burn your house while it's doing it. [paypal.com]
Agree (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:How can I pay you? (Score:3, Interesting)
A company called Mondex tried to implement something like this. My home town was actually a pilot test area and I was using it for about a year back around 1997 or so. The main cards were attached to a bank account and you can withdraw from ATMs from your bank account. But you could also get auxiluary cards that can only be filled up from other cards (via these little interface devices, properly equipped phones, and 'in the future' over the net) and are not attached to a bank account. There is still a phone with the modex slot on the main computer desk at my home.
The people did not like it because while you were out playing with a little plastic card with a chip, the banks were taking the 'real' money and investing it. Sure, it was perfectly legal to use this money 'twice.' But they desperately tried to hide this fact and convince you that it was the same as cash. It was really the banks' dishonesty that killed it, not the fact that the money was being used twice, and also the fact that it added at least 10s to the transaction for the card to be read and the amount to be processed.
Now I have heard tales of true debit systems being more common throughout Europe. Maybe some actual Europeans can fill me in here. Supposedly there are systems where you just pay a lump sum and you get a debit card that is the same as cash and you can pay for things in a lot of places with it. Can you use these as one-use credit cards as well?