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Criminal Schemes & Making Money


owen

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Importance of Money
 
The money your character makes contributes to his living, as well as his group's success:

  • Make money → Pay your rent → Pay your bills → Afford X → Run out of money → Make more money → Afford Y → Afford X→ Run out of money → Make more money → Afford Z → Run out of money → Can't afford what you need → Make more money → Pay X → Buy Y → Run out of money → Make more money → and so forth...


Without acknowledging this aspect of your character's life, you are stripping them of an important concern, which exists in every day life. Adult characters which only hang around or engage in violence serve little purpose to their surrounding environment in the long run. If you don't make any money, at some point you will eventually become homeless, starve, and die. Regardless of the monetary value you own script wise, it's important to keep track of how much money your character would have at any one time.

 

Your character's foundations are important. Take into consideration your character's background, where they're from, their traits, their family, their past history. Did they do good in school, did they have a rough childhood, a good childhood, what are their friends like? Is your character easily influenced? Are they lazy? You should always think about those things when you're making a character — I know this seems like a lot to consider and role play around, but if you actually stick to a character and put effort into depicting someone who talks, feels and acts real I assure you that you will enjoy your role play ten times more, coming from experience. 
 
Money Making Schemes
 
Everyday expenses and necessities require money. Criminals earn their money from illegal activities. A law abiding character may work a nine-to-five job, whereas a criminal performs illegal activities motivated by his desire to be financially stable. This is done for their own financial benefit, or for the bigger benefit of a criminal group.

Do note that criminals do work nine-to-five jobs too, however, it's legal and low pay. They're criminals at heart, they want fast money and they want to spend it in the now. Work the day job, do the dirty jobs at night — you're making two types of money, which is good for your character.
 
Individuals linked to crime sometimes join bigger groups of similar-minded individuals. This is done to help boost their own influence, to create new connections or opportunities, and to offer additional protection. In return, those groups require their members to follow a specific line of hierarchy, rules, and behavior. Members adhere to the group's requirements, so they can participate in the organization's everyday activities. The measure of goals and organization in the group determine the group's position in the criminal underworld. If a criminal doesn't have a specific role in a group, he is on his own.

 

Do note that criminals do work nine-to-five jobs too, but it's low, legal pay and it's not a lot a month (or bi-weekly) and your character is a criminal at heart, they want to make fast money and they want that money quick. Your character could work in the day and do the dirt at night — that is two types of money your character is making which is good, but at a risk.


How you perform as a member in a criminal group, as well as how the group performs as a whole, makes the difference here. What is your character's role in the faction? Your behavior and mentality dictate this. Whether he is going to be an individual who has a purpose in his gang and environment, or he is going to just be someone who sits in front of his porch in wait for enemies he can shoot at. Whether this will be an important money-making organization, or just a group of violent individuals. If your role is just to hang around, your role does not equal to much.

There are a plethora of money making schemes that you could role play your criminal character engaging in. Of an endless variety of activities, some could include:
 
Organized Schemes

  • Credit Card fraud: Steal or obtain credit card information or role play ATM skimming. Use this information to role play gaining access to money you can take.
     
  • Prostitution: Street prostitution, brothel prostitution and escort prostitution. You have a plethora of avenues to explore with that roleplay. Use middle-men to enforce prostitutes to work, pay them well, treat them good (or treat them bad), make them make you money. 
  • Telemarketing fraud: Making calls to unknown lines and extorting personal information from them. This could be role played as a partnership or solo scheme to extort financial or non public information.
  • Fraudulent investing scams: The Ponzi scheme is just one type of con. And, although it's based on a classic formula, the idea can be applied in countless ways to deceive unsuspecting victims. This works best when role played with a passel of others.
  • Extortion/Bribery: Extortion is commonly practiced by organized crime groups. The actual obtainment of money or property is not required to commit the offense. Making a threat of violence which refers to a requirement of a payment of money or property to halt future violence is sufficient to commit the offense.
  • Counterfeiting: To counterfeit means to imitate something authentic, with the intent to steal, destroy, or replace the original, for use in illegal transactions, or otherwise to deceive individuals into believing that the fake is of equal or greater value than the real thing. This can be role played by forging signatures or producing imitative currency to fraud another person.
  • Money Laundering: This is a method of disguising the illegal origins of wealth and protecting assets, so as to avoid the suspicion of law enforcement agencies and prevent leaving a trail of incriminating evidence.

Last Resort Schemes

  • Retail of drugs/arms: If you are getting a cut, you are making money.
  • Residential burglaries: Break into homes and steal valuable property such as consumer electronics, jewelry, money, and such. Pawn the stolen goods for money or sell them to anyone interested.
  • Vehicle theft: Primarily done for vehicle parts. This scheme works particularly well with a chop shop car theft ring that earns money for the job you perform.


Note about drug dealing: If you're going to resort to selling drugs, corner selling is completely out of date and is not representative of modern drug dealing. Texting people, knowing people, friends and friends of friends is the best way to realistically sell drugs and expand your business. You'll have consistent customers texting you and you can advertise your drug(s) via a text which makes a cool dynamic, or use FaceBrowser — that works too. 

 

Note about selling firearms: Do not sell guns like you'd sell drugs (in a casual sense). Guns will get you heavy charges and especially if you're distributing them, you'd realistically want to do it low-key. A motel room, in their house, in your car, a garage... you get the idea. Don't just roll up to someone and ask if they want to buy a gun either — that's bad and weird, definitely do not do that. You'd only sell weapons to people you trust and know aren't going to be a problem for you, someone who knows what they're buying and probably someone with who has just as much dirt. 

