The 25 cent Mill by KimB

The mill or mille (₥)¹

A notional unit equivalent to a thousandth of a United States dollar (a hundredth of a dime or a tenth of a cent)

Used in Banking/Finance/Investment for Service Charges

Gasoline pricing: $3.376

It's been a sad year on the planet and there are a lot of people who have perished in the COVID-19 pandemic. Much agony, economic misery, hunger and social disruption, along with attempted coup d'états, including in the USA on January 6, 2021 ^{2 3 4}.

Some countries responded quickly to the COVID-19 pandemic and provided monthly stipend supports in both cash and food, to sustain their populations while their Governments dealt with the issues of containing a highly infectious disease.

Other countries didn't. Many of those countries didn't bother with either supporting their populations or dealing effectively with the disease rampaging over the planet. The death counts tell the sad history of those governments. The USA leads the list in all categories of No Help from US(A).

During the last 12 months, the USA has provided 2 support payments to their population. Just 2. Any amounts helped but it wasn't and isn't enough to keep the citizens safe. The prior Administration did not much more than ensure their own families, closest friends and allies got the best treatment possible when they got sick, and shrugged their shoulders when their friends and supporters died. They did not struggle to pay the rent, the utilities, buy food, medicines or pay the ground fees at the country club in Florida.

The first set of support payments in April 2020, was a complicated set of support programs and deals from which qualifying individuals received a $1200 stipend (or more)⁵. The monies were sent direct deposit to bank accounts and by federal checks. It was a great help to many.

The second set of support payments for $600 issued in January 2021, has had some hiccups in delivery⁶. Some got direct deposit or a check as in the first funding. 4,000,000 got a debit card⁷.

Debit cards and Credit Cards share a common structure: they charge fees for their use. In the case of Credit Cards the issuing company gets the fees (MasterCard, Visa). In the case of Debit Cards the issuing banks get the fees. In this case "MetaBank"⁸.

Having received one of the 4,000,000 debit cards I can attest that it looks like trash mail, it looks like a scam message, it looks forged, and the short description page contains a long list of charges for using the card. It looks well... like something that should go into the shredder immediately.

Attempting to verify the card isn't easy. There is a self-validating website, which is no validation at all and the IRS issuing website says:

Do Not Call Us We Know Nothing About It.

What to do Percy?

Fortunately, after asking "better authorities", aka my friends, they assured me it was legit.

So, I did the self-activation which is pure nonsense as a security feature and got confirmation that the card was now active and had the correct amount of $600 stored on the card.

Of course, the card is rather useless because we Do Not Go Out. We are not shopping at the Mall for COVID-19. We are not "Dining Out to Help Out" ordering up the CAL.20C COVID-19 mutation from the menu. We are not planning a vacation to a COVID-19 Mutation Paradise hosting the 4 deadlier mutations. ⁹

The only thing to do with it was take it to the bank and transfer the money off the card.

So I bundled up (it's cold), masked up, gloved up, filled up extra sanitizer bottles and timed my arrival at the bank for when few people would be there. When I arrived, I headed to the special ATM inside that allows access to more features.

I shoved the MetaBank card into the ATM, did the validation and got logged into the IRS MetaBank system.

So far, so good.

I started to run the transfer option and there was a pop up message:

Do you want to check your balance?

It's always a good idea to make sure what you know what you are doing, so I clicked OK.

The screen cleared with:

Your Balance is: 599.75

OH???
I stared at the screen for a few minutes and realized something had fluked but not fluked.

MetaBank had just charged me 25 cents for displaying the balance of the card on my bank's ATM. One of the many charges for using an "out of MetaBank network" ATM.

I ejected the card, and went to a human teller. The nice person seemed to have had experience with the issue of MetaBank card transfers. They could transfer the value off the card provided I knew the amount.

Teller	Do you know the balance?
Moi	599.75
Teller	What an odd amount!
Moi	(explained about using the ATM)
Teller	Oh.. they must have charged you for using the ATM! (aside) I got a direct deposit.
Moi	(wishing I'd gotten a direct deposit too)
Teller	Here is the confirmation the transfer went OK.

So MetaBank and the IRS now have either clawed back 25 cents or there is a 25 cent balance on the card that will never be retrieved.

It's a common scam for Gift Cards and PrePaid Cards Card Issuers, they exploit the good intentions of the purchasers. Small amounts are often left on the cards. Sometimes the amounts are forgotten on the next shopping visit. Sometimes the cards are never redeemed. It amounts to a great deal of money. Money spent for future goods and service but without ever receiving any of the goods or services reserved by the card. Its pure cash income for the issuing companies and they have accounting procedures in place to claim the funds permanently. ¹⁰

If 4,000,000 debit card receivers do just 1 Balance Check for 25 cents:

4,000,000 * .25 = $1,000,000

That's one nice set of golf clubs ...

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mill_(currency)


2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coup_d'état


3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_storming_of_the_United_States_Capitol


4. COVID-19 deaths (January 2021)
   • 2,000,000 Global Deaths
   • 418,000 USA Deaths


5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CARES_Act


6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consolidated_Appropriations_Act,_2021


7. Some individuals received checks in the mail, while others received direct deposits in their bank accounts. On May 18, the Treasury Department said that future payments may be issued in the form of prepaid Visa debit cards rather than checks.


8. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MetaBank
   The IRS says MetaBank, N.A. is the "Treasury's financial agent."


9. COVID-19 continues to mutate as part of the natural selection process. Having many hosts gives the virus a perfect incubator for natural selection to produce a Better Virus. A better virus is one that works better for the virus and is not good for the humans and minks that are affected by it.
   
   The 5 current deadlier mutations are known by different names and are each separate and distinct from our current pandemic. If you got this far, you might realise we are now facing 5 new pandemics along with other viruses that are on the virge of massive outbreaks. These 5 variants are expected to be globally domininant by February-April 2021.
   
   Commonly used names are:
   1. UK Variant
   2. Brazil Variant
   3. Japan Variant
   4. South Africa Variant
   5. California Variant
   
   
10. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gift_card
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gift_card#Pitfalls
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gift_card#Redemption_rate

CAL20C Phylogenetic Tree