Prepaid debit cards: usable for privacy anymore?

[John Case]

On Thu, 29 Oct 2009, Roy M. Silvernail wrote:

> I've often heard that a rechargeable debit card is a useful tool for 
> maintaining financial privacy.  But I looked at a number of such cards today, 
> and all of them require an activation procedure that involves disclosing 
> name, address and SSN.  Has the market closed ranks on KYC, or are there 
> still cards that can be charged without associating with a meatspace 
> identity?


Simon mall giftcards can be purchased with cash at a mall near you (they 
are a big nationwide chain) and at any time you can register on their 
website your "personal information" so that you can use the cards for 
online shopping.

You can put in any information you want.  You're simply registering your 
"name and address" so that the card verification can go through.

They do exactly what you want them to do.  In fact, it's rather amazing - 
in a world where anonymous cash and e-currency, etc., are considered hard 
problems with issues across all manner of sociological/legal/technical 
realms, here is an up and running anonymous payment scheme that J6P can 
walk into a mall and pay cash for.

I have no idea why this is allowed to persist.  It goes against every bit 
of conditioning I have received concerning our post 9/11 world.

(I'm not subbed to gold/crypto/rayserver/blah, but please forward along as 
I would like to see the ensuing discussion ... why does this exist, and 
what radar is it flying under ?  It's Visa and a nationwide mall chain, 
for gods sake...)