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Tell HN: Automatic fraud detection is making my life hell

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Re: Tell HN: Automatic fraud detection is making my life hell

#391

Post by withinboredom »

starttoaster wrote: post #190
withinboredom wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

wiring money via international accounts is instantaneous, last time I had wired money to me (last week). Or at least within an hour or two. The issue here, probably, is that there is usually a fairly large fee attached to it from the receiving bank. My bank, it's 25 bucks, flat rate. Each and every wire, even if it is 5 bucks being wired.

I'll take your word for it, a glance at google told me a wire transfer from a foreign bank will typically take about 2 days to clear, but I've only ever done wire transfers domestically. But yeah, a $25 fee might be the hold up, except if I'm understanding the OP, the wire transfer would be for costly medical care. Typically if I'm looking at paying a large bill, the bill blinds me from the pain of being nickel and d…

Yep, so a SWIFT (international transfer) can take 1-4 days, depending on the bank.

https://www.keycurrency.co.uk/SWIFT-transfer/

Re: Tell HN: Automatic fraud detection is making my life hell

#392

Post by ciceryadam »

ImPostingOnHN wrote: post #364
petre wrote: post #315

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? Are they afraid of people emptying their minibar and leaving without paying after wetting their bedsheets?

theft of items and/or damage of property, yes possibly to charge for overstays/ late checkouts / parking / other fees, too

Also, psychology. It's easier to drop by the hotel bar/restaurant when you have a 50 dollar prepayment that you can spend.

Re: Tell HN: Automatic fraud detection is making my life hell

#393

Post by underwatersea »

cj wrote: post #137
dreamcompiler wrote: post #131

Wrong assumptions programmers make about fraud prevention: -- A mobile phone number uniquely identifies a single person. -- Every person has a mobile phone number and they only have one mobile phone number. -- If a person's mobile phone number is associated with VoIP or Google Voice, that indicates fraud. -- Every person always has their mobile phone handy and it is always able to receive calls and SMS messages under…

The problem with many of these examples is that 99% of the time, it is a sign of fraud, and 1% of the time it’s a false positive. > If a person's mobile phone number is associated with VoIP or Google Voice, that indicates fraud. I’ve been using this heuristic (along with VPN and IP geo lookup) when screening job candidates after a massive influx of developers outside the US applying for US-only remote roles. I discov…

This kinda scares me you are screening out Google Voice Numbers. Google Voice was my primary phone number for over 5 years, I had a real phone number but I was always giving out only Google Voice. Google Voice is a very powerful tool:

* your phone number keeps working even if you lose your phone (I could still answer phone calls when my phone broke). * Traveling abroad is a breeze, just change sim cards on arrival and your US phone number still works via data on Google Voice. No need for expensive travel passes, and you get to choose your operator that has a lot more data. * Having full SMS & call support on a website is very nice, I always hate typing with the phone. iMessage doesn't solve everything since you need a mac (I frequently switch OS & devices).

Also I think e-sims will make lying and fraud much more common. A month ago chatgpt was denying creating a work account for me because I've already had this phone number associated with my previous account. And they were blocking Google Voice. I went to USMobile.com, payed 7$ to create an esim with another phone number, and I had sms with a second phone number on my phone working in less than 10 minutes.

Re: Tell HN: Automatic fraud detection is making my life hell

#394

Post by [deleted] »

MerelyMortal wrote: post #344
margalabargala wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to live in Baltimore, where there are numbered streets that include ½ symbol streets, and worse, house numbers including ½ numbered houses.

I believe Galveston, TX has lettered half streets, example: 123 A ½ St

[deleted]

Re: Tell HN: Automatic fraud detection is making my life hell

#395

Post by sangnoir »

snotrockets wrote: post #125
sangnoir wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wireguard on a $15 Raspberry Pi Zero works as well[1], for those who don't have AppleTVs. 1. Or OpenVPN on your router. It's probably to gove yourself a tunnel to your home-network you can use from your phone or laptop from anywhere in the world. Avoid default ports if you can.

Tailscale is wireguard, just with outsourced admin. I'm getting paid to develop and operate network infrastructure, I don't want to have a second job doing it without compensation.

