Wireless money laundering. Options

[emo samurai]

I'm just wondering; could a hacker gang just open a bunch of average joes' comlinks in any area and just funnel money through about 500 different certified accounts and destroy the paper trail that way? It seems that with comlinks doubling as credsticks, it makes shadow brokerage that much easier.

[Cold-Dragon]

There's still be a data trail, but it'd be harder to track since you'd have to go through all the sytems. that usually requires permission of some sort from half those places. If you can delete the data trails, or most however, that would definitely help.

You're gonna need some inside bankers I would think though. someone that could 'alter' the trails or otherwise. That, or at some point you gotta do the 'public virtual running' where you raid the system, alter what you want, then get the heck out while pissing the bank off. As long as you get rid of the trails behind you, getting away is legit.

Just make sure you delete the trail to the money too, or else they'll just hunt around for you that way.

[mfb]

well, no. that's a hell of a lot of bank errors--those 500 joes are going to look at their finance records the next day and be like "why did i this other joe send me a hundred thousand nuyen? and when did i transfer that same amount to a completely different joe, who i've never met?" that's like trying to sneak past someone by painting yourself red and lighting your hair on fire.

[Guest_MK Ultra_*]

I´d agree with mfb, so what would that infiltration roll have as modifires?

[Aku]

[Guest_MK Ultra_*]

maybe the pc has no other chance. could have been sprayed and inflamed by the securitydrones and now has to sneak past the sec guard that´ll shoot him on sight no questions asked! :P

[Cold-Dragon]

bear in mind you can also alter the datatrail of the commlink, so insted of saying "Why the hell did I give 5k to Mary Johnson" THey'll go "What!? When did I buy 300 pairs of shoes!?" THat's part of the altering process - hiding 'where' things went.

That's why having someone inside the banking system would probably be recommended. that way, even with the chaos, you mgiht be able to still hide where it went, or else you can modify things on the go.

Probably better to make cert-credsticks this way however, find a way to spoof it to make small cards through the net, etc, etc.

Your other problem is going to be when the system prompts the person they they just deducted funs. I bet quite a few would have that setting on their accounts.

....I think the only laundering you'll be doing is robbing the banks. >.<

[emo samurai]

[mfb]

a bank is, generally, the worst place to try and launder money. i mean, the whole purpose of a bank is to keep track of money; money laundering through one is like trying to hold up a gun store.

the point of laundering money is to make it appear to have come from a legitimate source that cannot be further backtraced. if you receive $200,000 from Joe Blow, you'd better have an apparently-legitimate reason for receiving that money--and Joe Blow had better know about it, and have a legitimate reason for having that $200k in the first place.

[emo samurai]

So where the hell DO you launder money?

[runefire32]

[BlackHat]

[Moon-Hawk]

[Guest_MK Ultra_*]

Ah, it was so much easyer, back when you could all your moneylaundering have taken care of by the MIB (not Will Smith, that is :| dumb joke forget it).

[mfb]

well, here's a money-laundering scheme that probably hasn't been tapped yet: ebaying non-existant items MMOs. first, you set up a fake ebay account. then, you open up your ebay account and put up your Sword +1 up for sale. the fake ebay account bids heavily on the item--heavily enough that it's sure to win, but not so heavily as to draw any major attention. the bid goes through, and voila--clean money. the buyer is fake, so the trail is dead.

[Cold-Dragon]

YOur only fear there is one of those ecclectic bidders that absolutely has to have a Limited Edition, one of a kind piece of Star Wars paraphenalia (or however you spell it).

But yes, that'd be a wonderful way of doing some laundering.

[Guest_MK Ultra_*]

Just offer an item nobody possibly wants. Thinking about it, all that trash offered and sold on ebay are probably moneylaundering operations ;) .

[Moon-Hawk]

[Guest_MK Ultra_*]

[SL James]

There are plenty of things so lame no one will buy them, and some so outrageous that people will pay good money for them. Jay Leno has a whole segment every month or so of crazy crap on eBay, half of which never has any bids.

[Guest_MK Ultra_*]

So, what would that be i.e.? (just curious)

[mfb]

a better idea would be to simply post a very common item, and then just outbid everyone else. that'd actually be better; a long series of ebay auctions on which there is only one buyer--who pays tens of thousands of dollars for the item every time--is going to be suspicious. an item with lots of bidders, and one crazy guy who outbids everyone else by 20%, is not so remarkable.

[emo samurai]

[mfb]

yes, the foolish authorities are looking in the wrong place completely to find the laundering scheme i use to fund my ninja assas--er, this is all a hypothetical example.

[Rotbart van Dain...]