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In 2009 alone, Americans sent over $30 million to Jamaica to claim winnings in this lottery scam.  These people were scammed out of all this money.

Scam artists are making Jamaica an even larger scaming center than the previous scamming hub of Nigeria.  Jamaicans speak better English and are more familiar with the American culture and way of life.  This makes it easier for them to try and scam Americans.  Many scammers try to be extremely polite and speak professionally.

Most of these scams are run by groups out of Montego Bay, some of the groups operate out of Kingston.

It’s still quite easy to recognize their accents.  They will refer to you as “Mr. Dave” or “Mrs. Sarah” instead of by your surname which is common in Jamaica, but not in the United States.  They may also tell you to “go to THE Moneygram at THE Wal-mart” instead of “go to Moneygram at Wal-mart”.

876 is the area code in Jamaica.  Some will call you without blocking their number so that you can return the call.  Many make these calls from their cell phones.  Others have gone as far as using services like MagicJack to obtain local phone numbers through out the United States which they can make or receive calls from over the internet using a phone number in the area code of their choice.  If you hear an echo or feedback chances are that you are talking to someone using MagicJack and their volume is turned up too loud.

Calling an 876 number will cause your phone carrier to charge you international calling fees which seem to be between $0.35-1.25 a minute depending on your phone carrier.

Some Jamaican numbers who have called me with this scam:
(876) 576-2014
(876) 479-9786
(876) 862-8868
(876) 474-3431
(876) 894-8896
(876) 437-9931

I talked to a few of the scammers.  Some of the scammers I sent on wild goose chases pretending to believe them, pretending to go to MoneyGram or Western Union, and then giving them false numbers or telling them I accidentally sent it to the wrong person.  If you want to mess with them be aware that MoneyGram uses a digit number as follows and Western Union uses a digit number as follows.

After messing with them several times and even telling them that I knew it was a scam and going as far as giving them advice and tips.  They began asking me if I was interested in helping them to scam other Americans for a cut of the money.  I asked them what this would entail and they said basically:

1) They wanted me to identify a local casino or a place where people win money, phone number, address, etc.
2) Get lists of people who frequent this area with their contact info.
3) Help them to set up a MagicJack number with a local area code and telephone number.
4) Their call center would call these people up and ask them to send a processing fee to a local person (me) with a fake identity.
5) They would set me up with a false identity.
6) People would mail, wire, and send me money using snail mail, MoneyGram and Western Union and we’d split the profits 50-50.

Of course I didn’t agree to doing this since I’d be taking all the risks for the potential of minimal gains.

Life in Jamaica is rough.  There is frequent violence and crime and the majority of people outside the major resorts live below the poverty level.  These organized scams have provided additional ways for Jamaicans to make money.  However they have also led to violence among different groups of scammers.  One group of scammers was recently murdered by a rival group to eliminate the competition.

One group identified themselves as a call center with over 50 people operating out of the Freeport area of Montego Bay in Jamaica complete with a modern office using computers, Voice-over-IP calling devices, caller id spoofing, etc.   This group claims to make thousands of calls a day resulting in hundreds of people sending them thousands of dollars a day.  They told me that they had convinced one 82 year old man from Florida who had been in Jamaica 3 weeks prior that he had won a cash prize and needed to pay them $15k in taxes to collect the money.

The other group identified themselves as two seventeen year old high school boys from Montego Bay running the scam on their own using their cellphones and using the computers at their local schools.  They were looking to expand their group to partners within the United States and they provided me with their Instant Message contact info and MySpace page.  Below is a photo of one of the Jamaican scammers taken from his MySpace page.  Look how tough he looks!  Yeah right!

How the scam works:

Jamaican scammer groups obtain your name, address, and phone number from mailing lists purchased by legitimate Montego Bay Casinos from various American based casinos.  These Jamaican casinos either sell these lists to or have these lists stolen by scammers. 

They are also able to obtain lists of people who have visited Jamaica and stayed at local resorts.

