Cashless society

[JohnDe]

An interesting report on the radio this morning, it seems that overseas criminals have been, and continue to be, laundering hundreds of millions of dollars buying real estate, hiring lawyers and lobby groups in Australia.

That got me thinking, we have supporters of a cashless system telling us that it would reduce or eliminate criminal activity in Australia, but we have international criminal organisation laundering money through our cashless system.

Who is benefiting from the cashless economy? To me it looks like financial institutions, governments, real estate industry, lawyers, and criminals.

Correct me if I am wrong.

 

[divs4ever]

An interesting report on the radio this morning, it seems that overseas criminals have been, and continue to be, laundering hundreds of millions of dollars buying real estate, hiring lawyers and lobby groups in Australia.

That got me thinking, we have supporters of a cashless system telling us that it would reduce or eliminate criminal activity in Australia, but we have international criminal organisation laundering money through our cashless system.

Who is benefiting from the cashless economy? To me it looks like financial institutions, governments, real estate industry, lawyers, and criminals.

Correct me if I am wrong.

you need to research no further than Jeffrey Epstein , although infamous for some activities , conveniently over-looked is his 'day job .. financial adviser/consultant ( which dragged the uber-rich into his circle ) i remember a quote somewhere a mega-bank head consulted J.E. and he saved over a billion dollars in personal taxes , now logic would say if you were liable to a billion plus in taxes , you can afford a VERY GOOD accountant/consultant , and yet J.E. did something even better

 

[Value Collector]

So apparently Gen Z thinks carrying a wallet makes you look old.

A guy asked a girl how she knew he was over 30 and she easy you have a wallet.

 

[divs4ever]

So apparently Gen Z thinks carrying a wallet makes you look old.

A guy asked a girl how she knew he was over 30 and she easy you have a wallet.

better a wallet than a hand bag , for heavy carrying i use a money belt ( or more than one )

 

[Value Collector]

better a wallet than a hand bag , for heavy carrying i use a money belt ( or more than one )

I think they are saying they don’t use a wallet because every thing is just on their phone, and even those that want to carry a physical credit card or a $50 note just slide it into their phone case.

Eg, licence, Credit or debit cards, member ship cards etc etc everything you have in your wallet they just have digitally on their phone or watch.

 

[moXJO]

So apparently Gen Z thinks carrying a wallet makes you look old.

A guy asked a girl how she knew he was over 30 and she easy you have a wallet.

They stick cash/card in their phone case. But basically use their phones for everything.

I have kids 7,8,17,23 the differences between the generations is very noticeable. Especially the pop culture of the 7/8 year olds. Keeps me tuned into cultural trends. The divide between the 8yo and 17yo is massive. With the oncoming AI I would expect that to grow again.

Most 23yo will still mix with a wallet. 25 and younger will use those bum bags or eshay purses.

 

[JohnDe]

They stick cash/card in their phone case. But basically use their phones for everything.

I have kids 7,8,17,23 the differences between the generations is very noticeable. Especially the pop culture of the 7/8 year olds. Keeps me tuned into cultural trends. The divide between the 8yo and 17yo is massive. With the oncoming AI I would expect that to grow again.

Most 23yo will still mix with a wallet. 25 and younger will use those bum bags or eshay purses.

I have a pigeon pair, 24 & 27 year old. The eldest, my son, carries a thin wallet with the basics in it and some cash. He is a tight arse, likes cash so he doesn't have to carry a bank card and can't buy anything off the cuff.

My daughter likes to try different eateries with her boyfriend, and has a card holder, also with cash in it. Uses the cash where possible, and the card were not.

Cash is king.

 

[JohnDe]

Reading The Economist after dinner and this article made me think of the unsecured cashless system being forced down our throats, that and the eftpos went down again late this afternoon. I had to reboot the service, same thing happened last week at roughly the same time.

