Working the streets, Making money in 2072 Options

[Chrysalis]

Hi,

Recently I was thinking of the criminal underworld and how some of the more lucrative ventures keep maintaining themselves. One of the things which caught my interest, is surveillance and countersurveillance techniques.

One of the points with counter surveillance is to avoid making stupid mistakes which can be picked up on. Say using the same phone or not talking in code.

So it means you use people not in the gang to make the phone call, who tell the time which is in a fixed place. Jobs could be given out by middlemen at a diner or picked up and driven around and met under a bridge. The real people who are the brains behind these operations work through degrees of seperation.

Phone numbers change quickly. Hell, in one of my lines of work it was as simple as using a prepaid sim card, and a rental apartment. Want to change? New wig, new pictures, new apartment, and new simcard.


Now lets fastforward to the sixth world. Junkies will still want to get high and with balkanization means that selling or doing your favorite drug in an abandoned storefront at the Renraku arcology mall is almost legal. The police are corps, unless it bothers customers and their contracts as institutions they don't care. The question is though, where do the massive clientele of the sixth world get their money?

Electronic money is fine if you have a full-time job, but in a gray market economy like drugs or prostitution, might as well start advertising your financial transactions to your spouse or your corp or Lone Star and the IRS. So that leaves corp scrip (but that no longer exists), or cred sticks (about as inobvious as a roll of 10,000).

Even if the receiving commlink marks it off as a transaction with the ABC company, its when you start doing 10 nuyen transactions every day.

So, what do the streets would really look like in 2070? Let's peel off the Police Academy sticker of crime and have a look at what street crime really would be like in 2070.

Thoughts?

[Marwynn]

Well the easiest way would be to have the cost be named something else in your bills. If you can't hide it, hide it in plain sight.

Incidentally, I thought this was about prostitution due to the thread name.

Another option, is of course, what 'runners use: Fake SINs/Commlinks. You can slowly transfer funds to it and use that as your secret cred link. Heh, bartering may even make a bit of a comeback in such a situation where all transactions are easily monitored. Buy a new commlink or gizmo and give it to your dealer for your poison.

I mean, drug addicts sell stuff they own (and stuff they don't).

[shuya]

i seem to recall a small blurb in Seattle 2072 about the prevalence of hard currency (at least in seattle) despite the trends towards electronic money. but, we all know it's still there, so that doesn't really cover your question.

yesterday i checked my mail box (physical mail, which i check far less often than its electronic counterpart) and noticed i had received a statement of my social security benefits. my income in 2006 was 89 dollars, 2007 was 247 dollars. so first off, i would suggest that many of your drug users often find gainful employment in other illegal trades (because gods know way more money than that actually passed through my hands those two years).

second, if issues of surveillance, security, and anonymity would PREVENT people from getting their fix, the people who would otherwise be losing their customers would probably go to lengths to set up their OWN system to get these people what they want anyway. people who make large amounts of money illegally, i would suspect, know a thing or two about money laundering; all they would have to do is find a way for their clients to launder the money BEFORE it even gets to the dealer... kind of like, a pre-rinse cycle, or something *giggle* like any business, those who stay on top of changing trends will succeed while those who lag behind will fail

and for the record Marwynn, ANYBODY can sell something they own (or something they don't) if they need the money badly enough, but i have never sold anything of mine (or anything of somebody else's) to get a fix (except, of course, more drugs). not that you were talking about me, or anything, but let's try to be sensitive about people with chemical dependency issues.

actually, come to think of it, almost every dealer i've ever met started so they could support their own habit. i imagine that a well-established illegal marketplace would probably see a lot of the same money changing hands over and over. one day, maybe, i will start discretely marking all the bills i use in transactions for less-than-legal goods, and see how many of them end up back in my hands, and from where...

