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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

#231

Post by [deleted] »

djbusby wrote: post #193
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…

Zelle has the same issue. Cannot unwind a fraudulent transaction. So, just avoid CashApp and Zelle.

[deleted]

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

#232

Post by paxys »

Skimmed through the report, and all of the allegations will at most amount to a token fine. There's nothing fundamentally wrong with the company. Every bank and money transfer app out there facilitates criminals in some way. Every tech (especially fintech) company is overvalued.

The market is overreacting because of Hindenburg’s past successes, but the stock price has already recovered by 10+ points since this morning and is rising. I predict all of it will amount to nothing in the end.

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

#233

Post by lanstin »

hotpotamus wrote: post #82
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…

I mean, it's also an anti-pattern with wallets if you hand them your wallet full of cash and tell them to take a tip. A PIN is not a bad idea though. I think this might be an actual generational difference; I feel weird letting someone else use my phone or using someone else's phone now. I can remember a time when phones were much more communal - the family shared a phone, and public phones existed, and I wonder if o…

I answer my wife’s phone from time to time and I always feel weird doing it, and feel that I have surprised the other end.

On the other hand, my phone causes ringing on my phone, my IPad and my work laptop: for the love of G-d don’t just watch it or tell me it is ringing, answer the damn phone. U less it says likely scam of course.

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

#234

Post by thebiglebrewski »

Is there an easy way to get exposure to Hindenburg's reports/bets, like some kind of fund that shorts the stocks they report on? Would love to get in on the action, but I'm afraid to open a brokerage account to short stocks and then make a tiny mistake and be out like a hundred grand!

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

#235

Post by richrichardsson »

efitz wrote: post #216
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't think you have anyone to blame It’s a negligent move for sure, but a crime is still a crime. Having someone steal your money without your consent is still theft and they are still the perpetrator of the crime. The victim-blaming mentality on the internet is wild. Being negligent or naive doesn’t shift 100% of the blame to the victim when a crime occurs.

It drives me nuts that anytime you indicate that a victim behaved unwisely and caution others to behave wisely to help avoid being victimized in the same way, somebody always gets their hackles up about “victim blaming”. Two things can be true at once: the perpetrator of a crime is the one responsible, AND the victim might have avoided victimhood had they acted more prudently. Humans communicate in stories. The “caut…

> I don't think you have anyone to blame if you give your phone with a logged in money app to a stranger who is begging for money.

> caution others to behave wisely to help avoid being victimized in the same way

In this case though this is not a caution to others, it's literally a statement of victim shaming/blaming.

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

#236

Post by paganel »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #217
paganel wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've explicitly mentioned that these analysts used only black people as the "criminals" in their example video. Interesting that it flew right past them.

> these analysts used only black people as the "criminals" in their example video Block targets Black Americans. This is like complaining about a gardening company’s analysts only talking about gardeners.

> Block targets Black Americans

Even worse. So one of the companies that tries to address/serve the black demographic is being put down but what I assume are not black financial analysts.

Like I've said, this Hindenburg company seems to not be aware of the whole societal background.

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

#237

Post by lanstin »

cornholio wrote: post #196
polygamous_bat wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If CashApp numbers are inflated by illegal activities that will go away if the law cracks down on them, that is a matter of concern for CashApp investors.

> illegal activities that will go away if the law cracks down on them, that is a matter of concern for CashApp investors. And indeed for any luxury brand that exists. I still don't understand how that makes the app itself a fraud.

If your money app allows you to be scammed with no recourse to pull back the funds, then as a customer in a free market where better fraud protections exist, you are going to consider that app to be scammy.

This is marketing not moral reasoning, and as customers, please encourage other customers to have a low tolerance for being blamed for fraud.

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

#238

Post by bombcar »

arcticbull wrote: post #214
imwithstoopid wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm not familiar with this situation, but I'm assuming that whoever is doing this isn't there to "clean" your windshield, and that the entire "transaction" is imbued with the implicit threat of violence not in the US - millions of people keep loaded guns in their vehicles

Do you have a reference on that number? I’d love to know what the number actually is.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3937627 has some numbers:

> During the Coronavirus pandemic, the number of concealed handgun permits has soared to over 21.52 million – a 48% increase since 2016.

Given that some states are "constitutional carry" (21 states) and do NOT require a permit if you legally own the gun, the actual number of people who HAVE a gun and can carry it would be higher than 21 million. They even do the math:

> To summarize, the total number of permits in the US is at least 21.52 million. Add in people who legally carry without a permit, and the number clearly becomes much larger. While 8.3% of the adult population has permits, the percentage of Americans who say that they carry most or all the time is about 5.4%.

5.4% of Americans is about 17 million people, the majority of which will carry when in their vehicle. (Note that legally and technically you are "conceal carrying" in many states if the gun is IN the vehicle, not locked, even if it is NOT on your person - so if you're married and YOU carry, you will want your spouse to get a CCW also even if he or she never carries, because if you're both in the car, the gun is in the center console, and you step out to get gas, your spouse is now concealing).

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

#239

Post by bombcar »

imwithstoopid wrote: post #206
birdyrooster wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Im pretty sure most guns are owned by hoarders sitting in a cabinet somewhere they aren’t likely to be in someone’s car who is ready to use it. Gun owners are a minority and they are just very enthusiastic individuals that they seem like a larger contingent than they are.

there are over 400 million firearms in the US in the hands of an estimated 100 million individuals over two million background checks for firearms purchases are performed each month, and this number is rising, and the number of people who are being background checked for the first time is rapidly rising (fastest growing group - black women) by 2030 there will likely be a half billion firearms in the US there are more…

Posted elsewhere but https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3937627 has numbers to back some of this up

Also according to the Small Arms Survey, Texas has five times as many guns as the US military.

Though the US military ones are more likely to have select fire and fully automatic but those are only particularly useful in certain situations.

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

#240

Post by ProjectArcturis »

djbusby wrote: post #193
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…

Zelle has the same issue. Cannot unwind a fraudulent transaction. So, just avoid CashApp and Zelle.

It's not that you can't unwind them, it's that you can't do so through normal channels. Complain to the Office of the Comptroller of Currency and it will get fixed. I'd still avoid those apps, but I don't want anyone who got scammed to read your comment and give up hope.
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