Born every minute

The post office podcast seems sparser this year, less frequent and less interesting.

Today’s item is interesting but hard to translate. The hosts are interviewing a Postal Investigator who brought down a particularly nasty scammer, also involved in violent crimes.

For some reason the Investigator speaks a rigid cop dialect where EVERY SINGLE SENTENCE begins with We Were Able To. Even the hosts seemed annoyed and tried to glue the story together with real English.

I hadn’t heard of ‘card cracking’. It’s a new variant on the old Spanish Prisoner theme where you think you’re profiting from sketchy transactions, and you end up paying more than you receive. This scammer recruited young suckers by offering them a chance to make a commission on fake bank transactions.

Here’s a clear description of card cracking from a bank website without the We Were Able To crap:

Card-cracking schemers often prey on new bank account holders, such as college students or just-enlisted military members. The scam may come in the form of a disguised scholarship opportunity or financial aid. The scammer asks for a bank account number, PIN, and credentials to deposit money into the account, promising the victim a kickback. The defrauder deposits fake checks, usually via a mobile app, and then immediately withdraws the funds through an ATM. The sucker is advised to report a lost or stolen card to their bank in order to be reimbursed. But the bank will likely discover the counterfeit checks and remove their “value.”

Because you intended to receive part of the money, you’re part of the crime. Every effective scam lets you think you’re involved in a crime so you won’t call the cops. (Sometimes you’re not really involved but the thought is what counts!)

Dumb criminals get caught because they don’t know how to be quiet. In the old days they got drunk and bragged about their conquests in a bar. Now they brag on social media. This dude bragged and also set up an LLC front for his fraud. The LLC was registered in a publicly available state database, so the investigators just looked it up and found his real name and address.