Comment by cuteboy19 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by cuteboy19 | Hacker News Reader

I agree that at some point people need to take some responsibility for being scammed. However, it seems that Zelle is engineered in the perfect way to help scammers.

It is as though a committee of engineers and consultants sat together and said "How do we create the perfect vehicle for as many different types of scams as possible?"

  - Maybe! instant settlement
  - No standardized audit trail
  - No way to know who's really on the other side
  - Send money into the void
  - 2FA but not really

  - No standardized audit trail
  - No way to know who's really on the other side

I think these 2 are the biggest ones. You put in someone's phone number / email, and you get maybe an associated name as reassurance. How do I know it's actually associated with an account the person I'm trying to pay has access to?

Ideally you know that because banks have KYC (Know Your Customer). And Zelle accounts must be populated by a bank. Individuals cannot just create a Zelle account. They must open an account with a bank -- and thereby undergo KYC -- who then creates their Zelle account.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com