> What's always missing from stories like this is how the crooks get the money out. Considering that all Western governments have achieved total surveillance on our banking and made it impossible to have anonymous bank accounts, I'd like to see a detailed analysis about why they can't follow the money and see who gets it.
It's not really like this. Banks (and Western) governments are extremely meticulous about recording financial transactions, but have relatively few systems for actually retrieving that information for proactive law enforcement. There are large historical and technical barriers that prevent meaningful advances in the government's ability to surveil bank accounts in real time.
As just one example: interbank settlement over ACH is measured in days, not seconds or even hours. During settlement, anything can happen: the ODFI might try to claw the transaction back, either institution can go bankrupt, the destination account might close, etc. A human frequently intervenes to handle these cases. Banking is eventually consistent, but the fraudster is frequently long gone by that point.
Edit: it's also worth noting that "anonymous" (read: numbered) banking is also really only good for Doing Crime (and Having Crime Done to You). But plenty of countries, including the US, allow you to open bank accounts (and do debit transactions) without an official government ID.
It's not really like this. Banks (and Western) governments are extremely meticulous about recording financial transactions, but have relatively few systems for actually retrieving that information for proactive law enforcement. There are large historical and technical barriers that prevent meaningful advances in the government's ability to surveil bank accounts in real time.
As just one example: interbank settlement over ACH is measured in days, not seconds or even hours. During settlement, anything can happen: the ODFI might try to claw the transaction back, either institution can go bankrupt, the destination account might close, etc. A human frequently intervenes to handle these cases. Banking is eventually consistent, but the fraudster is frequently long gone by that point.
Edit: it's also worth noting that "anonymous" (read: numbered) banking is also really only good for Doing Crime (and Having Crime Done to You). But plenty of countries, including the US, allow you to open bank accounts (and do debit transactions) without an official government ID.