The Scammers have call centers.  A caller will call you up and say that you won millions of dollars in some sort of lottery, but you need to wire a small fee to the company to cover the processing or delivery fee.  They ask you to go to your local Western Union or Moneygram and send a small amount of money to a person located either in Jamaica or in the United States.
If you send them money.  This request will lead to future requests for money.  These scammers may later even pose as the police or FBI and say that they need you to send additional cash to aid in their investigation.  Leading to additional losses in money.  These scammers work in groups and teams.

These scams look for people with compulsive impulses who are often elderly.  Some of these victims are like gamblers, they send money to Jamaica regardless of knowing that it might be a scam with the slim chance that they would eventually receive some money.  Some have lost their entire life savings.  A 72 year-old retired bookkeeper from New Jersey named Ann Mowle committed suicide in 2007 after sending more than $248,000 to Jamaica over the course of a year. 

This scam has grown dramatically over the past two years.  Western Union and Moneygram deserve part of the blame for this type of scam.  They allow so much money to be sent to Jamaica through their network.  It seems that they could do a better job of investigating fraud and be skeptical about lots of small and large transactions going to people in Jamaica.  But what do they care?  They their own cut of the profits!

The US Mint is now offering free shipping on the new 2010 $1.00 Presidential Coins to promote the circulation of these new coins.

These Presidential Dollar coins are sold in rolls of 250 for their exact face value of $250.00 along with free standard shipping.

There are 7 different types of 2010 Direct Ship $1.00 Coins, namely 2010 Native American, 2010 Sacagawea, 2010 John Adams, 2010 Thomas Jefferson, 2010 James Madison, 2010 George Washington, and 2010 Andrew Jackson.  They allow you to purchase up to two $250.00 rolls of each type of coin.  This would allow you to purchase a maximum of up to $3,500 per order. 

Initially during “Step 1″ of the check out process it will show an Estimated Standard Shipping & Handling charge of $4.95, however on ”Step 4″ this shipping charge will be reduced to $0.00 as seen below.

Since these coins are being sold by the US Mint at face value without any additional shipping costs you can purchase these coins using a 0% APR Credit Card and convert them to cash for free.  You could also deposit these coins into your checking account and then use the money to pay off higher interest credit cards.

Some Credit Cards offer travel, cash, or other reward for purchases made using the credit card.  You can use your reward card to purchase these coins. When you receive the coins you can simply store them in a high yield savings account until your monthly credit card bill arrives and then pay off your bill to get the full rewards from this credit card purchase.

If you want to really rack up the rewards you can even pay off the bill immediately online or using a photocopy of your bill to pay off the balance before your monthly bill arrives.  This way you can repeat this purchase several times over the course of a single month.

How to Get Started

1) Go to the US Mint’s 2010 Coin Promotion Direct Shipment program page.  There are 7 different types of coins for purchase and you are allowed to purchase up to 2 boxes of each type of coins for $250.00 each box.  You can purchase up to $3,500 in coins if you buy the 2 box maximum for all 7 types of coins.  You can also make multiple orders if you want to purchase even more.   Be sure to select “Standard Shipping”, it will say that this shipping and handling will cost $4.95 on the first page, but you will notice that on step 4 of the checkout process that this shipping charge is reduced to $0.00 and you are only charged the actual face value of the coins.

2) You should receive your coins in the mail within 1-2 weeks.

3) Take these coins to the bank and cash them in for paper money or deposit them into your checking account.  Since these coins are in regular circulation, they are as good as cash.

4) You can use this money as a free cash advance, pay off higher interest credit cards, or collect the rewards off your rewards credit card.  These credit card rewards will not cost your anything if you pay your credit card off by the end of the month.  

Many rewards cards give you 1-3% cash back which is better than most high yield savings accounts these days.  Also, you are not taxed on money made from cash back rewards cards because this cash back is considered a rebate on purchases that you have already made!

You could also use this trick to rack up your airlines rewards on certain rewards credit cards. 