[PirateChef]

i seem to recall a small blurb in Seattle 2072 about the prevalence of hard currency (at least in seattle) despite the trends towards electronic money. but, we all know it's still there, so that doesn't really cover your question.

yesterday i checked my mail box (physical mail, which i check far less often than its electronic counterpart) and noticed i had received a statement of my social security benefits. my income in 2006 was 89 dollars, 2007 was 247 dollars. so first off, i would suggest that many of your drug users often find gainful employment in other illegal trades (because gods know way more money than that actually passed through my hands those two years).

second, if issues of surveillance, security, and anonymity would PREVENT people from getting their fix, the people who would otherwise be losing their customers would probably go to lengths to set up their OWN system to get these people what they want anyway. people who make large amounts of money illegally, i would suspect, know a thing or two about money laundering; all they would have to do is find a way for their clients to launder the money BEFORE it even gets to the dealer... kind of like, a pre-rinse cycle, or something *giggle* like any business, those who stay on top of changing trends will succeed while those who lag behind will fail

and for the record Marwynn, ANYBODY can sell something they own (or something they don't) if they need the money badly enough, but i have never sold anything of mine (or anything of somebody else's) to get a fix (except, of course, more drugs). not that you were talking about me, or anything, but let's try to be sensitive about people with chemical dependency issues.

actually, come to think of it, almost every dealer i've ever met started so they could support their own habit. i imagine that a well-established illegal marketplace would probably see a lot of the same money changing hands over and over. one day, maybe, i will start discretely marking all the bills i use in transactions for less-than-legal goods, and see how many of them end up back in my hands, and from where...

I would rather not know anything about any RL drug use or other illegal activity you indulge in.

[McAllister]

I think it's an interesting perspective, but I respect PirateChef's right not to know. Perhaps spoilers are in order, good sir or madam?

[Crusher Bob]

people who make large amounts of money illegally, i would suspect, know a thing or two about money laundering; all they would have to do is find a way for their clients to launder the money BEFORE it even gets to the dealer... kind of like, a pre-rinse cycle, or something *giggle* like any business, those who stay on top of changing trends will succeed while those who lag behind will fail

The whole point of money laundering is to be able the explain your illegal income to the cops and the taxman. So when you have finally killed your way up to being one of the big guys in your dope dealing org, how do you explain where all that dough came from?

Even if the cops can't get you for dealing the dope, they can get you from not declaring your income and paying taxes on it. But writing on your tax forms that this income is proceeds from your dope dealing operation isn;t going to cut it either.

So your dope dealing operation might look like a storefront that sells mobile phone games, for example. You have a big supply of a bunch of different variations on Tetris, or whatever. They come in a buy some dope, and they also get several copies of Tetris downloaded to their phone. You write on your tax forms that you got all your dough selling mobile phone games, here's your business receipts, and your license, etc.

So at the end of every day or whatever, you dealers count up the money they collected, and but enough flash games from you to cover your cut.

Of course, in this age of electronic currency, your chain runs through several different ligeal jurisdictions, so that the cops have a real hard time finding out exactly where the money is going. No international cooperation.

[Chrysalis]

One way to launder money before coming to the illegal stage is by using casino chips in a casino or on a smaller scale tokens in a video arcade to pay for your illegal transactions. In 2072, you go to a blackmarket exchange to change your electronic currency into cash or scrip, which you can use to buy your poison of choice or goods.

The problem with any more complex operations on the client side is that they demand patience and restraint from the client so that they are not noticed by law enforcement.

Money from the illegal proceedings can be washed by setting up businesses that deal in high volume small deposits, such as strip clubs and casinos. Through a layered approach good money and bad money get mixed into the company. You can also simply use fronts where the entire company does nto exist more than on paper, such as an investment firm.

There are also numerous banks in RL, both off-shore and on-shore which do not care where the money comes from. In RL, the Libyan investment bank in Libya not only deals with the transactions of the Libyan government's oil money, but also is being utilised as a tax haven by at least the Italian mob. These banks deal with high sum, high volume transactions.

I suspect in 2072, most banks have little care where the money comes from, and few mechanisms to make sure money does come from legitimate sources. In addition you would see alternate banking systems like hawala and fie chen on the Matrix. The kinds of clearing house banks that only exist n the Matrix and not in any country. Even in 2072, you can come to Seattle carrying a chip-chop note, which you can reimburse with the local Triad.

Complexity in money laundering in the U.S. and trial by jury systems is a good thing for criminals. Jurors will have problems understanding the case if it demands that they follow through a group of courses dealing with embezzlement, accounting, and procedures used in forensic accounting to be able to understand experts witnesses and the case in whole.

