I just lost my wallet on the way home from work • Hacker News Board

Re: I just lost my wallet on the way home from work

#131

Post by andrewingram » Tue, Oct 15, 2019, 8:59 PM UTC

timcameron wrote: post #90

floatrock wrote: post #52

I hate it when my cynicism alarm goes off, but this feel-good tweet about hacking payment transfers for good is written by a guy who's twitter bio says he's a PM at Transferwise ("We’re building the best way to move money around the world.") All the replies are people contrasting shitty experiences they've had with their own wallets and money transfer services. His top pinned tweet is: > Reasons to work at @TransferW…

Hi, I’m the guy who lost his wallet! I agree it’s a convenient overlap and understand your cynicism but I assure you that it’s genuine. I can even provide you with the receipt from me riding a jump bike around for an hour looking for my wallet! :) EDIT: spelling + I did pin the tweet about transferwise after it blew up, and I also changed my bio to share my small side project: Podmast.com - check it out :)

Just post the thread from the slack channel at work where you obviously posted this story :p

Re: I just lost my wallet on the way home from work

#132

Post by darkr » Tue, Oct 15, 2019, 8:59 PM UTC

dpcan wrote: post #111

timcameron wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi, I’m the guy who lost his wallet! I agree it’s a convenient overlap and understand your cynicism but I assure you that it’s genuine. I can even provide you with the receipt from me riding a jump bike around for an hour looking for my wallet! :) EDIT: spelling + I did pin the tweet about transferwise after it blew up, and I also changed my bio to share my small side project: Podmast.com - check it out :)

You're making it worse. Anyone can conveniently lose a wallet, but one with a bank card with no identifying info in it anywhere? A finder who went to bizarre lengths to make Faster transactions to your bank account to send you a message? Absolutely no other identifying information in the wallet? A plan to ride a jump bike around to prove you looked for it with receipts? Before sending someone pennies with context in…

Faster Payments is a UK banking thing: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faster_Payments_Service

Re: I just lost my wallet on the way home from work

#133

Post by makomk » Tue, Oct 15, 2019, 8:59 PM UTC

dpcan wrote: post #111

timcameron wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi, I’m the guy who lost his wallet! I agree it’s a convenient overlap and understand your cynicism but I assure you that it’s genuine. I can even provide you with the receipt from me riding a jump bike around for an hour looking for my wallet! :) EDIT: spelling + I did pin the tweet about transferwise after it blew up, and I also changed my bio to share my small side project: Podmast.com - check it out :)

You're making it worse. Anyone can conveniently lose a wallet, but one with a bank card with no identifying info in it anywhere? A finder who went to bizarre lengths to make Faster transactions to your bank account to send you a message? Absolutely no other identifying information in the wallet? A plan to ride a jump bike around to prove you looked for it with receipts? Before sending someone pennies with context in…

Faster Payments is the standard, free way of making payments to bank accounts in the UK. Everyone with online banking here has easy access to it regardless of what bank they use. Also, our debit cards generally have enough information to send someone a payment that way for some reason.

Re: I just lost my wallet on the way home from work

#134

Post by nindalf » Tue, Oct 15, 2019, 9:01 PM UTC

journalctl wrote: post #12

This is neat! I once found someone’s debit card on the street (in the US). It had a small face shot on it, so I found them on Facebook and sent them a message. Of course, Facebook had already started doing the “messages from non-friends are really hard to find lol” UI dark pattern, so like two years later the woman responds thanking me, but also saying she just canceled the card. Which is what I would’ve done, but I…

> “messages from non-friends are really hard to find lol” UI dark pattern

You think you would do something different here? And you have considered all the possible ramifications of doing so? No doubt you've considered the impact on the number of spammy/scammy interactions that everyone experiences, the number of harassing messages that people around the world receive and you've made an informed trade-off between that and meaningful social interactions people have with the folks who find their wallet.

Seems like a pretty strong statement to call it a dark pattern, implying malice, when it could just be a good thing.

Re: I just lost my wallet on the way home from work

#135

Post by ghaff » Tue, Oct 15, 2019, 9:01 PM UTC

JenBarb wrote: post #103

A few weeks ago I found a working iPhone X on the side on the sidewalk. I thought about using siri to call a recent contact and try to get it back to the owner, but I found the language was set to Chinese (which I cannot read or speak) and I gave up and put it back on the sidewalk in case the owner came back. In retrospect, I don't think I could have done anything even if the language was English apart from wait for…

Probably contact Apple with the serial number.

