Earlier quoted context omitted.
On the one hand it's obvious that the Hindenburg people are right on this when they say that Block's app is used for criminal activities and money laundering. On the other hand that's what we get for trying to push cash itself more and more outside the boundaries of modern society. That video in a way made me root for the bad guys, a no-cash society where petty crime doesn't happen because the powers that be control…
Are there more artists name checking Cash App that they missed?
Block: Inflated user metrics and “frictionless” fraud facilitation
301–310 of 324 posts
Re: Block: Inflated user metrics and “frictionless” fraud facilitation
#302Earlier quoted context omitted.
Risky move, given that Georgia is a constitutional carry state and castle doctrine extends to occupied vehicles. Not really. By the time a seat-belted person gets to their gun, whether in a holster, under the seat, in a purse, or in the glove box, the thief is long gone. Real life is very different from the movies.
You are asserting that it takes a long time to get a gun out. I remember a few years back there was some controversy about how police are trained to shoot first and one of the things that bubbled up then was a video (I think produced by someone teaching the police) of a seated driver drawing a gun and having it pointed out the window in a fraction of a second. The gun was in a holster down by the seat belt buckle. An…
Makes sense for a seasoned criminal, of the type who might shoot a cop.
Joe Lunchbucket isn't likely to be so agile.
Re: Block: Inflated user metrics and “frictionless” fraud facilitation
#303Earlier quoted context omitted.
You are asserting that it takes a long time to get a gun out. I remember a few years back there was some controversy about how police are trained to shoot first and one of the things that bubbled up then was a video (I think produced by someone teaching the police) of a seated driver drawing a gun and having it pointed out the window in a fraction of a second. The gun was in a holster down by the seat belt buckle. An…
Makes sense for a seasoned criminal, of the type who might shoot a cop. Joe Lunchbucket isn't likely to be so agile.
Statistically speaking, Joe Lunchbucket, is likely a better trained shooter than the police, most of whom only fire their guns once a year to qualify and have to meet lower accuracy standards than CHL holders in 32 states.
Re: Block: Inflated user metrics and “frictionless” fraud facilitation
#304Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 don't know if it's a scam but there's been guys hanging around the local greyhound station with stories like "my phone battery died while I was on the bus, can I use your phone to call my buddy to pick me up". And I don't want to be a jerk but something about it felt a bit too pushy, and if I give then my phone I was probably never going to see it or them again. Now just giving it unlocked to a squeegee kid? Hell n…
I've had people ask to use my phone a few times in similar situations. So I just dial the number on speaker for them and don't hand them my phone.
Re: Block: Inflated user metrics and “frictionless” fraud facilitation
#305Earlier quoted context omitted.
Cash app now makes up the majority of Block's revenue. https://s29.q4cdn.com/628966176/files/doc_financials/2022/q4... page 74 of their 2022 Q4 10-K shows a per segment (between Square and Cash App) breakdown of revenue
Very interesting, thanks for pointing me to that document. It does show Square with +29% growth in net revenue (+30% profit growth), whereas Cash App shows 14$ decline in revenue. They managed to still get profit growth in Cash App by cutting cost of revenue even faster than their revenue dropped, but that does not seem to bode well for Cash App being able to sustain greater KYC due diligence, etc. I think they may h…
"Cash App shows 14%" rather than "14$", obviously, but it's too late to edit now. :)
Re: Block: Inflated user metrics and “frictionless” fraud facilitation
#306Earlier quoted context omitted.
Maybe it is a bit too much, but in general, Western societies should work on educating people to greatly reduce their amount of trust in other people. Current Western trust levels are simply not reflective of reality: they were meant for a white society with a single, enforced religion, where everyone was shaking in fear of divine punishment. We live in a global world now and vast majority of it never had or expected…
Reducing trust is better in some respects, but deeply harmful in others. What would be great instead is to increase accountability so that it's safer to trust. In the case of scam money transfers, a path to reversal would be a start .
The vast majority of commenters here vote to dismantle the methods of accountability. This proposition won’t happen as long as the PMC class remain insulated from rapidly rising crime.
Re: Block: Inflated user metrics and “frictionless” fraud facilitation
#307Earlier 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…
> squeege kids And another euphemism.
They’re literally groups of teenagers with squeegees. What do you think they should be called? Nephilim?
Re: Block: Inflated user metrics and “frictionless” fraud facilitation
#308Earlier quoted context omitted.
I sometimes think that the absence of experience is an issue. Many of these Jurassic-scale disasters are ones that make me wonder "Were there any adults in the room, when this decision was made?" I suspect the answer is frequently "No."
Why would these companies care if their nonsense makes other people suffer when they still profit from that suffering ?
Ding ding ding. It sounds like everyone knew the grift, but didn’t care because they got paid.
Meanwhile they’re profiting off some 13 year old getting raped in a Motel 6.
Not that great!
Re: Block: Inflated user metrics and “frictionless” fraud facilitation
#309> “I Paid Them Hitters Through Cash App”: Block Paid To Promote A Video For A Song Called “Cash App”, Which Described Paying Contract Killers Through The App. > The Artist, “22Gz”, Was Later Arrested for Attempted Murder It astonishes me how many rappers do this. It’s one thing to be a criminal, and it’s another to rap about your crimes and do the job of the investigators…they probably think it makes them tough or so…
I believe it is part of their marketing strategy -- being seen as a "cold blooded murderer" may add to the "cool factor" of the artist, which may appeal to the fans, even when it's artificially cultivated.
Ja Morant is currently throwing his life away because of the enormous pressure to do this. He’s from a nice family and is definitely no gangster.
Re: Block: Inflated user metrics and “frictionless” fraud facilitation
#310Isn’t this pretty bad for the Block, Inc leadership. KYC and money laundering laws are one of the few corporate laws that can result in doing actual jail time. In addition, politics being what it is, with the SVB “bailout” the Biden administration will be looking for something to show that they are not coddling Silicon Valley. Throwing a few execs in jail would send the message.
The real reason is here: https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/block-inc/summary?id=D00007...
Why would you fuck with the DNC’s golden goose?