For example, with Citibank’s AA Advantage credit card it offers you 25,000 miles once you make $1000 in purchases. This is a total of 26,000 miles and is enough for a round trip US domestic flight to anywhere in the United States. 

You are effectively getting a round trip airline ticket for free, saving you hundreds of dollars and getting a free cash advance from your credit card at the same time!

Blackjack is the only casino game that can be consistently won by players if they know the proper techniques.  If you know how to count cards then you can bet higher amounts when you have the advantage over the casino. 

The principle behind counting cards in blackjack is that a deck of cards with a high proportion of high cards (10-valued cards and Aces) to low cards (2-valued thru 6-valued) is btter for the player, while the reverse (a deck with a high proportion of low cards to high cards) is better for the dealer. There are many reasons for this: blackjacks become more common (and they offer a higher payout than other winning hands), the dealer is more likely to bust on a stiff hand, double-downs are more successful, and insurance becomes profitable.

Card Counting recently became infamous after the release of the movie, 21, which was about the MIT Blackjack team which took the Las Vegas casinos for millions of dollars during the 80s and 90s.

Counting cards is much more difficult than it seems, you have to keep track of all the cards coming out of a six deck shoe, watch the dealer and other player’s hands, decide how much to bet, under a ton of distractions.

However, now a new Apple iPhone application called HiLo makes card counting easy.  Nevada gaming authorities have warned casinos to watch for blackjack players using an iPhone application to count cards.

In a memorandum that the Nevada Gaming Control Board circulated to casinos starting Feb. 5, board member Randall Sayre sounded the alarm about Blackjack Card Counter, an iPhone application that sells for $1.99 on Apple Inc.’s App Store.

“This program can be utilized on either the Apple iPhone or the Apple iPod Touch portable music player,” Sayre said in the memo (download PDF). “Once this program is installed on the phone through the iTunes Web site, it can make counting cards easy.”

Although card counting — attempting to keep track of the number of face cards, aces and 10s in the multideck Blackjack shoe — is not illegal in Nevada, using a device that aids in counting is against the law.

Card counting is a strategy that tries to track the ratio of high-value cards to low-value cards. A high ratio supposedly benefits the player, while the reverse gives the advantage to the dealer.

According to Sayre, Nevada gaming authorities were tipped to the iPhone application by colleagues in California, who in turn had been told by a tribal casino in the northern part of the state that it had found customers using the program.

Among the application’s features that Sayre called out is its “Stealth Mode,” which shuts off the iPhone screen — making the phone appear to be turned off. However, the user can still continue to track cards by pressing the screen at the spots where the keys would normally show.

“Just as a reminder, use of this type of program or possession of a device with this type of program on it — with the intent to use it — in a licensed gaming establishment, is a violation of NRS 465.075,” said Sayre. Counting cards with a device is a felony under Nevada law and is punishable by prison terms of between one and six years, or a fine of no more than $10,000, for the first offense.

Blackjack Card Counter is not the only such software on the App Store. The rival “Card Counter,” billed as a card-counting practice program, sells for $2.99. Card Counter is more popular than Blackjack Card Counter; the former is currently No. 30 on the App Store’s list of best-selling games.

I am sure there are tons of people who would like to be able to receive anonymous electronic cash payments online.  There is always lots of money to be made in selling items which fall within the gray area which is merchandise considered to be “semi-legal” or only legal in certain areas. 

Some examples of gray area merchandise might be generic Viagra from China, marijuana seeds from Amsterdam, steroids from Mexico, swithblades from Italy, or knock-0ff Rolex watches from Thailand.  These items are available for sale overseas, but are considered illegal in the United States.

In order to sell these items online you either need to be located outside the United States or have a system to make it appear as though you are offshore or overseas.  There are two ways that a person selling these items can be traced (1) through tracing the shipment of the item to the customer and (2) through the payment processing system that the seller is using. 

It’s fairly easy for people to prevent the shipment of the goods from being traced.  Namely using the return address of a person overseas, mailing the packages from different mailing centers, and not including anything with the package that can be traced back to the sender.  However, concealing the payment processing system to prevent it from being traced is much more difficult.

