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> Miller granted consent and ultimately admitted that he had run the queries for Taylor and sent the results to Taylor via text message, and that Taylor had pro

by syspec 4y ago

> Miller granted consent and ultimately admitted that he had run the queries for Taylor and sent the results to Taylor via text message, and that Taylor had provided a gift card in return. Wow it just blows.my.mind. that that is all it takes!

walrus01 4y ago
gift cards, not just for offshore black market call centers running "Pay the IRS in gift card" scams anymore. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm22FAXZMw1BaWeFszZxUKw https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm22FAXZMw1BaWeFszZxUKw
- thrown321 4y ago
  Hey man McDonald’s takes Alipay!
  - thaumasiotes 4y ago
    That only makes sense. There are McDonald's in China, so they already need the capability. Why bother shutting it off outside China? There are Chinese tourists in most places. The system is often more reliable than the staff. I bought a gift card from IKEA in China and wanted to see what would happen if I tried to use it in the US. It worked fine, in theory. But when I asked the American cashier how much was on my card, she happily reported to me that it was $100. (It wasn't; it was ¥100.) The receipt she gave me, though, correctly listed ¥100.
    - SenHeng 4y ago
      A Chinese gift card stores value in Japanese yen? Was there some kind of mix up? Are they laundering their money using foreign currency? Or does US Ikea not understand the difference between Yen and Yuan?
      - yorwba 4y ago
        ¥ is the symbol for both yen and yuan.
        thaumasiotes 4y ago
        Interestingly, many Chinese believe that the two currencies use different symbols, with one of them using one crossbar on the Y and the other using two. I am not aware of any such distinction being drawn in reality, though.
baybal2 4y ago
Look at Ukraine, and how Russia flooded it with possibly 10,000+ of its spies. You read stories of ones who were caught, and you cannot make it it up. Their main recruitment target are idiots in places of high power. KGB recruited more agents than real spies. They had many more people doing lobbying, covert propaganda, and subversion, than peeking into Western secrets. They really valued their high profile spies, but their influence agents — "pomogaikas" were near disposable. Finding idiots in places of power was always easier than finding smart, ideologically motivated betrayers fit for espionage assignents.
- fortuna86 4y ago
  If thats true, why has the Ukrainian gov held during the war?
  - mastax 4y ago
    I remember reading a report, I think by Bellingcat, which said that there was: 1. A lot of embezzlement by FSB agents in Ukraine, who thought they could get away with it since surely there wouldn't be an invasion. 2. Many targets would take the money, promise to help overthrow the government, and then not do anything when the time came.
    - hedora 4y ago
      I've long thought there should be a easily-discoverable, secure way to register yourself as doing (2) with the local authorities. Take the bribe, pay the income tax, set up some email forwards, then kick back and relax...
    - fortuna86 4y ago
      Then these recruits aren't real assets, are they. Sounds like the FSB just engineered some money laundering from the Russian tax payer to the Ukrainian civil service. Maybe that was the idea all along.
  - trhway 4y ago
    A bit related, few weeks into invasion a propagandist on Russian state TV was lamenting about Ukrainians being supposedly much more "nazistically" brainwashed than Russia expected them to, and as an example he told "I have a friend in Harkiv, he had been pretty pro-Russian, he sat just 6 days in the basement hiding from the bombings, and after that he completely turned around, voluntarily joined Ukrainian territorial defense force and is now running around with machine gun against us".
jonathankoren 4y ago
Spies are also cheap.
landemva 4y ago
mariuolo 4y ago
> Wow it just blows.my.mind. that that is all it takes! Years ago a judge in southern Italy was in the news for having sold a case in exchange for groceries. It looks petty, but it's actually shrewd: by accepting small gifts the crook feels he did only a small favour.

by syspec 4y ago

walrus01 4y ago

gift cards, not just for offshore black market call centers running "Pay the IRS in gift card" scams anymore. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm22FAXZMw1BaWeFszZxUKw https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm22FAXZMw1BaWeFszZxUKw

thrown321 4y ago
Hey man McDonald’s takes Alipay!
- thaumasiotes 4y ago
  That only makes sense. There are McDonald's in China, so they already need the capability. Why bother shutting it off outside China? There are Chinese tourists in most places. The system is often more reliable than the staff. I bought a gift card from IKEA in China and wanted to see what would happen if I tried to use it in the US. It worked fine, in theory. But when I asked the American cashier how much was on my card, she happily reported to me that it was $100. (It wasn't; it was ¥100.) The receipt she gave me, though, correctly listed ¥100.
  - SenHeng 4y ago
    A Chinese gift card stores value in Japanese yen? Was there some kind of mix up? Are they laundering their money using foreign currency? Or does US Ikea not understand the difference between Yen and Yuan?
    - yorwba 4y ago
      ¥ is the symbol for both yen and yuan.
      - thaumasiotes 4y ago
        Interestingly, many Chinese believe that the two currencies use different symbols, with one of them using one crossbar on the Y and the other using two. I am not aware of any such distinction being drawn in reality, though.

baybal2 4y ago

Look at Ukraine, and how Russia flooded it with possibly 10,000+ of its spies. You read stories of ones who were caught, and you cannot make it it up. Their main recruitment target are idiots in places of high power. KGB recruited more agents than real spies. They had many more people doing lobbying, covert propaganda, and subversion, than peeking into Western secrets. They really valued their high profile spies, but their influence agents — "pomogaikas" were near disposable. Finding idiots in places of power was always easier than finding smart, ideologically motivated betrayers fit for espionage assignents.

fortuna86 4y ago
If thats true, why has the Ukrainian gov held during the war?
- mastax 4y ago
  I remember reading a report, I think by Bellingcat, which said that there was: 1. A lot of embezzlement by FSB agents in Ukraine, who thought they could get away with it since surely there wouldn't be an invasion. 2. Many targets would take the money, promise to help overthrow the government, and then not do anything when the time came.
  - hedora 4y ago
    I've long thought there should be a easily-discoverable, secure way to register yourself as doing (2) with the local authorities. Take the bribe, pay the income tax, set up some email forwards, then kick back and relax...
  - fortuna86 4y ago
    Then these recruits aren't real assets, are they. Sounds like the FSB just engineered some money laundering from the Russian tax payer to the Ukrainian civil service. Maybe that was the idea all along.
- trhway 4y ago
  A bit related, few weeks into invasion a propagandist on Russian state TV was lamenting about Ukrainians being supposedly much more "nazistically" brainwashed than Russia expected them to, and as an example he told "I have a friend in Harkiv, he had been pretty pro-Russian, he sat just 6 days in the basement hiding from the bombings, and after that he completely turned around, voluntarily joined Ukrainian territorial defense force and is now running around with machine gun against us".

jonathankoren 4y ago

Spies are also cheap.

landemva 4y ago

mariuolo 4y ago

> Wow it just blows.my.mind. that that is all it takes! Years ago a judge in southern Italy was in the news for having sold a case in exchange for groceries. It looks petty, but it's actually shrewd: by accepting small gifts the crook feels he did only a small favour.