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VILLA SIENA

Dude.” Now that his operation was purring, the Dude was paying the Whiz around $10,000 a month for the dumps—transferring the payments through a prepaid debit card called Green Dot.

Marketed to students and consumers with poor credit, a Green Dot Visa or MasterCard is a credit card without the credit: The consumer funds the card in advance with direct payroll deposits, transfers from a bank account, or cash. The last option made it an ideal money pipeline between Chris in Orange County and Max in San Francisco: Chris would drop in at a neighborhood 7-Eleven or Walgreens and purchase a Green Dot recharge number, called a MoneyPak, for any amount up to $500. He’d then IM or e-mail the number to Max, who’d apply it to one of his Green Dot cards at the company’s website. He could then use the card for everyday purchases or make withdrawals from San Francisco ATMs.

Once his crew arrived, ready for work, Chris passed out their cards, separated into low-limit classic cards and high-limit gold and platinum. They should stick to small purchases for the classics, he’d remind them—$500 or so. With the high-limit plastic they should go for the big bucks, purchases from $1,000 to $10,000 dollars. The girls were all young, but affecting the privileged bearing of stylish Orange County youth they could walk into a Nordstrom’s and snatch up a couple of $500 Coach bags without raising eyebrows, then cross to the other side of the mall and do the same thing at Bloomingdale’s.

New cashers were always nervous at first, but once the first fake card was approved at the register, they were hooked. In no time they’d be sending Chris excited text messages from their shopping excursions: “Can we use amex at new bloomingdales?” or “I did over 7k on a mc! yeah!”

At the end of the day, they met Chris in a parking lot and transferred the purses trunk-to-trunk. He paid them on the spot, 30 percent of the retail value, and carefully recorded the transaction on a payout sheet like a real businessman. The handbags—elegant cloth and suede and gleam-