The only admin work I ever do is generating a new config when I get or replace a peer device. I imagine this is inescapable even on Tailscale? Are there specific, recurring tasks that you think would cause it to rise to the level of a second job, rather than a once-and-done 5 minute install?

Re: Tell HN: Automatic fraud detection is making my life hell

#396

Post by dakial1 »

Aachen wrote: post #104
dakial1 wrote: post #12

This happens because the cost of developing (or buying) good software and people to build a decent anti-fraud system is very clear to measure and the impact of the false positives is not. Also, as credit card fraud is usually the bank's responsibility, it makes sense for the leaders of that area to go towards more false positives than false negatives. But it does not need to be that way and the government can and sho…

The cost of false positives is obvious though: lost custom?

It is obvious but not easy to measure. And companies act like what is not easy to measure doesn't exist.

Re: Tell HN: Automatic fraud detection is making my life hell

#397

Post by iggldiggl »

olyjohn wrote: post #277
dreamcompiler wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With Starlink, the downlink location determines your externally-visible IP address and that can change every 90 seconds or so based on where the closest satellite to you is at the moment. I'm in New Mexico and I frequenly see ads on web pages directing me to shops in Denver or Dallas because those are the downlink locations for me. You can see the issue better on this visualization: https://starlink.sx/

I think there must be something going on here. Changing your IP address would screw with all sorts of things. You never be able to do online gaming. Video streaming would stop working every time your IP changed. Anything that streams would just die and not recover for a while.

> Video streaming would stop working every time your IP changed. Anything that streams would just die and not recover for a while.

Not if the client has buffered enough data, allowing it to reconnect in background while playback continues.

Re: Tell HN: Automatic fraud detection is making my life hell

#398

Post by OkayPhysicist »

arp242 wrote: post #265
OkayPhysicist wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Frankly, examples like GP's are a compelling argument for professional licensure for software developers, because "only accepting gmail addresses as valid emails" should be considered professional malpractice.

The effect will be marginal; it will just create a huge administrative bonanza, and the number of times where it will be used (i.e. software devs being "disbarred") will be few enough that it won't matter much in practice.

The purpose of licensure is that it effectively allows the licensed individual to hold themselves hostage in a negotiation. Without licenses, Management says "add feature X", and even though you know feature X is evil personified, you look at the pros and cons of implementing it or not, and you end up with "my professional conscience" vs "getting fired". With licenses, you end up with "every future job" vs "this job" which is quite a bit more balanced in the direction of "don't add evil feature X".

Re: Tell HN: Automatic fraud detection is making my life hell

#399

Post by mango7283 »

sangnoir wrote: post #94
pshirshov wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A tailscale node on your AppleTV at home will fix the issue for you.

Wireguard on a $15 Raspberry Pi Zero works as well[1], for those who don't have AppleTVs. 1. Or OpenVPN on your router. It's probably to gove yourself a tunnel to your home-network you can use from your phone or laptop from anywhere in the world. Avoid default ports if you can.

The fact you have to state avoid default ports if you can kinda really highlights why this is not the best idea right?

Re: Tell HN: Automatic fraud detection is making my life hell

#400

Post by mrbadguy »

Habgdnv wrote: post #66
mrbadguy wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, that is bonkers. Could you maybe get them actually to try sending you an email to that address and show them that, yes, you do receive the damnned thing?

I initially wrote a much longer comment, detailing multiple instances like these from just the past few months. But then I just deleted it because it will be too long. As for them - They will just tell "huh, he is hacker and can send fake emails from fake non-existing platforms". It's like me attempting to demonstrate my possession of a private key for an SSL certificate to someone who lacks even a basic understandin…

Yeah I agree, the push towards digitalization combined with a lack of care for "edge cases" is kind of scary. People might say, oh, it only affects 0.3% but, in the US, that's roughly a million people so hardly trivial. The problem is that it is difficult to make truly flexible software and no-one has the financial incentive to do so. Increasingly, people don't even want to invest in humans at the edge to try and work around issues. Companies like google just ignore you.
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