Fraud's Prophet
Originally posted by Viendin
So, if he were comitting credit fraud and looking to steal money, don't you think he'd .. you know, not stop taking credit card numbers, not tell
people to stop paying?
Of course, I could be wrong about PY, so let's keep that in mind. I'm just speculating here, and hopefully inspiring my fellow ATSers to be cautious
and skeptical.
One of the most important rules of running a con is knowing when to bail.
And when you bail, you cover your tracks as best you can. In this scenario, PY already has a huge collection of credit card numbers. After his
appearance on Coast-to-Coast AM, he apparently did rather well in that department.
With the goods in hand -- the credit card data -- now it's time to cash out and scram.
Shutting down the site has a few different effects. One is that it adds mystery, and keeps people guessing. He implies he was hacked, for example.
Another effect is that he gives the impression of not trying to rip people off by asking people not to spend money on his site.
Yet another angle on this is giving him a degree of plausible deniability if he gets caught.
While I can't know for sure, I would be very surprised if the FBI wasn't already in Las Vegas checking all this out. Not to “suppress the
truth”, but to investigate a possible case of Internet fraud, which is a crime that crosses state lines and thus falls under federal
jurisdiction.
We'll see how it goes, but I advise not letting PY's humble demeanor trick people into thinking this guy's a fool.
Everything I have seen so far suggests quite the opposite: that PY is a very intelligent man -- and a player.
Beware.