The lesson is two-fold. One is that old technology has an enduring role in the internet age. Radio is more resilient than software. The other is that there is no substitute for tradecraft. “Remember this story next time someone tries to sell you their super-secure one-time-pad-based crypto scheme,” says Mr Blaze. “If actual Russian spies can’t use it securely, chances are neither can you.”​

Sometimes the old ways of espionage are the best

From the mid-1960s until 2008 anyone tuning a radio to shortwave frequencies between 5.422 and 16.084 mhz would periodically hear a jaunty flute playing a few bars of an English folk song. Then, in a clipped English accent, a female voice would read out numbers: “Zero, two, five, eight…” The transmissions were thought to be coded messages from mi6. The “Lincolnshire Poacher”, named after the jaunty tune, was one of many “number stations” used by spy agencies to communicate with agents in the field.

Some were wound up at the end of the cold war. What is curious is that so many persist: indeed Priyom.org, a website which tracks these stations, notes that activity has “significantly increased” since the mid-2010s, with broadcasts in voice, Morse code and digital signals. Russia is still a particularly keen user. With all the new technologies available, why use radio broadcasts?

A paper by Tony Ingesson and Magnus Andersson of Lund University suggests one reason is that modern methods are not safe. Providers of encrypted phones or apps have been hacked or undermined by law-enforcement agencies. The use of spyware to infect phones is growing. It is safest, they conclude, to “assume that every internet-connected device is compromised”.

In theory, number stations are unhackable. The sender and receiver each use a “one-time pad” (originally of paper) containing a matching list of random numbers to encrypt and decrypt the message. A high-powered transmitter can be located. But the receiver, tuning in to a station at a pre-scheduled time, cannot. And, apart from the pads, no incriminating spy gear is required.

On March 4th Priyom.org noted that “Russian 7”, a station linked to the svr, Russia’s foreign-intelligence agency, had broadcast a test transmission in French for only the second time. A hundred transmissions per day from the various stations is not uncommon, note Mr Ingesson and Mr Andersson.

They are not, however, bulletproof. A one-time pad, used effectively, is unbreakable—even by a quantum computer. But eavesdroppers might still be able to work out how many agents there are or when they are active by observing patterns in broadcasts, a practice known as traffic analysis. To prevent this, transmitters send dummy “fill” traffic even when no message is scheduled.

In 2007 Matt Blaze, a cryptography expert, noted that messages transmitted by a Cuban station no longer contained the number “nine”, a quirk that lasted a decade. His theory was that the random-number generator used to generate dummy traffic was flawed. Then in 2020 Peter Strzok, an fbi agent, published a book in which he noted, without elaboration, that the fbi had been able to work out when messages were and were not being sent to Russian “illegal” (deep cover) intelligence officers in Massachusetts. Sure enough, active messages coincided with times when the illegals were in a specific room; dummy traffic with periods of travel. Mr Blaze surmises that the nine-less transmissions were key to this counter-intelligence coup.

The lesson is two-fold. One is that old technology has an enduring role in the internet age. Radio is more resilient than software. The other is that there is no substitute for tradecraft. “Remember this story next time someone tries to sell you their super-secure one-time-pad-based crypto scheme,” says Mr Blaze. “If actual Russian spies can’t use it securely, chances are neither can you.”

 

[wayneL]

Yay, cashless

 

[JohnDe]

Sydney airport, choice was Uber $60 or Taxi. I have cash, so took a Taxi.

Charge was $64 plus surcharge for card, or $60 cash

 

[farmerge]

Sydney airport, choice was Uber $60 or Taxi. I have cash, so took a Taxi.

Charge was $64 plus surcharge for card, or $60 cash

Ah cash that elixir that relieves all pain.

 

[JohnDe]

Star Casino’s new way to help gamblers




Pokies closure hits troubled Star https://www.theaustralian.com.au/bu...r/news-story/02e509c072de36c250df07cd2b3de0c0

 

[basilio]

Star Casino’s new way to help gamblers

View attachment 180764


Pokies closure hits troubled Star https://www.theaustralian.com.au/bu...r/news-story/02e509c072de36c250df07cd2b3de0c0

The Pokies and the Casino are one of the core supporters of money laundering. Always have been, always will be.

Apart from money laundering both orgs rake much of their profit from the small core of punters they mercilessly turn into gambling addicts. The public statements around pokies and casinos is that they are "gaming" venues (not gambling...) That people go for a fun flutter and night out.

Utter baloney. There is no way casinos can make serious money from punters who have a flutter and drop say a 2-4K a year - which is not nothing. No, you have to create the suckers who drain their lives dry and then steal from their businesses, their partners, the banks. Who then end up bankrupt and desperate and take half a dozen others down with them.

