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Comment by il-b | Hacker News Reader

Beware of drug and cash traffickers. Unlike ride sharing, where the end user, the passenger, is responsible for everything.

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Also sounds like something Ted Kaczynski would've been interested in using back in the day. It has all of the elements of a literal bomb delivery service: operates outside of the mail security apparatus, probably built on a shoestring budget so no background checks for the senders.

The conclusion would probably be that the supply side would need to be trained and certified as courier operators.

Are the legal liabilities way more serious than those that Uber faced? To be fair, Uber founder faced a lot of legal issues and stress.

This was my first thought when I saw "travelers going between countries."

You're going to have a problem getting carriers to sign up because they are assuming all of the risk. Unfortunately, "oh you don't understand - I got paid $27 by CarrierPigeon™ to bring this unmarked, brick shaped package into the country" just isn't going to fly with customs/feds.

I missed the “different countries” bit. Hell no.

OP, I hope you are on good terms with Trump, because you’re going to need that pardon.

This whole idea is dead on arrival because of this.

Most nations actively warn their citizens never to carry packages from someone you don't know, and never to carry packages you didn't pack (or saw opened) yourself even for people you do know. And still people agree to carry sealed packages for someone they had a few nice nights with on holiday before boarding the plane back home. That tends to end in a little room on the same airport with security/police grilling you before sending you on to the judicial system where the tough-on-drugs judge will sentence you to a couple of years of extra holiday. In a cell with rats.

There is no way to clear this legally and ethically.

Even across state lines is a big risk but carrying unknown packages into another country is astronomically stupid. You don’t get to play the “I didn’t realize” card, either, when you lie to a customs agent and claim you didn’t accept packages from anyone else.

Even just going to the Apple Store when you're in NYC for someone and bringing back a brand new Mac can get customs officials interested.

I'd be hesitant taking anything from anyone, even a child handing a letter to be postmarked in Florida.

Yeah, but bringing back a brand new Mac that I personally bought at an Apple Store for a friend won’t ever land me in jail - worst case scenario is that the friend would have to pay me back for whatever import duties the customs officials levy on the computer.

Now, carrying a random package from somebody on the Internet? There are more productive ways to get into jail than this!

And yet I know there used to be a business (when the Concorde was flying), where they would offer very cheap tickets on the Concorde from New York to London and back, the hitch being that you agreed to take no luggage, and your luggage allowance was taken up by the brokering company, who provided a rush courier service largely for legal/business documents and the like.

I guess this company is slightly different, I think it could be made legal.

Isn't this fixed by:

A: unpacking and inspecting the packages? B: The company assuming the risk and liability. C: The company collecting evidence through KYC and cooperating in the case of crime?

Probably too much hassle to save some bucks when compared to a courier service, though.

A. Maybe. Are you going to ship with someone who is going to open your package and rifle through it, though? I would personally also not feel confident in my ability to check fully for hidden illicit material if I were the courier.

B. No. Absent laws indemnifying the courier, a company saying “I’ll take the heat for those drugs you’re carrying” is not a meaningful act.

C. No. This seems like more of B.

This is all surmountable if the laws allow it. I assume FedEx drivers don’t go to jail of a package unknowingly contains drugs. But I don’t know what needs to be in place for random Joe to be acting as a casual courier without taking on legal liability.

Also if you can get away with it, all drug traffickers would soon have an online order for their package so if stopped they can just say they're an innocent courier.

From a security engineering risk I don't think that would be an issue, because the same mechanism that catches malicious senders would be at play, the sender would have to identify through the app, with a payment provider and to the courier to send a package. The fake courier would have to sign up as a fake sender and be risk-exposed through the sender role.

Courier immunity does not confer much advantage compared to just signing up and having someone else send it. Except, it's true, that a trafficker could play both roles and self serve to avoid courier inspection/risk, there's some implications there for sure, but same as any job right? Pizza delivery guy could be selling drugs. It's not like transport is a niche job that might warrant specialized training and certification, it's like half the economy, tell me a commodity more central to business than oil, it can happen yes, but it isn't the end of the world if it happens on your business it's part of the trade, as long as you can deal with it, comply with the investigation, put preventive measures, and design the system with that in mind, I think it'd be ok.

Obligatory disclaimer. I am not a lawyer, this is not legal advice, just my personsal opinion on the matter

Recently:

https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/article/exclusive-canadian-tee...

>Jade’s Instagram account suggests she thought she had been hired for a legitimate job as an “international package shipper,” with a salary of $5,000 per trip.

Her recruiter texted her: “We pay your flights, accommodation, food.”

And if you can afford that, you can afford to prime the pump, too.

Sounds more like an opportunity, the fact that there's unique problems to be solved in a space mean precisely that there is a need for a specialized company instead of being gobbled up by features in rideshare apps.

Some spaces just can't be "disrupted."

OP has already solved one side of the market without even realizing it.

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