Most people would attempt to set up an anonymous electronic cash payment system, simply by setting up a paypal account using an assumed name.  However, paypal has different ways of identifying the owner of their accounts and they will often put heavy restrictions or holds on people’s accounts who have not confirmed their identity and have either linked a credit card or a checking account to their paypal account.

The paypal system requires that a user with a merchant account provide the following (a) their personal information such as name, address, and phone number, (b) a verified email address, (c) your computer’s IP address, (d) a confirmed telephone number, or (e) a confirmed bank account or credit card linked to the account. 

Anyone can create fake personal information, it’s also fairly easy to sign up for a free email account on hotmail, yahoo, or gmail.  You can easily block your IP address by using a proxy server service such as FreeProxyServer.net or from a site like PublicProxyServers.com where you can chose from a list of hundreds of proxy servers located in various countries from around the world.  Anyone can pick up an anonymous prepaid cellphone at their local pharmacy or grocery store.  Paypal relies on the bank account or credit card as the main way of verifying their customer’s identity.  They rely on the bank or credit card company to verify this information and trust that they have done so properly.  What a big mistake!

For those of you who currently have a paypal account you know how this identity procedure works.   You provide paypal with your bank account or credit card number and they make two small deposits into your account.  These deposits of a couple cents appear on your billing statement.  You enter the deposit amounts into paypal and they now have verified that you are the owner of the account.

How to solve this anonymously?

A bank account can be opened online fairly easily.  Some banks require only a scan of your driver’s license to open an account with them.  Do a little photoshop magic and you are done.  The next step is the credit card, how do you get a credit card that will verify a false identity?

Easy! It won’t cost you more than $25! American Express, Visa, and Mastercard now sell anonymous gift cards available at your local supermarket.  These gift cards are totally neutral and can be associated with any name.  These gift credit cards can be used to verify your identity on paypal.

Once you have a paypal account set up, you can receive payments and then transfer the balance of your payments into your anonymous bank account or onto your anonymous credit card.  Some gift cards do not allow you to add additional funds to be sure to read the fine print associated with the gift cards.

You could take things a step further and actually setup an anonymous offshore account, however these bank accounts are not without heavy fees and high minimum balances.  It would also be possible to setup a regular bank account offshore or overseas.

If paypal doesn’t work for you then you might want to consider one of the following similar payment processing companies. 

1) Authorize.net
2) Billpoint
3) E-Gold
4) NetPay

At this point whoever you send money to using the payment service will have no way of tracking the payment back to you.

Do beware that Paypal and others will ask questions about large transactions. I recently sold some teak furniture for close to $3000.00 and a Paypal security representative sent me an email asking me to confirm the transaction and explain what it was.  I responded to them and then never heard from them again.

This system is fairly easy and straightforward, it shows that sending anonymous payments and receiving them can be done if the proper groundwork is setup in advance.

The Basics

Money Laundering, is essentially the act of making money that comes from one Source A (illegal) look like it comes from another Source B (legitimate).  It is essentially disquising the origins of money obtained through illegal activities so that it looks like it came from legal sources. This way the money cannot connect them to illegal activities and law enforcement cannot seize it.

The Process

The basic money laundering process can be done in three simple steps:

1) Placement - first you need to place the money into a legitimate financial institution, this is often in the form of small cash bank deposits. Since banks are required to report high-value transactions.

2) Layering - this step involves sending the money through various financial transactions to change its form and make it difficult to follow. This could be through bank-to-bank transfers, wire transfers, deposits and withdrawals, changing the currency, or purchasing high valued items such as precious metals, diamonds, or real estate.

3) Integration - this step involves the money re-entering the economy in a legitimate form of a legal transaction. This could be purchasing goods or services that actually do not exist or in the form of a ficticious loan to yourself from a third-party or to a third-party from yourself - which will never actually be repaid since it is really fake.