And then, when they go to the wall or cut their throat in the casino toilets, you have to replace them with more suckers. Its a tough business but someone has to do it eh ?

Criminals are funnelling billions of dollars through NSW pokies, report finds

The NSW Crime Commission recommends the introduction of a mandatory gaming card and enhanced data collection measures, after an investigation uncovers billions of dollars being gambled through the state's poker machines.

www.abc.net.au

Sydney’s ‘mini casino’ pokie venues targeted by professional money launderers

The 10 clubs and pubs are mostly venues with hundreds of poker machines and at least one of them has been hosting money launderers since at least 2014.

www.smh.com.au

A rare look inside the finances of disgraced casino operator Crown reveals how much it spent wooing 'high-risk' customers

Crown's chief financial officer used details of the casino giant's cash-flow woes to argue down a penalty from financial crimes agency AUSTRAC.

www.abc.net.au

https://www.smh.com.au/business/com...troyed-lives-how-australia-lost-its-gamble-on casinos-20220331-p5a9q7.html

More than just financial loss, the social impact of gambling cannot be underestimated

Ireland is the ‘wild west’ of gambling, with little regulation to protect people from the potential social harm. This needs to change.

theconversation.com

 

[JohnDe]

The Pokies and the Casino are one of the core supporters of money laundering. Always have been, always will be.

Apart from money laundering both orgs rake much of their profit from the small core of punters they mercilessly turn into gambling addicts. The public statements around pokies and casinos is that they are "gaming" venues (not gambling...) That people go for a fun flutter and night out.

Utter baloney. There is no way casinos can make serious money from punters who have a flutter and drop say a 2-4K a year - which is not nothing. No, you have to create the suckers who drain their lives dry and then steal from their businesses, their partners, the banks. Who then end up bankrupt and desperate and take half a dozen others down with them.

And then, when they go to the wall or cut their throat in the casino toilets, you have to replace them with more suckers. Its a tough business but someone has to do it eh ?

Criminals are funnelling billions of dollars through NSW pokies, report finds

The NSW Crime Commission recommends the introduction of a mandatory gaming card and enhanced data collection measures, after an investigation uncovers billions of dollars being gambled through the state's poker machines.

www.abc.net.au

Sydney’s ‘mini casino’ pokie venues targeted by professional money launderers

The 10 clubs and pubs are mostly venues with hundreds of poker machines and at least one of them has been hosting money launderers since at least 2014.

www.smh.com.au

A rare look inside the finances of disgraced casino operator Crown reveals how much it spent wooing 'high-risk' customers

Crown's chief financial officer used details of the casino giant's cash-flow woes to argue down a penalty from financial crimes agency AUSTRAC.

www.abc.net.au

https://www.smh.com.au/business/com...troyed-lives-how-australia-lost-its-gamble-on casinos-20220331-p5a9q7.html

More than just financial loss, the social impact of gambling cannot be underestimated

Ireland is the ‘wild west’ of gambling, with little regulation to protect people from the potential social harm. This needs to change.

theconversation.com

Yes, and getting tougher as money laundering techniques change with new technology. Realestate and businesses like franchises is the current way to move large scale dirty laundry.

The only casino I like are the ones in the movies.

 

[wayneL]

Yes, and getting tougher as money laundering techniques change with new technology. Realestate and businesses like franchises is the current way to move large scale dirty laundry.

The only casino I like are the ones in the movies.

Barber shops seen to be the front du jour, in the UK at least

Criminal gangs could be using barber shops as bases, expert warns

Security sources have said that gangs are using some barber shops to conceal the proceeds of crime, and that many across the UK could be a base for human trafficking and slave labour.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[Bellcose]

Like me tell you that I really do appreciate the fact that and as we are with the same bank, when I transfer urgent funds to my kids, they have it in their account within minutes.

Sounds as if it is using Osko. Allows real time payments from one bank to another. Runs on the back of BPay. Have sent funds on a Sunday morning to a bank I don't use and the recipient confirmed it was received in a couple of minutes. In my case, the bank has a limit of $1,000 per day in Osko payments.

