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Is it worth it for a launderer to give up 30% to Amazon, and then of course pay taxes on the income? Also I assume you can't launder cash this way.
by quickthrower2 9y ago
Is it worth it for a launderer to give up 30% to Amazon, and then of course pay taxes on the income? Also I assume you can't launder cash this way.
- fasj82 9y agoObviously? You can't imagine what % of money you could lose when you launder using other methods. Also this one is totally safe... compared to some other ones ;)
- lotsofpulp 9y agoYou can buy gift cards with the cash. Gift cards as a concept are so funny to me. As a recipient, I would always want cash over a gift card. As a gift giver, I'd think "if I was receiving this gift, I wouldn't want a gift card, so why would I give it to someone else". But they exist, and they're huge. Obviously merchants love them for the float and captive customer spending more than the gift card balance. Businesses might love them to give out to employees since it's not taxed income, and similarly, money launderers would like them. I guess I could see some niche use, like wanting to give a child funds for a movie ticket, but to avoid them using it for other purposes you restrict it by giving a movie gift card. But I don't see that supporting a large market.
- kuschku 9y agoIn many cultural circles it’s very rude to gift money (or to even left the gifted know how much something cost). Giftcards are seen as a way around that (although they’re not really better). They also show that you thought about the gifted (what would this person like), but respect that they might not like the specific gift you’d pick. e.g. if you know someone is a LEGO collector, you gift them a LEGO gift card, instead of buying a specific collectors model that they might already have.
- lotsofpulp 9y agoI understand a non gift card gift conveying that someone thought about the gift recipient and/or is not explicit in its cost, but a gift card accomplishes the former poorly, and the latter not at all.
- icebraining 9y agoI don't get it either, but people do use them that way. Some are even sillier: a friend of mine, who teaches classes to seniors, got a gift card from them that can be spent on any shop of our huge local mall.
- emodendroket 9y agoAlso, as a recipient, the pressure isn't there to do something practical with it.
- TorKlingberg 9y agoIt's a weird cultural quirk of the west that you shouldn't gift cash. In China people are perfectly happy to give money in red envelopes.
- lotsofpulp 9y agoSame in India.
- fjsolwmv 9y agoWealthy cultures tend to spend extra to hide the visible evidence of the financial reality of their existence. It's silly but common.
- MichaelGG 9y agoI think one might find that if you go buy a million bucks worth of Amazon gift cards and try to load them into a couple of accounts, it'll probably be flagged. The article is not about money laundering, but using stolen credit cards. It makes little sense to use Amazon for laundering.
- RandallBrown 9y agoI've always liked getting gift cards over cash because I usually have to spend them on a gift. If I'm getting cash, I end up spending it on groceries or something mundane.
- cathhhhji 9y agoWhen I get gift cards I end up selling them for cash
- ozim 9y agoTax on money from unknown source is 75% in my country. Plus probably police investigation if it is bigger sum.
- chvid 9y agoYou can't get access to finance if you don't have a documented income. Making it impossible for you to get a house or even a car.
- NedIsakoff 9y agoRead the article. They used someone elses SSN so no tax. Also 70% from of $3999 from a stolen credit card ain't bad.
- MichaelGG 9y agoA stolen credit card isn't money laundering, that's just fraud.
- emodendroket 9y agoIt seems plausible in a logical, if not legal, sense... you've stolen the funds using someone's credit card and then launder that into receipts from Amazon.
- quickthrower2 9y agoI'm assuming the more general case where they are not stupid enough to use someone else's SSN, and thus guaranteeing you'll get found out.
- caf 9y agoThis particular example isn't actually money laundering. However, in general yes - a 30% haircut on laundered money isn't too bad at all. Consider the classic money laundering scheme: you own a legitimate bar, but supplement the real sales with ghost sales, paid for by the dirty cash. The alcohol supposedly sold in the ghost sales is poured down the drain, so your suppliers invoices match up with your sales (this works because it's typical for customers at bars to pay in cash, and the margin on alcohol sold as individual drinks is pretty high).
- buttcoinslol 9y agoYou could also sell the booze at a loss out the back door and then launder THAT money :)
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]