Victims cash - where does it go?

Articles to Educate You About And Learn How to Avoid 419 Scams
User avatar
The Inquisitor
Guest
Posts: 139
Joined: Fri Dec 28, 2018 3:39 pm
Contact:

Victims cash - where does it go?

#1

Unread post by The Inquisitor » Wed Jan 23, 2019 1:14 pm

The business of advanced-fee fraud is a billion dollar industry. In a 2016 article, Charged Affairs stated that the official amount of fraudulent profits generated from scammers was the equivalent of $12.7 billion. The lucrative nature of this crime thus poses the question of; 'when scammers receive funds from a victim, how do they in-turn repatriate the stolen amount to their home country?' The simple answer to this question is through a process of money laundering. The main current processes are outlined below, although this is definitely not an exhaustive list.

The first involves "loading cards", with this authors observations of various scammer online communities noting that a popular and more prevalent option is through the "Vanilla Reload" card. Scammers, through a number of modalities (often through a loan scam), will instruct the victim to buy a Vanilla card and add money to it. The victim will then subsequently be asked to send the scammer the pin # on the back of the card which the scammer will simply wipe.

A variation of the aforementioned modality occurs with Apple gift cards. Much the same as with Vanilla cards, a victim will be requested to purchase the card as a "quick and easy way to make payment". The scammer will then ask for the 16 digit number associated with the card. The scammer will thus either use the card to buy Apple products which will then be sold in their home country at a heavy discount, thus allowing the scammer to launder the money. The scammer may also sell the codes directly on at a fraction of the price in various online communities. Individuals will pay, as an example, $20 (of clean money) for a $100 gift card (of dirty money). This type of payment method was notably used in 2017 by scammers targeting the UK public by impersonating Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs and asking victims to purchase Apple cards as a way of quickly paying their tax bill. Victims were predominantly over the age of 65 and on average lost £1,160.

This article finally notes that the classic Money Gram, Western Union and Bank Wire methods are still very much in use. Often used in classic 419 email modalities (hitman, fund recovery etc), an example of how the scammer will ask for payment via WU/MG is shown in an example below which has been taken from a real 419 email:
HERE IS THE INFORMATION TO SEND THE MONEY THROUGH WESTERN UNION OR
MONEY GRAM BELOW;

RECEIVER NAME … OBE SAMUEL
COUNTRY … BENIN REPUBLIC
CITY … COTONOU
QUESTION … WHEN?
ANSWER … TODAY
AMOUNT … $50 USD.
The recievers name has been highlighted because whilst this may appear to be the scammer using their own identity, it is however more likely to be a "picker" (term coined by the scammers) or "mule" (term coined by the anti-scam community) whom is employed by the scammer to go to the office and collect the cash for the scammer, thus taking the risk on their behalf. Pickers can either be collaborators or sometimes innocent victims themselves who have been scammed into believing that they are working in a legitimate delivery company.

Listed below are examples of real messages from scammers communicating to other scammers in public online social media communities to illustrate examples of how the money laundering network works:
Your client can get it (*Vanilla Card*) from any store or you can ask him to get you Amazon card $100 and we will order 10 iPhone xs max to your residential address...
To the working brothers all over 🙌🙌 I have a gift card shop and my motto is nothing but *LEGITIMACY* I buy gift cards at good rate! 💸💸
iTunes: $100= #27, 000
$50= #13, 000
$25= #6, 000

Amazon: $100= #29, 500
$50= #14, 500
$25= #6, 750.

I serve with honesty and look forward to widening my business through you all👏 Call or message me on WhatsApp at 📞 +23*redacted*



Post Reply
Stop 419 Scams and Scammers : Disclaimer