Two Americas, one bank branch, and $50k cash • Hacker News Board

Re: Two Americas, one bank branch, and $50k cash

#71

Post by rsynnott » Fri, Mar 07, 2025, 1:48 PM UTC

JohnMakin wrote: post #47

Everything else aside, I find it very unusual from an amateur journalist's perspective that his intuition led him to doubt the veracity of this story, yet, his biggest clue he went on was supplied by the writer themselves, who he was doubting. Seems like a good way to waste a lot of time or come to a completely wrong conclusion.

> yet, his biggest clue he went on was supplied by the writer themselves, who he was doubting

I mean arguably it was such a weird detail that one would not have made it up (and, also, if, as you'd kind of expect, there were no branches at all with upstairs tellers, that would obviously invalidate the whole thing).

Re: Two Americas, one bank branch, and $50k cash

#72

Post by rsynnott » Fri, Mar 07, 2025, 2:01 PM UTC

BryantD wrote: post #36

danso wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's not clear to me is: why the confirmation that the NYMag writer's bank has a 2nd floor teller window is enough to mollify Patrick's intense skepticism that her $50k transaction happened like she asserts. If she was already going to torch her own reputation and journalism career to fabricate this scam story, why wouldn't she have the intrepidness to research what various Brooklyn banks look like? Or actually, wh…

It wasn't; the key part of the piece is the revelation that $50K was not in fact a huge sum of money for someone in her socio-economic class. The thing that caught Patrick's eye originally, if I'm reading correctly, was that she didn't get the usual "come back in a day so we can get the funds together" message. I suspect although I can't be sure that this is one reason why he's elliptical in this piece. The core piec…

> The core piece of information is that she misrepresented her wealth in the original article

From the article:

> When recounted these same statements, my friend Byrne Hobart, who has actually lived among this social milieu before, laughed knowingly and said “Ah, family money.”

It wasn't a misrepresentation; it was just vague, and the author read it wrong.

Re: Two Americas, one bank branch, and $50k cash

#73

Post by RandomBacon » Fri, Mar 07, 2025, 8:25 PM UTC

jagraff wrote: post #41

RandomBacon wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There’s some stuff you have to fill out explaining why I have never had to fill out anything. My credit union didn't even ask why I wanted the cash, they just asked for a second form of identification due to the amount being over 10k. I know they fill out a SAR (Suspicious Activity Report) as required by law, but it's seemless on my end (besides waiting while they fill it out). I always read about people being hass…

Banks are not required to file a SAR just because you withdraw (or even deposit) over 10k. They are required to report it, but the report is not a SAR - having a SAR filed can be bad, because too many filed about you will likely cause banks to refuse to open accounts for you.

Idk, maybe I heard wrong way back when. When I deposited a large amount of money, at another credit union, they knew who I was, but they asked for my driver license number (which I verbally told them) presumably for some report on their computer. Also when I withdrew the money from the first credit union, it seemed like they were filling out some ling form as well.