this post was submitted on 03 Sep 2025
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[–] dangercake@feddit.uk 11 points 5 days ago

He was over the moon when she sent the cash

[–] RoidingOldMan@lemmy.world 9 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Maybe this is a dumb question, but with digital transactions shouldn't it be easy to track the scammer and/or reverse the transaction? I mean, if digital transactions have no protections, then why not use cash for everything?

[–] TotallyHuman@lemmy.ca 4 points 5 days ago

There's two barriers to that. Banks don't want to reverse transactions without a court order, because they would then be very embarrassed and also get sued if the transaction turned out to be legitimate. So they can reverse transactions, but only after the court orders it.

The other thing is that scammers know that. This is why they often demand payment via Western Union, gift cards, etc. They also often use "money mules": other scam victims who take the money and then send it to the scammer's account, taking a cut. The scammer periodically closes accounts and opens new ones, so if their assets get frozen they don't lose too much. (The money mule scam victims are sometimes just being conned into helping the scammer, but sometimes they end up getting scammed themselves, such as by being sent bad checks. They can't go to the police because they're guilty of a crime.)

[–] Stovetop@lemmy.world 4 points 5 days ago

In many countries maybe, but I hear Japan's banking infrastructure is basically still in the stone age.

[–] SlartyBartFast@sh.itjust.works 4 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I guess that relationship really took off

[–] xia@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 4 days ago

Just wait till you're stuck in orbit and nobody will buy gift cards for you!

[–] OliveMoon@lemmy.ca 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I was actually really surprised that this happened in Japan. I immediately thought southern states, or Alberta 😉

[–] Amuletta@lemmy.ca 1 points 4 days ago (1 children)

People are people all over the world. I wonder if there has been any research into the psychology of people who get scammed this way? They seem so blind to what is really obvious to their friends and relatives.

[–] OliveMoon@lemmy.ca 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

🎶 All the lonely people, where do they all come from… 🎶

[–] Amuletta@lemmy.ca 1 points 4 days ago

Got to be more to it than loneliness.