When a system breaks down badly enough, someone eventually points out what everyone's been thinking.

Here's the thing about payment fraud running into billions annually—it's not complicated to fix. Just add one extra step. A simple verification, some basic friction in the transaction flow. That's it.

The gap isn't technical. It's not like we don't know how to stop this. The real problem is that the current setup makes fraud absurdly easy. No barriers. No checks. Just wave your hand and money vanishes.

Implement even minimal friction—a receipt requirement, a confirmation prompt, *something*—and you'd cut fraudulent transactions by massive amounts. The mechanics exist. We've built harder things.

But here's where it gets interesting: if something this obvious isn't getting fixed, you start asking different questions. Is it incompetence? Negligence? Or is the system functioning exactly as designed for certain actors?

That's when you know you're watching a system that's genuinely broken.