3 ms·

We aren't invoking the ethics of "rule-following" to explain why criminals behave certain ways, rather we are speculating on based on incentive alignments and r

We aren't invoking the ethics of "rule-following" to explain why criminals behave certain ways, rather we are speculating on based on incentive alignments and rational self-interest. The answer to your question is quite simple: because they need third parties to work with them. There are lots of ways as to make past history of payouts known without releasing who the individual collaborators were in each case.

hinkley 5y ago
No. Not even close. This isn't 7-11 trying to con me into buying their scary hot dogs, these are bad people, in all senses of the word. They need third parties to think that working with them is their best option. Their best option is to do something legal, but desperate people can be manipulated. Greedy people can be really manipulated. Maintaining the illusion of safety is just marketing. If the game is extortion, then psychological manipulation is part of the game. I have no assurances that you've given me $1.4 million today and this is the last I will ever hear from you. If I know little about you I can't even turn State's Evidence to save my ass if I get caught but you don't. If I think I know that you or anyone with details of your operation won't come back later and threaten to turn me in unless I pay you money, then I'm a fucking idiot. You could ask for money, or to "deliver a package" for you. In that situation, what you and your associates are counting on me forgetting is that I am mortgaging my future by piling on new crimes with later statute of limitations dates, and establishing a pattern of behavior that makes me look even more complicit. There is no honor among thieves. Stop trying to figure out how to pet a wolf without getting bit.