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They only got $9000 each? That seems like a very small amount of money for a lot of work, and it's probably not getting divided up equally either. What's their

They only got $9000 each? That seems like a very small amount of money for a lot of work, and it's probably not getting divided up equally either. What's their motivation to get into this kind of scam? Spain's GDP per capita is $30,000, and I'd assume they'd been doing it for at least 6 months, so they're not even making an average wage.

Aurornis 2y ago
From the article: > The scammers were so convincing that in most cases, they managed to get continuous payments from their victims, according to the police. They managed to secure continuous income streams of free money by talking to people on their phones. It’s extra money and surely they planned on doing more scams. That’s the motivation. > Spain's GDP per capita is $30,000, and I'd assume they'd been doing it for at least 6 months, so they're not even making an average wage. I guarantee they weren’t working on this 8 hours per day, 5 days per week. That’s not how scams like this work. They’re talking to people through WhatsApp. It’s about as demanding as texting their friends, albeit with additional overhead of maintaining the ruse and keeping facts straight. They could have carried on these conversations while working their day jobs. Some people just get a thrill from committing crimes and extracting money or goods through crime. It doesn’t have to be life changing money, these people just like doing crimes and getting a few thousand extra dollars to do whatever they want with. Of course, the actual cost is devastating once they’re caught. But they’re not thinking about that.
- a_random_canuck 2y ago
  > They managed to secure continuous income streams of free money by talking to people on their phones. It’s extra money and surely they planned on doing more scams. That’s the motivation. Doesn’t this pretty much describe a sales job? Except the product they are selling doesn’t exist.
  - Jensson 2y ago
    Not having to deliver a product is what lets scams scale much better than sales.
qingcharles 2y ago
A lot of criminals would make more with a real job. Sometimes it is cultural (having a real job is seen as weak). Sometimes the crime seems like it would make more money than it actually does for the work input. I asked one 19-year-old defendant who had just been given a 30-year sentence for armed robbery with an AK-47 how much he actually got from the robbery? "$2000. $1000 for me, $1000 for my cousin." Ugh :(
brittlecode 2y ago
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Aurornis 2y ago

From the article: > The scammers were so convincing that in most cases, they managed to get continuous payments from their victims, according to the police. They managed to secure continuous income streams of free money by talking to people on their phones. It’s extra money and surely they planned on doing more scams. That’s the motivation. > Spain's GDP per capita is $30,000, and I'd assume they'd been doing it for at least 6 months, so they're not even making an average wage. I guarantee they weren’t working on this 8 hours per day, 5 days per week. That’s not how scams like this work. They’re talking to people through WhatsApp. It’s about as demanding as texting their friends, albeit with additional overhead of maintaining the ruse and keeping facts straight. They could have carried on these conversations while working their day jobs. Some people just get a thrill from committing crimes and extracting money or goods through crime. It doesn’t have to be life changing money, these people just like doing crimes and getting a few thousand extra dollars to do whatever they want with. Of course, the actual cost is devastating once they’re caught. But they’re not thinking about that.

a_random_canuck 2y ago
> They managed to secure continuous income streams of free money by talking to people on their phones. It’s extra money and surely they planned on doing more scams. That’s the motivation. Doesn’t this pretty much describe a sales job? Except the product they are selling doesn’t exist.
- Jensson 2y ago
  Not having to deliver a product is what lets scams scale much better than sales.

qingcharles 2y ago

A lot of criminals would make more with a real job. Sometimes it is cultural (having a real job is seen as weak). Sometimes the crime seems like it would make more money than it actually does for the work input. I asked one 19-year-old defendant who had just been given a 30-year sentence for armed robbery with an AK-47 how much he actually got from the robbery? "$2000. $1000 for me, $1000 for my cousin." Ugh :(

brittlecode 2y ago

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