 

Credits: Douglas Nyswonger and jop.

 

 

 

Edited by jop
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Ain't an expert but I don't think corner-selling is comepletely off the radar.
I think it heavily depends on what type of drug you're selling, cocaïne and weed, yeah that's defenitely sold over social media and the Phone.

 

However in a city as big as Los Angeles, where Los Santos is based off.. I could imagine that the amount of drug fiends would go to specific corners and would go to trap houses to buy drugs.

Again, I don't live there so I can't say for sure. But even in The Netherlands there are typical spots you'd find drug dealers, it wouldn't be the same as corner selling because there's a whole different system out here, and most people even deliver drugs by a car. But if countries like Italy and France who are bigger still have trap houses and corners full of drug dealers.. I would like to believe it's still a thing in LS anno 2019.

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3 hours ago, Triple-J said:

Ain't an expert but I don't think corner-selling is comepletely off the radar.
I think it heavily depends on what type of drug you're selling, cocaïne and weed, yeah that's defenitely sold over social media and the Phone.

 

However in a city as big as Los Angeles, where Los Santos is based off.. I could imagine that the amount of drug fiends would go to specific corners and would go to trap houses to buy drugs.

Again, I don't live there so I can't say for sure. But even in The Netherlands there are typical spots you'd find drug dealers, it wouldn't be the same as corner selling because there's a whole different system out here, and most people even deliver drugs by a car. But if countries like Italy and France who are bigger still have trap houses and corners full of drug dealers.. I would like to believe it's still a thing in LS anno 2019.

I wouldn't consider Italy and France to be valid contenders in that argument. Yeah sure, corner dealing ''is'' still a thing, but it's very, very small. It's not normal anymore and if anyone (in a neighborhood known for drug dealing) was on a corner, it'd be easily spotted and easily acted upon, that's why nobody does it and you never see it anymore. 

 

No one goes to corners to buy drugs. Dealers would really give you their number (they would text you when they have new stuff coming in, what to buy, when to buy it, where to meet) and relying on place and not time only is pretty rare to see, also bad for business. 

 

It's a thing, but not common. It's probably best to not do it a lot is my main point.

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3 hours ago, jop said:

I wouldn't consider Italy and France to be valid contenders in that argument. Yeah sure, corner dealing ''is'' still a thing, but it's very, very small. It's not normal anymore and if anyone (in a neighborhood known for drug dealing) was on a corner, it'd be easily spotted and easily acted upon, that's why nobody does it and you never see it anymore. 

 

No one goes to corners to buy drugs. Dealers would really give you their number (they would text you when they have new stuff coming in, what to buy, when to buy it, where to meet) and relying on place and not time only is pretty rare to see, also bad for business. 

 

It's a thing, but not common. It's probably best to not do it a lot is my main point.

Well if you're american, I'll take your word for it.. but as far as I see from documentaries, while being European.. for heroin it's definitely still a thing. I think corner selling Always has been more of an eastcoast thing, but traphouse selling .. It's a term widely used, originating from Atlanta around 2012-15 as af as I know. 

And by comparing to France an Italy or even Amsterdam/The Netherlands I'm pointing out the size of such countries and it's main cities. There's just so many heroin and crack friends.. keeping them all in contact over Phone seems undoable to me. Where a city as Los Angeles even has it's own ecosystem/mini city filled with fiends.

Also media such as various documentaries still show corner selling and even the latest fictional series: Top Boy depicts it. 

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12 hours ago, Triple-J said:

Well if you're american, I'll take your word for it.. but as far as I see from documentaries, while being European.. for heroin it's definitely still a thing. I think corner selling Always has been more of an eastcoast thing, but traphouse selling .. It's a term widely used, originating from Atlanta around 2012-15 as af as I know. 

 And by comparing to France an Italy or even Amsterdam/The Netherlands I'm pointing out the size of such countries and it's main cities. There's just so many heroin and crack friends.. keeping them all in contact over Phone seems undoable to me. Where a city as Los Angeles even has it's own ecosystem/mini city filled with fiends.

Also media such as various documentaries still show corner selling and even the latest fictional series: Top Boy depicts it. 

Okay, i'll be honest I was trying so hard to avoid getting involved in this conversation because I like to avoid arguing over pointless things on the forums, but here I am. Top Boy is based in the UK for starters, so, you can't use that as a example nor can you use the Netherlands, Italy or France because these are all different countries. We're talking about Los Angeles, California and in LA people don't sell drugs on the corners due to gang injunctions, gang enhancements and various other legal moves by the California government to crack down on gang activity in the state especially related to drug dealing. If a gang-banger were to post up on a corner in 2019, the odds are extremely likely that he'd either be shot by the opposition or arrested and searched by the police department for gathering in public and being a "public nuisance." So to put it simply, no, people don't sell narcotics on corners anymore atleast in LA. Although, I can completely understand why you were confused about that seeing as you obviously are not from America. If you'd like I have sources to back all my statements up.

Edited by Benny Black
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  • 4 months later...

Why are the three most lucrative criminal activities on this list, and three most commonly occurring criminal activities labelled as last resort?

Drug and Weapon trafficking is not by any means last resort, whether large or small scale.

Boosting cars, also not a last resort activity, extremely lucrative if you build your connections.

Residential Burglaries, ALSO not last resort.

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