[HN Gopher] The Scammer's Manual: How to Launder Money and Get A...
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The Scammer's Manual: How to Launder Money and Get Away with It
Author : bookofjoe
Score : 63 points
Date : 2025-03-23 17:36 UTC (5 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.nytimes.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.nytimes.com)
| bookofjoe wrote:
| https://archive.ph/1f2mL
| lazyant wrote:
| or you can just bring a bag of cash to buy a condo in NYC
| https://theweek.com/articles/736313/how-foreign-investors-la...
| nikanj wrote:
| Vancouver is also more than happy to help you out
| https://www.sanctions.io/blog/the-vancouver-model-of-money-l...
| lurk2 wrote:
| There have been changes in recent years that complicate this
| model because you are now required to register the beneficial
| (meaning the de facto, not de jure) owner of real property in
| BC. There was also an investigation into the casinos which
| culminated in the Dirty Money report [0]. Quite a few reforms
| came about as a result of that, chief among them that a
| source of funds declaration is required on buy-ins of $10,000
| or more and mandatory identity verification is required on
| transactions of $3,000 or more.
|
| > At B.C. casinos, BCLC requires anyone buying-in with cash,
| a bank draft, or a certified cheque of $10,000 or more in a
| 24-hour period to complete a source of funds declaration and
| provide proof of where the money came from. Suspicious
| transactions in B.C. casinos have declined since this policy
| was introduced. Additionally, BCLC requires casinos to verify
| people's identities for all buy-ins of $3,000 or more in a
| single transaction. [1]
|
| [0]: https://news.gov.bc.ca/files/Gaming_Final_Report.pdf
|
| [1]: https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/justice/anti-money-
| launde...
| mentalgear wrote:
| At least Germany recently changed their laws (initiated by the
| Green Party) that prevents buying real estate with cash. But
| this has been a money laundering practice for the mob for
| decades.
| comrade1234 wrote:
| You're forced to take out a bank loan in Germany if you want
| to buy property?
| 9dev wrote:
| Nope, but you can't buy property with literal cash, crypto,
| or precious metals anymore. In Germany people use SEPA
| payments as the primary means to transfer money, and that
| is the intended way to handle big transactions.
| storf45 wrote:
| This is the plot of the movie, 'The Beekeeper'.
| LargoLasskhyfv wrote:
| Only partially. This is Scambodia. The plot of The Beekeeper is
| US-based, and the head of that operation is the son of the
| President (or candidate? can't remember exactly anymore).
| earnesti wrote:
| So... I started scimming through the artcle, and they basically
| convert the money to cryptocurrency? Don't know if the article
| really contained anything other interesting details.
| decimalenough wrote:
| The interesting bits are before that happens. You need money
| mules, you need brokers to find the mules for you, you need
| escrow companies to stop the brokers from running away with
| your money, etc.
| paulpauper wrote:
| So much work. makes me wonder why not just earn it legit.
| It's like cheaters in school who use AI software and other
| tools. It would be less work to just study. I guess it does
| work or esle it the scams would not persist.
| LoganDark wrote:
| > It's like cheaters in school who use AI software and
| other tools. It would be less work to just study.
|
| It's not about the amount of work. If it were about the
| amount of work then ADHD would hardly exist.
| luckylion wrote:
| > So much work. makes me wonder why not just earn it legit.
|
| Because they make orders of magnitude more money than they
| otherwise would. The regional drug lord wouldn't be the
| next fortune 500 CEO if only he chose to not break the law.
| oortoo wrote:
| Not sure if I fully agree on that. Using AI as a tool can
| usually reduce the total time it takes to complete an
| assignment or project by like 50%, not to mention it also
| reduces the amount of time spent pulling your hair out
| feeling stuck by like 80-90%. Of course, you lose out on
| most of the learning experience but it's not like the old
| days of smuggling in rolled up papers or writing inside a
| water bottle -- "cheating" (if you can even call it that)
| has basically never been easier.
