Fake Online Stores Reveal Gamblers' Shadow Banking System (reuters.com)

randomErr shares an exclusive report from Reuters: A network of dummy online stores offering household goods has been used as a front for internet gambling payments. The seven sites in Europe to sell items including fabric, DVD cases, and maps are fake outlets. The faux store fronts are a multinational system to disguise payments for the $40 billion global online gambling industry. Online gambling is illegal in many countries and some U.S. states. The dummy sites underline a strategy which regulators, card issuers and banks have yet to tackle head-on. The scheme found by Reuters involved websites which accepted payments for household items from a reporter but did not deliver any products. Instead, staff who answered helpdesk numbers on the sites said the outlets did not sell the product advertised, but that they were used to help process gambling payments, mostly for Americans.

Comments

Re:Vice: perhaps normal life is too dull

[Anonymous Coward]

I tried quitting no less than 5 times, across several years before I was finally successful about 5 years ago.

I quit once. I decided not to smoke another and threw out what remained. It's easy; you don't buy a pack. You don't open it, light one and put it to your lips. Follow those simple rules and you've quit. The rest is excuses and bullshit indulged for a variety of bad reasons, usually involving an insufficient amount of drama in one's life, from what I can tell.