[shuya]

I would rather not know anything about any RL drug use or other illegal activity you indulge in.

to my credit, i don't think anything i really mentioned much about my REAL LIFE illegal activity. if i had actually been more specific, it might have been more obvious that much of my involvement in the world of recreational drugs was at least quasi-legal, dependent on issues of jurisdiction and untested loopholes in the law and stuff like that, and that the only real thing i've intimated in that post about breaking the law is that i received some amount of unreported income (do you not want to hear about my pizza delivery job either?). it's not like i spent the last 10 years skulking around outside of middle schools pushing dope cut with drain cleaner on unsuspecting little kids.

as a beautiful example of how what i mentioned doesn't really have to concern illegal activities, i would point you to california's medical marijuana program. who do you think it was who pushed the whole thing, who got the initiative, who started the dispensaries, the doctors who are willing to write a scrip to anybody for 150 dollars, etc... i don't think anybody would be surprised that most of the push came from people who were already producing, selling, and using marijuana illegally. these people set up a totally *legitimate* (well, not in the eyes of the federal government, who also have their own medical marijuana program) system to produce and distribute drugs, which ended up benefiting all the parties involved and having everybody's ass pretty much covered, which i think is at least somewhat tangential to what Chrysalis was asking about.

if i happen to have the name, and phone number, and a picture of someone who would be willing to have sex with you for free, but you have to buy that information off of me, well, i'm not a pimp, i'm just selling you a little bit of electronic data. maybe that data is scribbled on the back of a custom picture frame, and you just love the intricate detail work in the design of the frame, and all, so you paid 200 bucks for that frame. but it's art, right so it's worth the price. but of course you're not paying for a prostitute, just the frame.

i once saw a website that sold, ostensibly, remote control (RC) cars. and all of the cars had weird model numbers, all of which, ironically enough, were the same as various tryptamine and phenythalamine based recreational research chemicals (weirdly enough also abbreviated RC). never tried ordering from them, so i can't tell you what the charge from them would have listed as. back in the day i know many web-based retailers, instead of setting up their own system for handling transactions, just used other companies that were set up solely to handle internet transactions for retail sites. so the paper trail pretty much stopped (or fractured, at least) there, instead of at the company you had actually bought the things from.

[Chrysalis]

I can say about prostitution that it depends on the legal system. In Finland they banned open advertisement of prositution and pimping was still on the books as being illegal (this way the politicians can keep their mistresses and not have to worry that the diamond necklace they bought and the house they live in is not collateral for sex - hence funding prostitution). All it means is that I run my advertisements off a foreign webserver and I pay rent on the apartment. The pimp indirectly profits by offering short-term accomodation and phone screening.

In a bar, I suggest the client buys a bottle of champagne for the VIP room or pay my bar fine. The champagne is cheaper, you get to see the bottle, but you get to cork something else upstairs.

The 150 I take, I can say it is a gift or a cash donation to a foundation (which is how in Finland I might launder my money anyways). If the person is a cop, he can look around, but can't touch anything without a search warrant or probable cause. Again, what is legal depends on the country and state and which politicians are in power and what looks good on the ticket.

However, we are talking about 2072. A lot of what is now illegal is quasi legal, since the gaming world is designed to be a world with little in terms of checks and balances. In 2072 you can advertise autoshops in the yellowpages which deal only with stolen cars. You can have large billboards advertising your product. As long as: What you advertise, does not involve the politicos or is seen by them.

[Backgammon]

With the champagne thing, is that in collusion with the bar management? You buy a bottle for (say) 1000$, some of it goes to the bar, some gets paid to you? Or are you saying the client pays for the bottle, which simply grants access to the VIP room, and the time with you is then paid on top of that, directly to you? And the bar just doesn't care, cause a bottle was bought and what you do in the room is your own business?

[Chrysalis]

I re-thought this and thought to explain. You buy "a bottle of champagne", the length of time in the VIP room is based on what kind of champagne you buy. The bottle is a marker for sex. This is expecially used with credit card transactions.

In another situation, the bottle is actual and part of using the VIP rooms. What happens in the VIP rooms is between me and the client and how much he wishes to buy. This would involve a cash "tip". I may also pay a percentage to the bar.

In both situations I may be working on commission. This though depends whether it is a strip club with benefits or a hostess bar (a bordello thinly disguised as a bar).

In the third option, a clearing house method, girls are all independent and the client may have to pay a small bar fine to take the girl home or to her place. This involves some money parting hands, but the transaction for sex is between the client and the girl. Usually such girls work less hours and are less aggressive towards the clients (since are not working on comission).