[gpm]

What identity verification does paypal actually do? I'd assume (potentially incorrectly) that criminals using it were doing so under an assumed (or stolen) identity so the account wouldn't lead back to them.

Which would limit what you could do with the money, but isn't that true of any crime related money?

[dogma1138]

PayPal has a banking license it does a pretty full KYC in most places or relies on others that do.

Outside of cash transfer services which often also require an ID on both ends albeit that is often easier to fake there aren’t ways to transfer money anonymously.

So companies use either alternative settlement methods such as crypto or gift cards or what is also quite common twin settlement.

You want a VPC? We’ll give you one for free just buy a 3 months VPN service from our sister company.

Basically the idea here is to split the records across as many platforms as possible and have as much separation as possible from payments and actual usage.

[zinekeller]

Before hordes of people respond with "PayPal is not a bank!", it is indeed not a bank in US, but its European subsidiary is legally a bank.

[dogma1138]

In the US it doesn’t have a license anymore mainly to avoid FDIC requirements but it is licensed in every state https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/mpp/licenses

[bayesian_horse]

As far as I remember you need a credit card or banking account. Ok, you might have stolen those, but many people probably used their own.