| paulpauper wrote:
| _The F.B.I., China's Ministry of Public Security, Interpol and
| others have tried to combat scammers, who often lurk on social
| media and dating apps, luring people into bogus financial schemes
| or other ruses._
|
| It's the IRS and FBI that does the overwhelming bulk of the
| investigative work and also opens the investigations. Interpol
| hardly does anything by comparison and have much less doggedness
| (it was the US who found Bin Laden for example). It typically
| helps the US, not actually initiates the investigation. At best
| its like a sidekick.
|
| The question is, does the US get involved. If not, then
| laundering will work, because the vast majority of countries have
| neither the inclination or resources to do much. Otherwise, all
| bets are off. Because the US is unrivaled at this sort of stuff.
|
| The article in typical clickbait fashion overplays its claim in
| the headline and then walks it back in the content. It's not that
| effective if accounts are constantly being tracked and frozen and
| if the scammers' profits are heavily diluted in an attempt to
| launder the money. if anything ,this is a success by imposing a
| huge cost on scammers and reducing the profitability of said
| scam.
| Jgrace wrote:
| you realise that something's not just clickbait because you
| don't understand it? Huione is a behemoth in the laundering-
| sphere; it's intrinsically linked to Cambodian scam compounds,
| as well as handling every single step of the wash process in-
| house. These guys don't just receive the stolen funds, but they
| link international clients with mules across literally
| thousands of Telegram groups before converting said currency
| into the Hui-one coin and then onto Tether. All of this is done
| within Hui-one's infrastructure.
|
| If you'd bothered to do just one iota of research into any of
| the topics covered in the article, you may have stumbled across
| chainanalysis' report on them from last year. Elliptic, also
| mentioned, have done comprehensive reports on them. Lazarus
| Group, who recently stole around a billion from Bybit,
| frequently move funds through these guys, so did Conti, and
| many of the other big cyber-threat groups.
|
| To your point around it being a huge cost to the scammers,
| that's a given. Effective laundering is expensive because
| organised crime groups are most vulnerable at this particular
| stage of the fraud. A massive decentralised network of groups
| that can match criminals to a steady flow of international bank
| accounts that can handle fraudulent funds is pricless.
| ForOldHack wrote:
| I have seen a few confirmations of this.
| CPLX wrote:
| The article makes it pretty clear that China is the
| jurisdiction that is the hardest to evade.
| luckylion wrote:
| > Interpol hardly does anything by comparison and have much
| less doggedness (it was the US who found Bin Laden for
| example). It typically helps the US, not actually initiates the
| investigation. At best its like a sidekick.
|
| That's a strange take on a strange article, because the
| articles is mistaken in that Interpol "tried to combat
| scammers" - it can't, Interpol is an organization to coordinate
| cooperation between national law enforcement agencies. They are
| essentially a large clearing house where national LEAs exchange
| information and can use databases. Interpol has no agents or
| investigators.
|
| Which makes your take strange too, because you sound very
| confident that it's "at best" a sidekick, because it doesn't do
| as much as the FBI and IRS. But knowing what Interpol is and
| what it does (or rather: what it doesn't), it's pretty clear
| that you don't know what you're talking about.
|
| The article has found its target, your patriotism was tingled
| and you accepted its premises but felt it necessary to proclaim
| that the US does much more than the organization that doesn't
| do that type of work at all.
| mentalgear wrote:
| Seems like the easiest way to launder or bribe someone is still
| crypto. Might not be an investor's paradise, but certainly a
| launderer's.
| lazyeye wrote:
| I wonder how much of these kinds of issues that we are told are
| "complex" and "multi-faceted", "no easy solution" etc could be
| significantly reduced if there was actual political will to do
| so.
|
| I think a lot.
| daveguy wrote:
| Agreed. It seems like billionaires are buying more and more of
| our means of communication. Makes it easier to control the
| narrative.
| clumsysmurf wrote:
| There seems to be political will to ignore it
|
| https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-treasury-department-says...
| xyzzy9563 wrote:
| Buy crypto, convert it to Monero, transfer it around a bit,
| convert it to your destination currency. Done.
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