Re: I just lost my wallet on the way home from work

#136

Post by TeMPOraL » Tue, Oct 15, 2019, 9:01 PM UTC

wyxuan wrote: post #66

floatrock wrote: post #52

I hate it when my cynicism alarm goes off, but this feel-good tweet about hacking payment transfers for good is written by a guy who's twitter bio says he's a PM at Transferwise ("We’re building the best way to move money around the world.") All the replies are people contrasting shitty experiences they've had with their own wallets and money transfer services. His top pinned tweet is: > Reasons to work at @TransferW…

Transfer wise does forex not traditional bank transfers like this

Plenty of people here who are paid or pay someone else in foreign currency. Myself included.

Re: I just lost my wallet on the way home from work

#137

Post by retromario » Tue, Oct 15, 2019, 9:01 PM UTC

ryanlol wrote: post #76

alexis_fr wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it actually legal? In France, a bag in a public place is deemed to be a bomb and the military has to come, secure the area and destroy it. Happens on a routine basis, not even worth the newspapers. You don’t have such laws in Washington DC?

Wow, that’s some insane security theater. How often do the bags turn out to be bombs? never?

France experienced a high amount of bomb attacks in the 70s and 80s, eventually tapering off in the 90s [1]. The aggressive reaction to unattended bags stems from these events.

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_terrorist_incidents_in...

Re: I just lost my wallet on the way home from work

#138

Post by brmgb » Tue, Oct 15, 2019, 9:01 PM UTC

alexis_fr wrote: post #63

SI_Rob wrote: post #51

Every so often my pessimistic tendencies get a healthy slap across the face by the actions of someone who took the high road when they easily could have chosen otherwise. It's a couple summers ago, at the height of the summer tourist season and I'm cycling up 4th ave SW in DC. Somewhere between the NASA HQ and the National Mall my camera bag - packed full with a fairly new DSLR, a few lenses, and a secondary cell pho…

Is it actually legal? In France, a bag in a public place is deemed to be a bomb and the military has to come, secure the area and destroy it. Happens on a routine basis, not even worth the newspapers. You don’t have such laws in Washington DC?

> In France, a bag in a public place is deemed to be a bomb and the military has to come, secure the area and destroy it.

That's obviously not true. If it was the case, the Paris subway would forever be stopped.

What is true is that in France when someone reports an abandoned bag in a public place in the main cities, it will systematically be considered as suspect. It means that someone will first go visually inspect it. If it is deemed to present a risk, a detection dog will be brought. Then, if the detection dog smells something, it will be safely handled by the police bomb disposal unit. Thankfully - it turns a half an hour top operation into a significantly longer one - it is very rare to need to destroy a bag.

Also it is absolutely not illegal to check a lost wallet (or a lost bag actually) in France.

Re: I just lost my wallet on the way home from work

#139

Post by coriny » Tue, Oct 15, 2019, 9:02 PM UTC

dpcan wrote: post #111

timcameron wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi, I’m the guy who lost his wallet! I agree it’s a convenient overlap and understand your cynicism but I assure you that it’s genuine. I can even provide you with the receipt from me riding a jump bike around for an hour looking for my wallet! :) EDIT: spelling + I did pin the tweet about transferwise after it blew up, and I also changed my bio to share my small side project: Podmast.com - check it out :)

You're making it worse. Anyone can conveniently lose a wallet, but one with a bank card with no identifying info in it anywhere? A finder who went to bizarre lengths to make Faster transactions to your bank account to send you a message? Absolutely no other identifying information in the wallet? A plan to ride a jump bike around to prove you looked for it with receipts? Before sending someone pennies with context in…

Um, this is how banking works in the UK. Nobody cancels their bank account if they lose their card, they just cancel their card. And given someone else's card I could send them 1p within a minute (even if it's cancelled). Now I've seen this approach, it's what I'll do next time. And it doesn't involve the poster's company in any way, transferring thousands of pounds instantly within the EU is trivial.

Re: I just lost my wallet on the way home from work

#140

Post by detaro » Tue, Oct 15, 2019, 9:03 PM UTC

dpcan wrote: post #117

kraftman wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those things don't have phone numbers/email on them, so getting in contact with the owner isn't that easy.

Most cards have a business name or person's name. Taking the card to the police or the bank would get a call directly to them. Who would think, I'm going to start a chain of 1 penny transaction to contact this person at this bank account, and hope they get them before they cancel their bank account because they lost their wallet. And is this a wallet with cash and a single card with no identifiable information on it?…

Why would you cancel a bank account over a lost wallet?

reply to your edit: (btw, you can click on the timestamp of a comment and reply directly, always) … That's not how it works. If you loose a card, you let the bank deactivate the specific card. The account itself is not permanently compromised by a card. Someone else knowing your "banking info" (= account number) doesn't mean much and is not a reason to close an account.