I have a scheduled recurring payment set up to transfer via EFT a weekly amount to an account at a separate bank attached to the debit card I use. Not worried about security aspects really as the debit card has the facility to block its use for online transactions (tried it and the block worked,) use overseas or for gambling (I don't gamble.) I can even remove the contactless payment so not only does the card have to be present but the PIN must be used.

That debit card is in a digital wallet and, apart from one occasion, I've not had any issues even when the amount is above $100 (wasn't required to enter PIN). The one occasion was the EFTPOS terminal wouldn't read but it was fine when I used the physical card.

Still use cash for minor purchases such as a coffee or a bite to eat but most of my transactions are digital now.

 

[qldfrog]

Barber shops seen to be the front du jour, in the UK at least

Criminal gangs could be using barber shops as bases, expert warns

Security sources have said that gangs are using some barber shops to conceal the proceeds of crime, and that many across the UK could be a base for human trafficking and slave labour.

www.dailymail.co.uk

And an area which the left will not touch:
Charities and non-profits organisations.
I just an article saying it is 3.3% of pnb in France and just a giant laundering machine for terrorism and organised crime there, and not monitored.
I somewhat suspect it is similar in Oz, if not yet, will be..

 

[divs4ever]

And an area which the left will not touch:
Charities and non-profits organisations.
I just an article saying it is 3.3% of pnb in France and just a giant laundering machine for terrorism and organised crime there, and not monitored.
I somewhat suspect it is similar in Oz, if not yet, will be..

that has been happening for decades , a group in Rome are infamous for it

 

[JohnDe]

Another small business struggling with the reliability of eftpos.

“Last night we couldn’t serve, open our till or transfer money because their system was down,”​

late-night dessert bar bucks the trend and goes cash only

Adelaide’s first traditional Zeppole bar, Zeppole & Co, has officially gone cash-only in their Findon-based store.

“We have had enough of these big companies taking our money and not letting us even access it! From now on we will be only taking cash payments,” they announced in a Facebook post.

“Last night we couldn’t serve, open our till or transfer money because their system was down,” they stated in a comment on the post.

After implementing the cash-only policy, they shared a follow-up post saying, “Our first weekend as a Cash only Business. The support we received was truly amazing! Thank you all so much.”

After a steady decline in cash usage, with people preferring to use the convenience of debit or credit cards, Zeppole & Co are fighting for a resurgence in cash popularity, and their new policy only cements this.


Image via Zeppole & Co

The Italian Dessert Bar was established in 2022 and has become known as Adelaide’s go-to spot for the traditional Italian treat.

Zeppole is a type of Italian doughnut that’s almost fritter-like. Although the treat can be served sweet or savoury. Aussies will be most familiar with them coated in sugar and cinnamon.

At Zeppole & Co. there’s plenty to choose from. The savoury menu is extensive, with classics like the plain or with anchovies. Salami, bocconcini and olives are all available to mix and match. For those with a sweet tooth, chocolate, Nutella, cinnamon and biscoff are all favourites. Paired with ice cream, fruit, and chocolate sauce, these Zeppole desserts make for the perfect late-night comfort food.

In Italy, Zeppole are used to celebrate Father’s Day (Festa del Papá) or the Feast of San Giuseppe, making them known as Zeppole di San Giuseppe. Celebrated in March, this day of celebration is not without the traditional treat. Often you’ll find the pastry dough fried in piping hot oil, stuffed with cream, and topped with an amarena cherry.

Zeppole & Co. make both the traditional fritter-like Zeppole and the more familiar cream-filled doughnut style. With Zeppole dating back to the 16th century, the recipe has been savoured and tweaked over time. At Zeppole & Co all fillings and toppings are house-made or sourced from local vendors or straight from Italy.

The flagship store is located on Grange Road and is open Thursday to Sunday, from 5pm until 10pm. The team also offer catering and wholesale, making the Zeppole accessible to everyone.

Zeppole & Co
Where: 3/237 Grange Road Findon, Adelaide, South Australia 5023

 

[Bellcose]

Fascinating. Are they putting in any arrangements for those customers who walk in without cash? ATM maybe? Or are they happy for say 10 customers who may have otherwise spent $50, $100 or more each to turn around and leave?