Re: Maybe the FTC should concentrate on
@AC “if funds are held it allows investigators to prevent the full transaction at step one”
What investigators? Are you saying that every bank transfer between two US banks is investigated for 2 days before it is cleared? I don’t think so. Investigations start when an account is flagged for suspicious activity, normally a pattern of activity over a period of time not just a couple of days.
In the UK I can transfer funds from my bank account to another UK bank 24/7. Normally the funds are in the other account in minutes and can be drawn on.
Now to do that I have log into my bank. The transfer option requires me to select the account I want to transfer from and the name, sort code and account number I am transferring to. My bank verifies the information and tells me the bank and account name. If I ok that, I fill in the amount my password and hit the transfer button.
Then I get a dialog asking me to confirm the transfer of said amount to that person at that bank on that account. If I ok the transfer, I must do the second part of the 2FA. Then within a few seconds I am normally told the transfer is successful.
If the transfer is a large sum, then I get a message saying that the transfer cannot be authorised until my bank contacts me, normally by phone.
Sure, after all that I still could have fallen for a scam. But if I ever do, I don’t think I will be thinking if only they held the money for 2 days, because I or the bank discovered the scam in under 2 days.