Different Methods

Structuring Deposits - also known as smurfing, this method involves breaking up large amounts of money into small deposits. In the United States this ammount must be below $10,000 or the bank will be required to report the deposit to the government and the IRS. With this method the money is deposited into one or more banks by multiple people (known as smurfs) or by a single person over an extended period of time.

Overseas Banks - it is also useful to launder money through various “offshore accounts” in countries which have bank secrecy laws or anonymous banking. A complex scheme can involve hundreds of bank transfers to and from offshore banks. Major offshore banking centers include the Bahamas, Bahrain, the Cayman Islands, Switzerland, Hong Kong, Antilles, Panama, and Singapore.

Placement: A series of separate deposits to a bank in Israel. On one trip, 12 deposits are made in a single day.

Layering: Before U.S. or Israeli authorities had a chance to notice the suddenly huge balance in the account, they had the Israeli bank wire transfer everything to Panama, where bank secrecy laws are in effect. From that account, Antar could make anonymous transfers to various offshore accounts.

Integration: They then slowly wired the money from those accounts to the legitimate Crazy Eddie’s Electronics bank account, where the money got mixed in with legitimate dollars and documented as revenue.

Shell Companies - are fake companies that exist for no other reason than to launder money. They take in dirty money as “payment” for supposed goods or services but actually provide no goods or services. They simply create the appearance of legitimate transactions through fake invoices and balance sheets.

Placement: They deposit cash from U.S. drug sales in Panama bank accounts.

Layering: They then transfer the money from Panama to more than 100 bank accounts in 68 banks in nine countries in Europe, always in transactions under $10,000 to avoid suspicion. The bank accounts were in made-up names and names of different people. They then set up shell companies in Europe in order to document the money as legitimate income.

Integration: The plan was to send the money to Colombia, where they would use it to fund numerous legitimate businesses.

The U.S. Treasury Department and Secret Service have battled constantly to stay one step ahead of professional counterfeiters. Recently with high-resolution color copiers and desktop publishing tools there is a new group of amateur counterfeiters out there trying their hand at making fake currency. The Treasury Department is fighting back with the most radical re-designs to the U.S. currency seen in over 60 years.

The 1996 $100 bill was just the first in the new series of bills that the Treasury Department has recently introduced to combat conterfeiting.

Currency Paper

The paper used to make U.S. Currency has a unique feel and is extemely durable. It is not really paper in a traditional sense. There are no wood fibers are starch in currency paper. Instead it is composed of a special blend of cotton and linen fibers. The strength comes from raw materials continuously refined until the special feel of the currency is achieved. Therefore people can easily tell if a bill is real by the distinctive feel of the currency paper. Also the distinctive yellowish-green tint of the ink on this special paper are extremely difficult for color photocopiers and printers to match using other types of paper.

Red and Blue Fibers

Small red and blue fibers found within currency paper make copying currency even more difficult. Some counterfeiters try to mimic these fibers, however closer inspection often reveals that these fibers are drawn on the bills rather than actual physical fibers that are part of the currency paper.

Security Thread

Security threads have been in U.S. currency for quite some time. In the most recent bills they run the entire width of the currency. In earlier bank notes these security threads were added to the actual paper itself and the number of threads would represent the denomination of the bill.

These security threads prevent conterfeiters from bleaching out one dollar bills and attempting to print hundred dollar bills on the original currency paper.

In these new bills the security thread will appear in a different location depending on the denomination of the bill. The thread for the new $100 bill carries the words “USA 100″ and can only be seen with transmitted light, which makes photocopying impossible. In addition, the new security threads glow red when held over ultraviolet light.

Watermarks

A new watermark was added to the 1996 series one hundred dollar bill. This is not a new concept. Watermarks have been used on foreign currency for hundreds of years. The watermark is created during the paper making process and is caused by variations in the density of the paper. As light passes through these tiny variations in thickness, it creates different tones. When held up to transmitted light these varying tones form a clear image — and in the case of the new $100, a second image of Ben Franklin.

