[forgetsusername]

>Even though they know the sources are suspicious they still let people send large amounts of money to countries like Ghana and Nigeria

On one hand we want Bitcoin with no constraints on money transfers, on the other we want money transfer services to vet the recipient and allow or disallow the transaction.

Why do we desire homogeneity in service? Let the market offer a variety and we can choose the level of "transaction safety" we desire.

[rhaps0dy]

HN is not a hivemind though. Also Western Union could say "it's a scam, are you sure?" instead.

[bitJericho]

I'd bet they do already. The thing with people falling for scams is that they will refuse to the end of time to believe its a scam.

[ensignavenger]

I worked at a computer shop many years ago. We had a guy come in wanting us to help him send an email with his personal information (bank account, social security number, IIRC) to- a Nigerian scammer! We told him it was a scam, and he insisted it was not, he refused to listen to reason. I don't know if he ever found someone to help him or figured it out on his own or what came of it.

[jandrese]

The advantage of Bitcoin is that it's so difficult to use, especially for large volumes of money, that the people getting scammed can't make it work.

It's difficult to find someone both dumb enough to fall for a 419 scam, but smart enough to operate a bitcoin client and sign up for an exchange.