I am not a Crook: Why make it easy when you can make it difficult?

Sit down and take some time to imagine this scenario:

Thor is a friendly and well balanced guy. He does not have a criminal record, and he has no intention of getting one. He is what you would call a good, decent, hard working American citizen. Only he is not American.

Thor is in fact in a country (USA) different from his home country (Norway). Thor is what we call a "Foreigner". This is Thor's one flaw. Apart, of course, from occasionally cross-dressing and mugging senior citizens or people in wheelchairs (OK, I really only added that for dramatic effect.) (Or did I?)

Anyway, back to the story: Thor likes to buy random stuff online, such as electronics or minutes for his Skype account. When Thor wants to shop online, he wants to use his Norwegian VISA. And why shouldn't he? It's not like he stole it or anything. Thor is a good citizen, remember?
Since Thor's VISA card is registered with a Norwegian bank, he doesn't get a bill sent to him, but rather uses a banking system based online. Therefore, Thor has no billing address to verify his address in the U.S. In addition, Thor has no checking book here. This effectively means that he can't register for Paypal. Recently, even Skype started using Paypal, and not just a system where you buy minutes directly with your credit card. This means that Thor effectively can not use Skype anymore, and therefore can not really call home anymore.

Thor is uneasy and frustrated now, he sweats, and doesn't quite know what to do. Apparently, people who buy stuff online in the U.S. with non-American credit cards are crooks, and therefore, security policies in internet stores are just escalating. In itself, this is a good thing since it's making people more comfortable buying stuff online, which is the inevitable way of the future anyway. Still, for people like Thor here, it makes life very difficult. Also, this is a development that happened recently, since the now increasingly aggravated Thor happily and without a worry shopped all kinds of crazy crap last semester.

Apparently, since Thor is using an overseas credit card, this makes Thor a member of Al-Qaida (AQ), the Axis of Evil Association of Abroad (AEAA), Axis of Pure Evil (APE) or some other evil sick overseas fraud organization that symbolizes armageddon (the UN). Everyone knows that people from outside the U.S. just can't be trusted. As opposed to Americans. Who are always trustworthy. To prove his innocence to the internet stores, Thor actually has to fax these random stores a copy of his passport and credit card in order to identify himself.

Now there is no fucking way in hell Thor is going to send his passport and credit card to some random internet store, now is it? No, I didn't fucking think so.

Thus, Thor can - for the most part - not shop online anymore.
This is making Thor VERY frustrated indeed. In fact, he's contemplating evil twisted deeds as we speak. Thor is actually right now degenerating into a sick and evil criminal mind. He regularly goes out on murderous rampages and commits heinous and plentiful crimes. In addition, his personal hygiene and grooming goes downhill. He gets a beard, and stops changing his underwear regularly. Thor has now apparently become a true foreigner.

All this thanks to Paypal and the distrust internet companies have with people like Thor.

The last days, I've been wondering if this is happening because the policy makers in internet companies are extremely ignorant or extremely incompetent. But then I said to myself: "Thor. Why are you so narrow minded? Why can't they be both?"