Hold Until Relieved

[tyrannosaurus vex]

a "hey guys lets all do this to show those bastards!" campaign wouldn't work. nobody is going to risk their own credit score or whatever just to get back at banks, when the idea seems unlikely to work anyway. so it would need an element of the "book burning party" approach. get people to ACCIDENTALLY fight for the right cause. maybe create a gigantic scare that hackers can get your personal information via bank transfer information and the only way to stay safe is to halt all payments to large companies for 30 days.

Now you're talking.  Something like that.

Best to make sure whatever it is is 169% legal though, if you're going to poke the penguin.

"War of the Worlds" was legal. We need something like that.

I think they "fixed" that, not long afterward.

That would be a great idea if turns out to be legal. Also, I don't think anyone was suggesting a "hey guys let's get the bastards" as a campaign angle, buttflaps.

Stating the obvious is how I begin most of my comments, if you haven't noticed.

[ñͤͣ̄ͦ̌̑͗͊͛͂͗ ̸̨̨̣̺̼̣̜͙͈͕̮̊̈́̈͂͛̽͊ͭ̓͆ͅé ̰̓̓́ͯ́́͞]

a "hey guys lets all do this to show those bastards!" campaign wouldn't work. nobody is going to risk their own credit score or whatever just to get back at banks, when the idea seems unlikely to work anyway. so it would need an element of the "book burning party" approach. get people to ACCIDENTALLY fight for the right cause. maybe create a gigantic scare that hackers can get your personal information via bank transfer information and the only way to stay safe is to halt all payments to large companies for 30 days.

Now you're talking.  Something like that.

Best to make sure whatever it is is 169% legal though, if you're going to poke the penguin.

"War of the Worlds" was legal. We need something like that.

I think they "fixed" that, not long afterward.

That would be a great idea if turns out to be legal. Also, I don't think anyone was suggesting a "hey guys let's get the bastards" as a campaign angle, buttflaps.

Stating the obvious is how I begin most of my comments, if you haven't noticed.

So who is the target audience here?

What kind of loan payments would best bust banker balls?

Net,
poetic genius

[tyrannosaurus vex]

Car payments, motgages. Big ticket items. Credit cards and other small loans, not so much.

[E.O.T.]

I'M ALREADY

          doing all of these things, you spags need to get on it.

I ALSO

          encourage the notion that it was nigel's idea in the first place, for when it all comes down. always blame charley, it totally works!

[kingyak]

Is there a ballpark figure on how many people it would take?

Has anything like this ever been done before that would suggest what the banks' likely response would be?

There's this: http://www.occupystudentdebtcampaign.org/, but so far it's gotten nowhere near the number of pledges (1 million, IIRC) for organized non-payment.

[tyrannosaurus vex]

Is there a ballpark figure on how many people it would take?

Has anything like this ever been done before that would suggest what the banks' likely response would be?

There's this: http://www.occupystudentdebtcampaign.org/, but so far it's gotten nowhere near the number of pledges (1 million, IIRC) for organized non-payment.

And it won't. Because people for the most part will not risk their own (however dubious) financial security for anyone else, regardless of how much they agree with the goals. "Let's get together and DO something about this" rarely works, and in the case of Occupy _________, that's especially true. They'll do the "get together" part, but when it comes to the "do something" part, they're lost. Nobody knows what to do, or nobody is willing to do it, or they can't agree on the specifics.

This is why it's better to trick people into doing something. Make it a gut reaction. Make their worrying about their mythical financial security work against the establishment, instead of for it.

[Freeky]

Perhaps invent a story of a series of personal identification theft through different kinds of transfers to large companies, not just by bank, but also through those quick loan/check cashing places, and maybe even like wire transfer services, and that PI that was stolen was later used to create a homegrown tururism scare, or "actual tururism" might be enacted in these names, and the people whose identities got stolen got disappeared so thoroughly that before it could get straightened out, it was too late? 

Sources of the story (who want to remain anonymous, because they have been forbidden to tell the public) would advise everyone to hold onto their car, house, rent, and other payments for a particular month until it gets sorted out. 

Of course, these anonymous sources would say, you won't be able to call your loan holder companies and ask them outright, because they might be seen as whistleblowers and lose their jobs or worse. 

There might be rumors of call centers who handle customer service calls for loan holder companies and banks have stepped up monitoring the customer service representatives.  This ID theft is not a widely known fact in the business, but you never can tell, and there is the industry image to preserve.

Or is that too far fetched?

I'd believe it.

[tyrannosaurus vex]

Perhaps invent a story of a series of personal identification theft through different kinds of transfers to large companies, not just by bank, but also through those quick loan/check cashing places, and maybe even like wire transfer services, and that PI that was stolen was later used to create a homegrown tururism scare, or "actual tururism" might be enacted in these names, and the people whose identities got stolen got disappeared so thoroughly that before it could get straightened out, it was too late? 

Sources of the story (who want to remain anonymous, because they have been forbidden to tell the public) would advise everyone to hold onto their car, house, rent, and other payments for a particular month until it gets sorted out. 

Of course, these anonymous sources would say, you won't be able to call your loan holder companies and ask them outright, because they might be seen as whistleblowers and lose their jobs or worse. 

There might be rumors of call centers who handle customer service calls for loan holder companies and banks have stepped up monitoring the customer service representatives.  This ID theft is not a widely known fact in the business, but you never can tell, and there is the industry image to preserve.

Or is that too far fetched?

I'd believe it.

It's good, but I think it's a little too heavy on details. The more facts you give out the more facts can be checked and debunked. Plus the TL;DR factor. Maybe this, streamlined a bit and minus a few details, would work. Given how fast people pick up any other "look out for Bullshit Event X" story they see on facebook, it's got at least a decent chance.

We should craft a viable story and get it released on Facebook and Twitter. But also (in case it actually works) we should figure out how to obfuscate its origination here (i.e. don't use your OWN facebook/twitter account to release it into the wild, because knowing what I do about the way the interbutts work, it would easily be traceable back to PD based on where it originates on social media and what those account holders have in common - they all also have accounts at PD).

[Freeky]

Oh yeah, I agree with all of that.  But 1. it's easier to streamline something than to try and flesh it out, IMO, and 2. Maybe move this section of discussion (or the thread) to OMF.

I wouldn't even feel comfortable doing anything with this idea unless I had a fake IP address and from a location I don't ever go, let alone doing it with my own FB.