I wasn't familiar with schemes that use app stores for money laundering so I did...

bjhkx · on July 22, 2019

>Then set up a MongoDB database to automatically generate Apple store accounts to create game accounts,

Anybody without a technical background could read this and think that MongoDB is some kind of Apple accounts generator software.

ryanlol · on July 22, 2019

Is this really money laundering though? No attempt is made to obscure the source of the money.

This looks very much like standard credit card fraud to me.

wil421 · on July 22, 2019

Pretend I’m a scammer. Buy 10,000 CC#s in bulk. Most are bunk but I’ll buy iTunes gift cards with the good ones. Then I make clean money on the developer side. Maybe I’ll use gift cards to buy gift cards to buy gift cards.

Now take this and have an organization doing it. They probably pay people across the world to get the gift cards they use.

ryanlol · on July 22, 2019

I’m sure a prosecutor could fit in a money laundering charge too, but I still find it weird to call this money laundering.

The goal here isn’t to obscure the source of the money, the goal is to monetize credit card fraud.

Nobody would actually use iTunes to launder money, the fees are simply too high.

>Then I make clean money on the developer side.

That money is not clean.

>Maybe I’ll use gift cards to buy gift cards to buy gift cards.

And lose all of your money to apples fees and taxes, which is precisely why nobody would ever do this.

moate · on July 22, 2019

"A high % of your money" is not "all your money".

Let's say I've bought these bogus cards. This is the starting point, with dirty money. Anything bought here is obvious and traceable. I take that money, and I buy Visa gift cards, which basically function as cash. I take those Visas and buy Amex gift cards, losing 6% (ballparking here, it's actually 5.95% for $100) of my take to fees and then another 10% to fees/shipping for Amex. I funnel those through fake app purchases on the app store and lose a further 20% of my original take.

I now have about 55-65% of my original take in relatively clean money that I convert to bitcoin and back. If you're talking thousands of dollars here, this can easily be worth it. Doubly so if you live in a country where the expectations of police are that they're not going to have the resources to pursue this kind of crime for whatever reason. Get enough people doing this and enough accounts to make the flow through multiple channels, and you've got yourself the makings of a multi-million dollar money laundering service you can sell out to identity thieves (or use for your own thieves).

mrep · on July 22, 2019

> I now have about 55-65% of my original take in relatively clean money that I convert to bitcoin and back.

I'm no tax investigator expert, but I cannot think of a more sketchy/illegal way to "make a lot of money" than by receiving a bunch of bitcoin especially considering every bitcoin transaction is recorded on a public leger. They have every accounts history you received money from. How are you going to explain receiving all those transactions? At least with your app, you have something to show what people paid for even if it is shit.

moate · on July 23, 2019

I mean the whole plan was to steal credit cards and then launder the money through several intermediaries. It's like the textbook definition of "sketchy/illegal".

THAT SAID, there's nothing illegal about using money from your app store company to purchase bitcoin. IDK that it even feels that weird these days with crypto being proto-mainstream at this point. Easily hand waved away as "Oh, he's one of those weird tech guys".

Most criminal activity is risky. The bet you're making is "this is unlikely to be investigated thoroughly enough for me to be caught". Considering how the government keeps gutting the IRS, and how difficult investigating cybercrimes is for most police departments, this isn't even implausible in the US.