Soon on your mobile phone- money transfers to al Qaeda

Al Qaeda, Hizbollah, Hamas members and their ilks the world over are delighted. Soon, they and other criminals can use cell phones to transfer money around the globe.

The GSM Association, the mobile telephone operator trade body, announced that 19 mobile phone companies will allow more than “600 million customers in over 100 countries,” to use their cell phones to transfer money internationally. “The system will allow a person to put cash onto their mobile, and order it to be sent to a mobile phone number abroad, where the recipient receives a text message saying that money has arrived.”

“The system will allow a person to put cash onto their mobile, and order it to be sent to a mobile phone number abroad, where the recipient receives a text message saying that money has arrived… the initiative could double the number of recipients of international remittances to more than 1.5 billion." This new initiative, which is said to help migrant workers to send money to their families, would undoubtedly defeat most efforts to identify the users and follow the money trail. A terrorist dream comes true.

Comments

[Geri]

The article is not well-researched because it omitted the mechanics used by GSM carriers to operate mobile remittance with an eye to avoiding anonymous transfers.

Digital money transfers is not entirely digital (which would make it easy for the scheme that you fear the most). Because at the end of the transaction, the recipient wants to hold cash. The recipient would have to go to a centre to cash the money stored on his phone and this is where the controls come in - identification.

The mechanics are just as important as the broad and underlying technology that makes mobile remittance happen.

Besides, online money transfers which are acceptable today is similar to mobile money transfer - only the device differs.

[hip2b2]

this is an example of terrorism at work. terrorist do their evil deed to ensure that honest foreign workers are not able to send their meesly earnings to their loved ones at home.

[John]

A combination of using a stored value card as a "credit card"/financial source in conjunction with a mobile phone and an atm should work a charm :-)

This is not new (m-payment), but a GSMA initiative means it is guaranteed critical mass. There are already pilots all over the world, including in the U.S. those by Citibank and Cingular, as well as the M-PESA Vodofone sponsored microbanking project in kenya, and the DoCoMo DCMX commercial offering in Japan. Bottom line, the train has already left the station! The key is secure NFC.

[Mark Herpel]

Its sad how quickly new financial technology gets lumped into international terrorist and criminal blacklists. Very sad.
Mark Herpel
http://www.digitalmoneyworld.com