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Block: Inflated user metrics and “frictionless” fraud facilitation

hindenburgresearch.com

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Re: Block: Inflated user metrics and “frictionless” fraud facilitation

#141

Post by cal5k »

reaperducer wrote: post #125
cccybernetic wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was born outside the US and we had local gangsters that would walk up to you in the middle of the street and try to “sell” you a brick. Like a brick that you build a house or wall with. They would show it to you, and tell you that it was a great brick and that you should buy it. If you told them you didn’t want the brick, they would assure you that yes you most certainly do want the brick. You then bought the brick…

This happened to a friend of mine in Atlanta. Someone tried to sell her a rock at a traffic light. When she wouldn't buy it, they used it to smash her rear driver's side window and grab whatever they could from inside the car.

Risky move, given that Georgia is a constitutional carry state and castle doctrine extends to occupied vehicles.

Re: Block: Inflated user metrics and “frictionless” fraud facilitation

#142

Post by boh »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #119
gonzo41 wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always think about uber. The moment that they have to start treating drivers like employee's they can't make money because self driving cars are still a dream and the taxi business is cut throat and always has been.

> moment that they have to start treating drivers like employee's they can't make money Revel, in New York, has employees and does fine.

Define "does fine". Spending and losing VC money doesn't count.

Re: Block: Inflated user metrics and “frictionless” fraud facilitation

#143

Post by mst »

Mizoguchi wrote: post #76

Lol OK.. Nathan Anderson is the founder of Hindenburg Research, a New York-based investment management firm, and a forensic financial investigator that is famous for releasing reports on alleged wrongdoing by companies. When publishing some of these reports, his company profits by short selling the target company's stocks (that is, by making a bet in securities markets that the price of the company's shares will decl…

That's ... exactly how short selling reports work?

There's an explicit disclosure in the piece that they've taken a short position, but really, when a short seller puts out a report like this, you can safely assume that's the case even without reading far enough through to get to the explicit disclosure.

If they're right, they make money. That's what makes it worth investigating to see which companies are screwed up.

Re: Block: Inflated user metrics and “frictionless” fraud facilitation

#144

Post by [deleted] »

dougSF70 wrote: post #97
user3939382 wrote: post #79

FYI if anyone is interested I can prove it -- Cash App is engaged in a massive stock trading fraud. I noticed one day that my books were off (down) by 1 penny. When I dug into it, I figured out that Cash App is providing their customers with conflicting reports for their stock sales. In the app, the sales report rounds pennies up, in the actual sale, whose records are only available through more complex data export p…

This is at the core of Superman III. Richard Priors' character notices his paycheck gets rounded down, he writes an app to harvest up the rounded down tenths of pennies...

[deleted]

Re: Block: Inflated user metrics and “frictionless” fraud facilitation

#145

Post by EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK »

>> Cash App’s frictionless approach lets users join with just an email or a phone number.

I don't know, I've been asked to send a selfie and a driver license, and activate the physical card they sent in the mail to my registered address - all the usual KYC procedures.

They also did send a 1099 form for all Bitcoins I deposited to the app in 2022.

Re: Block: Inflated user metrics and “frictionless” fraud facilitation

#146

Post by dfxm12 »

bfeynman wrote: post #68
hoofhearted wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Correct. A scam here in Baltimore that keeps occurring is that the squeege kids will run up on someone unsuspecting and start cleaning their windshield. They will pressure the driver for a tip, and the driver will say they don’t have cash of course. They will say that’s cool, you can send me a tip. They ask the driver for their phone so they can look up their cashapp for them, and bam the driver got scammed. What’s h…

That is entirely on you if you give away your phone to those kids. I would think they would just run away with it

Yes, don't give your phone away, but it's also on CashApp if they allow large transfers with no further authentication, even if we're not talking about literal scams and you just mistakenly fat fingered an extra 0...

Re: Block: Inflated user metrics and “frictionless” fraud facilitation

#147

Post by throwaway290 »

zerop wrote: post #74

Did Hindenburg ever reported Fraud and Scandals by Credit Suisse?

If you follow activist short seller community, credit suisse is basically a running joke. The problem is it's easy to burn if you short it and it gets some magic bailout or something because it's too big to fail. Like with Tesla's business model, the market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent.

Re: Block: Inflated user metrics and “frictionless” fraud facilitation

#148

Post by theGnuMe »

user3939382 wrote: post #123
theGnuMe wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you cash out of the app do you get the full balance or the app balance?

That's the problem, when you cash out, you don't get the net amount listed in the app. You get a penny or sometimes even more than 1 penny less. The amount you get corresponds with the real net amount number that they've applied different rules to which is only available in your account export, only available through their website.

Right but does it match the net export number which is the legal one? or the fake one?

Re: Block: Inflated user metrics and “frictionless” fraud facilitation

#149

Post by some1else »

melling wrote: post #61
overthrow wrote: post #24

I didn't know Square had changed their name to Block. Looks like it happened in December 2021: https://investors.block.xyz/news/news-details/2021/Square-In... That said this really seems overblown. The report seems to mostly just talk about Cash App. Square Payments, Weebly and TIDAL are not even mentioned. Afterpay is mentioned but that was a 2022 acquisition so the problems likely predate Block's involvement. It fe…

What feels weird that the top comment is by someone who didn’t even know the company changed its name 2 years ago. Can we do better? HN could be so much better.

Make clear suggestions, or just do better yourself.

Re: Block: Inflated user metrics and “frictionless” fraud facilitation

#150

Post by mtoner23 »

user3939382 wrote: post #79

FYI if anyone is interested I can prove it -- Cash App is engaged in a massive stock trading fraud. I noticed one day that my books were off (down) by 1 penny. When I dug into it, I figured out that Cash App is providing their customers with conflicting reports for their stock sales. In the app, the sales report rounds pennies up, in the actual sale, whose records are only available through more complex data export p…

can almost gaurantee you this is not fraud its an odd lot exception. If you dont do trades in round lots brokers are allowed to bunch your orders together and not give you best execution.
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