when i was growing up we had this family member like an uncle (not actual blood relation) named Mike
hes long dead so i can speak of him without being a taddle tale
he was always around in the way that extended family is and he was what youd call a smart lawyer type although i don't think he held any degrees.
there was always controversy in the family about what mike did to make his money and i was young and didn't really understand it.
He was a nice guy and generious to those around him despite his faults
sometime in the early 80s i might have been 12 or 14 years old (but had a good understanding of how the world works) i was at Mikes house and asked him,
Mike, how do you make money?
Mike (maybe in his mid 30s at the time) responded to me first by explaining how the banks are crooks who steal our money
he then went on for a long while explaining himself away as if he was a modern day robin hood
(even at 12 or 14 i understood he was stealing and his justification was just that)
He sat at his desk and showed me all the web sites and forms and documents and explained what he does
in the 80s during the aids epidemic people where dropping like flies
he had a guy who worked as a nurse at some medical hospice type place for people in theryre last days before death.
this nurse would provide him all the personal info for those whom had died or about to die. in some cases they would offer the dieing person a good chunk of cash to be passed to there significant others in exchange for there identities.
he would then spend 3 to 5 years cultivating the identity before cashing in....
keep in mind, he wasn't cashing in on the dead persons personal credit line because that's not enough
he would go out and buy an old established small business under the fake name
max out the credit in the company buy stealing the merchandise (whatever it may be) from the business and selling it off as cash in what they fronted as "going out of business tent sales" only excepting cash but selling new goods at half price
he was cultivating 20 or 30 identities at any given time
extravagant vacations around the world all on credit
after the credit was maxed
walk away
banks go looking for a guy whos been dead for several years
after 20 years of getting away with it and living a rich life he got caught went to jail and died shortly after getting out
that fucking wells fargo guy is a fucking crook but worse!
he belongs in jail
let the pot smokers out
