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Comment by dexwiz | Hacker News Reader

So is the 21st century version of stealing cash from your mom's purse?

Yup. In my opinion, this isn't a problem that needs solving. I bet with thumbprint security, money is more secure from house hooligans than it was when held in a wallet.

Maybe, but on the other hand, most people don't keep $250 in their wallets. Having an extra verification mechanism for expensive purchases seems appropriate.

Depends how likely this scenario is. Adding security to a high risk, low occurence event can be seen as wasteful.

Also before this technology, people kept credit cards in their wallet, which suffered the same fate from house hooligans. And before credit, people did keep $250 in their wallet.

Well, the security could just be to ask for one's password again.

I guess the credit card part is true; around here most people have debit cards with PINs, and which can't be used remotely, so it's unlikely a six-year-old could use it without their parent's consent. Then again, around here those parents would have the legal right to return all those purchases.

Yeah I think there should be a limit (which you can override with a password) on how much money you can spend in a certain time period. Make it $10/day or something as default and let the user change it. Works well enough for mobile contracts to prevent over spend IMHO.

Small cash theft can be done over and over. An online theft leaves a paper trail, normally with email confirmation. I would be surprised if a child got away with it twice and the total harm would be much more trackable.

They do keep credit cards in their wallet, though.

Wallets hold a small amount of money compared to the potential life savings accessible with a phone and thumbprint.

Getting robbed turns from "Give me your wallet or I'll shoot/stab you" to "Give me your phone and access or I'll shoot/stab you."

>life savings

Unlikely given anti-fraud systems.

And ordered physical goods can almost often be returned. Digital purchases canceled. I don't doubt one can come up with a corner case somewhere but major financial transactions do tend to have checks built in.

Except your mom's purse doesn't pretend to be secure so moms that know their kids might steel from them know to move the money out of their purse.

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