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I accidentally loaned all my money to the US government

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Re: I accidentally loaned all my money to the US government

#101

Post by jeroenhd »

Nextgrid wrote: post #63
mormegil wrote: post #61

> This pseudo-security measure actually only slows down humans, not bots, because you can still edit the value of the text field using Javascript I don't think this is a defense against bots. Virtual keyboards were created primarily as a defense against keyloggers, IMHO.

Are keyloggers that can’t capture screenshots still prevalent? I’d expect any software that can log keys to also be able to take screenshots, so the only thing this could potentially thwart is hardware keyloggers but they’d be a very small minority. TLDR: this is indeed BS security theatre along the same lines of blocking password managers.

Hardware key loggers, which are impossible to find by antivirus, can't take screenshots. Software keyloggers and other such malware are defended against with antivirus, but hardware keyloggers must be defended against with design.

Your browser will probably remember your password afterwards, so the usability decrease isn't even that bad. And that's not a security flaw either, because hardware keyloggers don't see the autofill values.

Re: I accidentally loaned all my money to the US government

#102

Post by xen0 »

raverbashing wrote: post #78
randallsquared wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At the end, it's clear that he still thinks that, rather than that he has 10K in I bonds and 10K to be refunded, which seems more consistent with the language and events.

Yeah, I noticed that too His 10k bonds should be there, they will refund the excess, not the whole thing

Still leaves them with $200, waiting for the erroneous $10k to be returned.

The author's reading comprehension may leave something to be desired, but so does the interface they were using.

Re: I accidentally loaned all my money to the US government

#103

Post by lvl102 »

That’s why you buy through a bank.

Edit: I am wrong. You can only buy it two ways which is ridiculous in my view.

More to the point of the website that belongs in a museum, why can’t they update this consumer facing portal? What happened to all the people from “digitization” govt organizations? Such as 18F and usds. Oh. You mean all they do is replace the front end? Got it.

Re: I accidentally loaned all my money to the US government

#104

Post by oli-g »

jrimbault wrote: post #88
jefftk wrote: post #62

> They require you to enter your password by clicking on a virtual keyboard. This pseudo-security measure actually only slows down humans, not bots, because you can still edit the value of the text field using Javascript. I don't think this is generally worth it as a security measure, but the goal is not to protect against automation. Instead, custom on-screen keyboards are attempts to thwart keyloggers.

But if there's a keylogger installed, why would the same keylogger not take regular screenshots ?

Screenshots wouldn't be of much help. The frequency would need to be almost like a low-fps video recording in order to capture the buttons' pressed state. At that is assuming the state is visually distinct in the first place.

Re: I accidentally loaned all my money to the US government

#105

Post by lom »

ur-whale wrote: post #99

OP should count themselves very lucky they're (eventually) getting an actual cash refund and not some sort of IOU only redeemable against future income tax due. When you deal with an entity that has the monopoly on legitimate violence, your bargaining power is - unsurprisingly - borderline nonexistent.

That is the pessimistic way of looking at things..

The US isn’t quite yet there where they won’t let you go to court, so you could still try that

Re: I accidentally loaned all my money to the US government

#106

Post by hanoz »

tluyben2 wrote: post #45
hanoz wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But not all of it at 0% interest as he seems to think.

Why? Both emails says the purchase of bonds failed and a refund will be processed; you cannot expect that to give you any interest right?

The email is saying, rather clumsily, that the excess $25 of the second purchase will be refunded, and this interpretation is confirmed by fact that the third payment was also deemed to exceed the limit, which it would not have done if the second amount was being rejected in its entirety.

Re: I accidentally loaned all my money to the US government

#107

Post by newsclues »

jefftk wrote: post #62

> They require you to enter your password by clicking on a virtual keyboard. This pseudo-security measure actually only slows down humans, not bots, because you can still edit the value of the text field using Javascript. I don't think this is generally worth it as a security measure, but the goal is not to protect against automation. Instead, custom on-screen keyboards are attempts to thwart keyloggers.

If the goal is to prevent automation, they failed because it can be done with JavaScript.

Re: I accidentally loaned all my money to the US government

#108

Post by belltaco »

xkbarkar wrote: post #69

I thought this was funny. Weird comments in the thread about how he/she should have known better. Author is not making a complaint to demand internet outrage. There is no inflammatory justice warrior content here. Sheesh! Author admits they screwed up, decided to share the screwup, and who hasnt been trough that exact dunder blunder? Fun short read 8/10.

I only clicked on the article because the title said "all my money". I thought there was some glitch where the entire bank account got emptied. But it's just the author putting in the numbers that got withdrawn, and the author having 20K as all his money(if true, not confirmed in the article) is a coincidence. Clickbait title for sure if nothing else.

Re: I accidentally loaned all my money to the US government

#109

Post by unyttigfjelltol »

chii wrote: post #83
roenxi wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm saying that he's lending money to the people who write & interpret the rules, and those people do not intend to pay their creditors back in real terms. Indeed, they have probably crossed a practical threshold where they cannot pay back the real amount. It doesn't matter what the rules say right now, his wealth is at risk. They can and do change the rules sometimes. They can change what the word "inflation" means.…

The US gov't so far has enough credibility that they won't manipulate the inflation figures or change the law under you to cheat you of your money. Of course it _could_ happen - nothing prevents it. And if they did, they'd have destroyed the credibility that took over a hundred years to create, and it would remove any future possibility of people lending money to the US gov't. A rational actor would not undertake thi…

One only needs to peer into the sausage factory that is the Bureau of Labor Statistics[1] to see that a measure of inflation is a form of opinion whose credibility is entirely wrapped up with that of the speaker.

[1] https://www.bls.gov/cpi/additional-resources/historical-chan...

Re: I accidentally loaned all my money to the US government

#110

Post by derangedHorse »

dwighttk wrote: post #86

“A refund of the excess purchase” seems like $25 from the second purchase and then $9975, the entire third purchase… but maybe it is all but $25 like the author assumed.

"A refund of the excess purchase" seems like it might be the whole amount of the purchase assuming the "purchase" refers to the entire purchase transaction. The wording could have been clearer though and hopefully it's just the $25 from the second purchase that's returned.
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