Japan has a radical new idea to combat scamming criminals: Take bank cards away from the elderly and suspend their bank account altogether if they have not used it for over one year. Why? You know, for their own protection. Which if you look at the specifics of the proposal don't even make any sense: "Under the proposal, anyone who is over the age of 65 and has not used their bank card to access their account for more than a year would have it suspended."
Most will be familiar with the scam in question, lowlife scum who can be found all over the world that specifically target the elderly and trick them into giving up their bank cards so they can drain their accounts, or convince them that they "have to" transfer a large sum of money or else their computer or loved one or home will be blablabla. So pray tell how on earth does suspending accounts from the elderly stop this type of scam? Are they hoping scammers will only call old people who never use money despite having it and will then have a restricted account when that scam call is made one faithful day?
This is just so useless on multiple levels, not only if you consider how many people have several accounts and don't actively use them all, but do you think one inactive account will stop scammers? These people have no shame I tell you, I've read reports where scammers physically went to old people's homes and even conned them into giving up all their cash money and jewelry so "the IRS could inspect it's value to prevent possible tax evasion charges".
It's almost as if good old Satoshi knew his money would not be safe over there in his olden days.??
To be realistic though regarding the Bitcoin reference, if you are at a certain age where you believe any random call is from a bank employee or computer expert and willingly give up your banking details and money, then self custody and sending Bitcoin over the blockchain may be a bridge too far.
Now you might say 'so what, even though this will prove barely effective against scammers all you need to do is just use your account once in a while and you'll barely even notice'. But you should know by now, these type of restrictions are implemented gradually and rarely end at the first step: "While the scope of the proposal is relatively limited, some older Japanese have raised concerns that it may prevent them from accessing their bank accounts, and fear additional restrictions could be imposed if it does not prove effective in halting the scams".
