The following is a fictional account because I really crave attention n dick, etc etc etc.
Hey folks. I don't live the BI life anymore, but I was raised in a pretty poor family and, knowing the system is rigged as fuck, I did the one thing guaranteed to help get me out of poverty. I'll list a few of those, not necessarily because these ideas are 100% original, but because it gives you a trajectory for your own life. You can't do BI for 20 years and not end up in prison. So set yourself a goal, create a strategy to get there, and then exit when you do. Don't get greedy once you reach your goal. You will get caught. The single best way to not get caught is to simply commit acts far away from where you live. Police generally piece together suspects from local networks - they get a description from witnesses, they try to ask around to get info, and they piece together a profile for a local suspect. Being from out-of-town virtually guarantees they can't do anything to find you unless you showed your plates or face too prominently. Be smart.
My goal was to acquire enough money to completely bankroll college and living expenses, as well as some leftover for business start-ups. I crunched the numbers and concluded that $100,000 would get me there. Along the way, I engaged in and attempted dozens of schemes, but the following items were the most successful.
Wal-Mart.
This one was the most straightforward and used the most often. It's good ol' shoplifting.
1. Park off of the property away from cameras. Enter Wal-Mart. Load up on some random items.
2. Locate your target item(s). I personally loved the shit out of expensive programmable calculators. They cost $90-$100, they are small, and they sell fast on Amazon or eBay. You can throw 10 into your cart without attracting too much attention.
3. Roll your cart to the gardening section and find a blind spot. With the giant pallets of mulch that are taller than you, you can easily find a part of the fence that is hidden from cameras and employees.
4. Push your goods through or under the fence. Either abandon your cart or purchase some items with cash. I usually abandoned the cart somewhere else in the store, but it may have been less suspicious to buy something.
5. Walk around, grab your shit, and fuck off quick.
10 of those calculators would be a $1,000 haul. You can repeat this as often as you can travel to another Wal-Mart 20 miles+ away from your previous target Wal-Mart. I had about 10 Wal-Marts within a 50 or 60 mile radius that I would rotate through, usually with break weeks in between. This means that there would often be 10-20 weeks in between hitting a given Wal-Mart. In retrospect, that is probably still too often, but it never was a problem. One thing that helped was hitting shitty Wal-Marts in sketchy parts of town. Places like that have higher security, but also higher overall shrinkage (shoplifting), so it makes my shit less of a priority.
This operation by itself netted me probably $75,000 total over the 18 months I did it. Of course, I didn't really save all of that. Being a 16 year old dumbass, I traveled and drank and used drugs and shit.
Leasing Scam
Note: you really can't do this one alone. You need a team to do this successfully.
I'm sure most of you are familiar with the process of leasing an apartment. You fill out an application and pay an administrative fee, you are showed a space, and if you sign the lease you pay a security deposit and often the first and last month's rent. The idea of this scam is you replicate this process, pocket the money, and then disappear.
1. Find a house or apartment you can show. This needs to be 100+ miles from where you live, so you will need to travel. I had a partner that lived far away from me, and I'd stay at his place while searching for houses. This is extremely difficult to do; in fact, it is the hardest part of any scam I've ever tried. I personally recommend looking for newly constructed homes and neighborhoods. Usually near the end of construction, the house is all but finished, but there is a gap between the minuscule finishing touches and realtors showing the place. Often times, there is no handle or lock at this stage. This is a perfect target.
2. Post ads on CL featuring the house, and post a burner cell phone number. Mention that it is cash-only. If your price is reasonable enough, say $500 for a house, you will get some hits. Meet them at the property and show it to them like a landlord would. Your performance here is incredibly important. I'm not going to sit here and explain to you how to act, you can figure that shit out yourself. But this ain't easy to perform. You also should disguise yourself subtly. Hair dye, facial hair, colored contact lenses, etc. Again, that topic by itself is huge, and I won't cover all aspects of it. But I wore a suit, a wig, and either grew out facial hair or applied some fake hair. Try to look as generic as possible.
In the meantime, post your partner in a car near the road to keep an eye on both the house and highway. If construction workers or actual owners drive to the house, he can give you a couple of minutes advance warning so you can abandon the joe and fuck off. It wouldn't be graceful, but it's doable. Since he doesn't show his face, it's okay that these scams are happening in his town. I know it may sound like this is an unnecessary expense, but trust me: it is worth it. Witnesses are notoriously unreliable with their recollection of people's features. But if 4 people see you, it gets harder and harder to count on them all being unable to identify you.
3. Show as many people the property as possible. If you can keep the house for a week, you an usually show it to at least 20 people if that's all you do. Of those 20, I usually had 15 apply. The price was just super fucking low. So they filled out the application and sent the fee for the background check - I set it at $50. This is an instant $750.
4. Approve the applications and collect the security deposit, first, and last month's rent. On a $500 place, this is $1500 per person. For 15 suckers, it is $22,500, all in cash. If you're worried about folks not wanting to use cash, a couple of them might refuse. But the vast majority will go withdraw the money and bring it right to you. Always remember: people are dumb.
5. Pay your partner whatever you agreed on. I always paid him $5,000. He had pretty much zero risk, so he wasn't entitled to 50%. And he had nothing to do besides sit in his car, so it was easy money for him. Pocket your roughly $18,000 and don't try this shit again for another three months. In the meantime, be looking for a new place to hit.
Wholesale iPod Scam
I've mentioned this in other threads around here, but this is actually 100% legal, or was at the time anyway, and it was the easiest money I ever made. I will say that old partners informed me that eBay has changed their rules to protect from these sorts of schemes, but I believe it could still be done on CL, and maybe on eBay if your legalese was on point.
1. Make an eBay listing selling "Wholesale iPods" or wholesale whatever. The product isn't that important, as long as it's sort of expensive and in demand. Price it at 80% of the iPod or product or whatever. Specify extensively in the product description that it is a wholesale list. "DO NOT BUY THIS IF YOU ARE A CONSUMER. THIS IS FOR RETAIL PURCHASERS ONLY." Put tons of shit like that. It won't deter people, and eBay ruled in my favor every time.
2. Search online for wholesale distributors of the product. Compile this into an Excel file with contact info, phone numbers, and data on prices and all of that. Actually make it look kind of nice and professional. I put a decent amount of work into this, and I actually ended up with positive reviews from people seeking to buy wholesale lists. I laughed my ass off at that.
3. You'll get a fuckton of hits at this point. Accept the cash and start shipping your lists. I used a burned CD for them, and documented the shipping process. PAY FOR THE TRACKING/CONFIRMATION. I haven't used eBay in years, but back in the day that was the single biggest factor for eBay's claims people. If they had proof you shipped it and the item somewhat resembled your description, they'd generally rule in your favor.
There is really no limit to how much you make here. $100 listing with 10, 20, 30, 100 hits? Yeah, it happens. I made around $2,000 a week with this, and continued it until I retired.
Those were the top three scams I worked with, and they probably netted $250,000+ over the course 18-24 months. A lot of this was spent on travel and me being irresponsible and stupid, but I did save up my goal money and I still have a nice nest egg left over.
Best of luck.
