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> Let's just make the phone companies liable for damages where they can't produce the customer (no KYC) or the customer is international. They'll quickly figure out who is legit and who isn't when it actually hurts their bottom line.

This would result in prepaid sim cards going away which would create a lot of problems for homeless people and illegal immigrants.

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In the US, maybe. In Germany, prepaid sim cards already require full KYC with ID. There's no problem, you can get them with a preliminary ID card the government hands out to asylum seekers. There's barely any undocumented migrants in Germany because there's little reason to: if you're from most of Europe, you can come here legally, if you're from Africa or Western Asia, you can claim asylum.

You can also buy so-called pre-activated "Anosims" in Turkish shops everywhere around the country, no need to do KYC.

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