At 02:08 AM 7/22/96 +0000, Jonathon Blake wrote:
Myers:
On Sun, 21 Jul 1996, Myers W. Carpenter wrote:
What would be the problems in setting up a web site to make a charge to a Credit Card/ATM card number and return Cash, like an ATM for the net?
Eight to ten years, I think. It is called money laundering.
I find that interesting, since I can do the same thing with a bank machine. (Or maybe it is only money laundering when you don't get your picture taken as part of the process.) The only problem I see is that charges to a credit card can be withdrawn by the customer within a certain time period after either the billing or transaction. (I do not remember which. It has been a year or two since I have been responsible for CC transactions.) The individual could always say "It was not me" and get away with the e-cash. Sounds like a BIG risk for anyone setting up such a site.
AFAIK, that was the major legal hassle, when it was first done. << OK, so it was on a BBS, not the internet. >>
Getting people to use it is the other major problem.
That is the big problem with e-cash as it is... Not everyone has a major credit card. Not everyone is willing to go through the hastles and invasion of privacy involved to set up an account with an e-cash provider. When getting e-cash is as easy as getting a money order, then there might be more interest. --- Alan Olsen -- alano@teleport.com -- Contract Web Design & Instruction `finger -l alano@teleport.com` for PGP 2.6.2 key http://www.teleport.com/~alano/ "We had to destroy the Internet in order to save it." - Sen. Exon "Microsoft -- Nothing but NT promises."