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I recently had a perfect storm of non-friendly technology.

I made one purchase on Amazon while connected to a VPN.

Amazon froze my account and demanded proof of identity.

Amazon don't accept an existing photo of primary ID for their preferred ID verification check, it must be a photo taken by a camera on-device, and I don't have a webcam on my desktop PC. Once you select the secondary method, it seems you can't go back to the primary.

My bank can't issue a statement on the mobile app.

My bank, even through the website, can't issue a statement that has the required details (name, credit card details - blanked except for last four digits, and transactions) that includes pending transactions.

I had to manually request a statement from my bank (via a phone call) that included the pending transaction, edit it in an image editing app, submit it to Amazon via their web-site.

None of the apps (bank, Amazon, government ID, camera) had the flexibility to solve the problem.

The root cause was using a VPN to make an online purchase of a $12 piece of hobby electronics.

Not only are apps broken, the current state of the internet (and the random ways companies try to enforce "security") is also broken.

 help



>”Amazon don't accept an existing photo of primary ID for their preferred ID verification check, it must be a photo taken by a camera on-device, and I don't have a webcam on my desktop PC”

In my experience, it was not possible to complete the verification via computer, even with a webcam. The verification site assumes and seems to require that you use a cellphone.


Now I'm glad I didn't have a webcam. It would have just added a few more steps to my tale of woe ;-)

Yes, I spent about an hour trying to figure out how to make the webcam work, but I'm sure you would have figured out the limitation more quickly.

Just make a new account at that point, right?

Not OP

Unfortunately for me, a lot of my books are tied to them.


They come into your house and take your books back if you stop using your account?

Kindle / Audible.

so, not books.

If you think a book is made by the physical medium, you must think everything in paper is a book. The prose in a book has certain content structure, intent, and writing.

So unless a napkin and a receipt are books, what actually makes something a book is its content structure, intent, and writing. Not the paper it's printed on.


Number of pages is relevant. If it has five, it's only a booklet.

My Amazon account is, unfortunately, tied to AWS, Prime, Kindle as well as online shopping. I hate this, and I'm in the process of removing all of my stuff from all of these services.



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