Intaglio Printing

Intaglio printing is what gives the U.S. currency its distinctive look. The process begins with an engraving, both of the portrait and of the fine line detail surrounding the bill. The process begins with the engraving of the steel printing plates. A high-viscosity ink is then applied to the plates, the plates are then wiped clean, leaving only ink in the grooves, then pressed with enormous pressure (15,000 psi) which transfers the ink to the paper. This enormous pressure causes the paper to be embossed with the ink, closeup of pouring ink thus giving the ink a distinctive raised feel which other printing techniques cannot duplicate. The very fine engravings appear muddy when reproduced in counterfeit notes. While most of the front and back part of the bill is produced in this way, the Treasury seal, Federal Reserve seal and serial numbers are not printed with the Intaglio process.

Currency Portrait

The portrait on currenct may not seem to be a security feature, but the U.S. Treasury Department maintains that the portrait face is the most recognizable part of money. People will tend to remember faces, and if the bill is counterfeit, they will see that the face is not exactly right. Everyone already associates Ben Franklin with the $100 bill, the U.S. Treasury Department did not want to change the face on the bill. While the faces on some foreign currency change as the countries political climate changes, the U.S. Treasury Department wants to present an image of stability with their currency. Instead, they decided to enlarge the portrait on the new $100. The portrait was painstakingly engraved by Thomas Hipschen, and the U.S. Treasury Department hopes the new enlarged details will make counterfeit bills stand out more clearly from the real thing. By moving the portrait to the left, the face will suffer less wear from folding. The move also makes extra room for the watermark on the right side of the bill.

Color Shifting Ink

Color-shifting ink is perhaps the most “high-tech” of the new security features. The black to green color-shifting is a new and important element of the redesigned $100 bill. Similar types of ink have already been used on foreign currency and even on the latest U.S. passports. The change in color is the result of multi-layered metallic flakes added to the ink. When the bill is tilted, light reflects off these flakes at different wavelengths and changes the color of the ink. This trick is called color diffraction, which is also responsible for the color variations found on the wings of some butterflies. The U.S. Treasury Department has made sure that the special combination of materials and ink is only available to the United States government to make this one feature that will be extremely difficult to counterfeit.

Microprinting

Microprinting appears as just a thin line to the naked eye, but can be easily read upon magnification. The introduction of microprinting on U.S. currency begain in 1990 with the addition of the words “The United States of America” printed around the edge of the portraits. The new bills still use microprinting, but in a different location around Ben Franklin’s lapel. In addition, the words “USA 100″ are printed within the lower left “100.” Microprinting is very difficult to reproduce accurately on photocopiers because most copiers do not have the ability to work at such a high resolution. This situation may not last long, because improved scanning devices are now able to print at finer detailed level. The Treasury hopes the combination of the many anti-replication features will continue to deter potential counterfeiters in the future.

Fine Line Engraving

Fine circular lines appear around the portrait of the bill. The clarity and detail of these lines are difficult for scanners and photocopiers to reproduce. These lines often cause a blur during the scanning process.

Serial Numbers and Treasury Seal

The serial number is especially important for banks which handle large amounts of cash. No two serial numbers are the same. On the new bills, these serial numbers have been increased to 11 digits.

In addition, the new bills contain a redesigned image of Treasury sealFederal Reserve seal and code which indicate the bill’s issuing bank. While the old bills contain this information, on the new bills the numbers are clearer and easier to identify. The old green Treasury seal hidden behind the “100″ has long been part of U.S currency and will remain an important security feature. This detailed combination of green and black is difficult to reproduce. Like all overt features, however, the new bills will require continuous upgrades and additions as new technology arises that makes the features more vulnerable.

Fake Hundred Dollar Bill

Using the information from the article above can you find all the features which show that the hundred dollar bill below is a fake?

There are five things wrong with the hundred dollar bill above.

FRONT OF BILL

1) The Federal Reserve Bank seal should designate the entire system not one particular bank. It would be fine on an older version of the bill, which features the individual seal of the bank to which the note was issued. But with the new bills a universal seal representing the entire Federal Reserve System should be in its place.

