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That list looks to me mostly like a list of things that are either scams, or that Stripe and the CC companies have perfectly Bayesian-rational reasons to believe are scams. Travel and tourism is the only one on there that strikes me as coming from CC agreements rather than that.

"Personal computer technical support", for instance, is almost certainly referencing the scam where someone cold calls you and tries to explain that your computer is infected. There aren't a lot of legitimate businesses that could be called "personal computer technical support", and I suspect of the ones you may even be thinking of that Stripe may classify them differently. I imagine the mom & pop shops are classified as hardware vendors who happen to also offer services and the more serious versions of that business are "consulting". (And at that point, probably not using Stripe anyhow.)



I'm not so sure. I think it could be argued that many open source service models fall under Personal Computer Technical Support. Let's say I set myself up as a Linux guru (I'm not, but for the point of the argument, let's pretend). If someone then phones or emails me after borking their installation and I fix it for them (either in person or perhaps remotely), it could be argued that I'm offering personal computer technical support. However, the above scenario could be a legitimate open source software business model in many cases - develop consumer open source software and provide paid for service to support it.


I didn't say that there is no possible overlap with legitimate industries. I'm only pointing out that all the instances that I know about (not necessarily a representative set) of little computer support businesses also have a storefront where they are selling a usually-modest array of hardware for upgrades and such, and Stripe may classify their business as something other than "personal computer technical support". For all I know, that's why they all seem to sell a modest, almost perfunctory, array of hardware upgrades.


"Age-restricted businesses" - wondering what kind of scam this would be...


My guess is things like alcohol and porn, things that are not intrinsically illegal but are still legal hot potatoes of compliance. An online alcohol vendor that had an "age check" that was easy to game ("yes, I'm 21") would be easy to set up and make a lot of money, but a lot of laws would leave Stripe legally in bad shape when the hammer came down, but the PR could be an even bigger disaster.


In addition to the obvious -- bootleg cigarettes from reservations and booze.


Are they scams or regulated industries? Mix of both?


> That list looks to me mostly like a list of things that are either scams

That's easy to say right? Oh it's a scam.

I can't use Stripe because my business falls into the "Scam" area. Am I a scammer? No because otherwise my business would have failed years ago.

I happily use another competitor. I haven't had any issues with them and since I am not a scammer, I don't foresee any either!

Remember. One mans ITS A SCAM, HE'S A SCAMMER is another mans very successful business which people don't have a problem with.


It's hard to take this comment seriously if you're not using your main account and refuse to say what your business actually is.


In addition to pc86's point, my comment wasn't targeted at you personally. There are certainly businesses that will be in the Stripe exclusion set. However, I was arguing against the implication that they've got some sort of really extensive set of exclusions that lots of people will need to worry about. For all the entries on it, it's not truly that large. Mostly it's just the fact that while they need the "don't do illegal things" clause, it's way easier to exclude specific things and then tell people that they fall under that specific rule than to get into lengthy and fruitless arguments about whether or not a particular activity is legal.


> Am I a scammer? No because otherwise my business would have failed years ago.

You may not be a scammer, but that's a horrible argument. Bernie Madoff's scam started in the 1970s. He wasn't caught until 2008.




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