How do you explain the widespread availability of "drop" accounts in the US? Cybercrime forums are full of people offering services to "cash out" illicit bank transfers into cryptocurrency.
Integrating over all of the possible outcomes of wire-fraud, being put in prison is more likely than making millions of dollars and using them as you please.
Or, at least, enough people believe this, and also prefer not to be in prison, that they do not commit wire fraud. It might also be because it's difficult. (I don't personally know how I'd take up wire fraud, if I wanted to start.)
"Being put in prison" is a likely outcome because of complex and overlapping human constructs that have lead to power structures where other people can force you into a prison. This is why it's relevant that it's "illegal". Briefly, "we live in a society".
The kind of "shape" wire-fraud has (in terms of the likelihood of its outcomes, i.e. very high risk, low chance of reward) is found in many things. A lot of illegal things have this shape.
The above commenter probably assumed all this to be 'background'. With that "because you go to jail if you do that," is a succinct and basically correct statement, even if it is not prefaced with every possible exception.
But wire fraud isn't rare. There are large gangs that specialize in opening bank accounts using fake documentation who then offer these accounts on a variety of fraud-related forums.
Every Eastern European craigslist scammer has access to US business bank accounts to accept payments for their nonexistent cars and boats.
It's not that you can't, it's that the risks of getting caught doing it and punished for it are too high relative to the reward.
If you don't believe that deterrence is a real thing, there is a lot more human behavior that needs explanation than just the relative lack of ACH fraud.
You still don't seem to understand why "it's illegal" is not a great insight to lead your example with. Even if true, the answer would lead with what makes this illegal thing so less prone to violation than other illegal things.
How do you explain the widespread availability of "drop" accounts in the US? Cybercrime forums are full of people offering services to "cash out" illicit bank transfers into cryptocurrency.
I got that part. Still doesn’t justify a comment that starts with a paragraph implying that illegal things can’t happen because deterrent. That doesn’t help.
Which is a bad explanation. Lots of illegal things happen often anyway. Implying that being illegal automatically contains it is a bad explanation and a bad premise to start from. The question is, why is this illegal thing not more violated? Just like I said in the past two replies.
It being illegal makes parties involved forced to cooperate. If someone hacks your Twitter and tweets something - the FBI isn't going to investigate who did that. If someone commits a wire fraud with your account - FBI will investigate.
no one said they can’t, just this is largely why they don’t. are you going to rob a supermarket where you have to hand in ID at the door? or will you find somewhere easier?
They do this, at giant scale. When you're earning tens of thousands of dollars per account, it's worth it to train people to go open bank accounts using fake passports.
That my point: “it’s easy to catch and enforce” would be the relevant fact to lead with, not “duh it’s illegal silly!” The latter is true for a lot of things that aren’t enforced, and is really condescending to start with.
How do you explain the widespread availability of "drop" accounts in the US? Cybercrime forums are full of people offering services to "cash out" illicit bank transfers into cryptocurrency.