2) The Serial Number does not contain enough letters. The serial number should include 11 letters and numbers. The new sequence will include two letters in the front (instead of one), eight numbers, and one letter at the end.

3) Two numerals are found on the old bills are on the right side of the bill, but should not be on new currency. Instead, a watermark of Benjamin Franklin, which can be seen when the bill is held up to a light should be there. A watermark is hard to counterfeit because it does not photocopy.

4) The misspelled word “DOLLER” (should be DOLLAR) on the lower right hand corner of the bill.

BACK OF BILL

5) The clock is missing from the tower. Details are important to foil counterfeiters. Among the new features added, many include fine detail, such as microprinting and concentric lines.

I just discovered a new way to make money off of those Cash Rebate Credit Cards which give you 1-5% cash back on purchases made using your card at the end of the month.  This trick involves using this credit card to purchase travelers cheques or other liquid assets that can be converted back into cash which can be used to pay off your balance, leaving you with the 1-5% cash rebate reward and the opportunity to repeat the process. 

First of all you need to get a Cash Rebate Credit Card which has no limit on the cash back rewards.

The following cards offer between 1-5% Cash Back Rebates on all purchases made using their credit cards and have no limits on the amount of rewards that you can receive:

Discover More Card

Discover Motiva

Chase PerfectCard Mastercard or Visa

Chase Freedom Card

Blue Cash from American Express

SimplyCash from American Express

Once you have an active Cash Rebate Credit Card you will need to open a free checking account with a bank like Washington Mutual which not only offers free checking with no minimum balance, preferably one that also offers free checks.  So basically you have a free checking account which costs you nothing and doesn’t require you to keep a minimum balance.

Using your Cash Rebate Credit Card go and purchase items that can easily be converted back into cash without losing their value.

Traveler’s Cheques work the best.  So find a place that offers free traveler’s cheques.  My bank, Citibank, offers free Visa travelers cheques to anyone that keeps a balance of over $25,000. Wells Fargo has the same type of deal on free traveler’s cheques. You can also get free traveler’s cheques from AAA if you have a AAA membership.

So purchase the maximum number of travelers cheques that your card will allow you to purchase. For my card it was $10,000 with a 2% rebate on all purchases. Make sure that they ring up this charge as a POS (point of sale) transaction and not a cash advance.  This is important because if they treat the transaction as a cash advance then you will not get rebate credit for this transaction.  So find a place that will ring up the purchase as a Point of Sale transaction.

Deposit these traveler’s cheques into your checking account and they will take approximately 24-48 hours to clear and post into your bank account. 

Immediately write a check to your credit card company from your checking account for the full amount charged for the traveler’s cheques. So if you bought $10,000 of travelers cheques then mail them a check for $10,000 to immediately pay off your balance.  It will take them 24-48 hours to credit your credit card back to a $0 balance and this is about the same time it will take the traveler’s cheques to post into your checking account.

So now your credit card balance is back down to $0 on your Rebate Credit Card and you will also have a 2% reward accrued on your credit card.  For me it was $200 for the $10,000 purchase.

As soon as the balance is paid off you will be able to repeat this process and make another $200 for every $10,000 that you charge onto your card.

If you do the timing right you can run two of these transactions a week making an additional $400 per week. That’s $1,600 per month.

If you are really good, then you can apply for five of the card above and do this trick on all five of them, which would mean that you would be making around $8,000 a month, if you were able to charge a maximum of $10,000 twice a week on each of these five cards.

Over time they will increase your available credit which will enable you to do this with even larger amounts of money.

The money received from these rewards are completely tax free because this money is from a rebate on purchases that you have already made, so you won’t have to worry about paying taxes on this money at the end of the year.

If you are unable to purchase traveler’s cheques. You could purchase some other item that can be easily turned into cash without losing any value such as Gold Bullion Bars or Coins, stocks, or even post office money orders.  Can you think of anything else that could be purchased using a credit card and then converted back into cash?