Scams and Frauds in the Imperium

[phavoc]

I was going to post this under the Taxes thread, but it's a bit of a drift so I figured I'd post separately.

One of the points that got raised there was the time effect for information flow across the Imperium in regards to how the government would set policies and collect things like taxes. The Imperium is huge, and is similar to how long messages would take to flow during the early ages of sail when ships made 6-10kts on a good day sailing across the oceans. In actual history there have been a number of scams done taking advantage of the inability to verify something and quickly communicate a yea/nay answer back to people prior to them parting with their money.

I don't recall all the specifics, but there was this Scottish guy who created a fictional nation in Brazil called Poynas (Sp?) and he suckered hundreds of investors in the early 1820s. He even got a few hundred settlers who showed up to wilderness (most died before they were rescued). Since it was sail it took many months for the people to get there, and for news to get back. This guy did a pretty elaborate scam - set up an "embassy" in London, etc.

Similar frauds were done, even in the age of the early telegraph, with banks in the early US (especially in the West) that printed their own money and had their own check system. While new tech, blockchain and encryption being part of them, would make it harder to do simpler forms of fraud as they were done in the past (i.e. forgery), new ways to do that would also crop up. And because messages only travel at the speed of ships, time and distance once again become factors in detecting and minimizing frauds.

With the time delay inherent in communications, you know similar things will regularly be attempted across sectors. Something to quicken the hearts of PC's everywhere!

 

[Condottiere]

Going by current trends, these will persist way into the Sixth Millenia Anno Domini.

Roll against Education, and/or Intelligence?

 

[Vormaerin]

They absolutely should exist, but they are not likely one man operations or amateur deals. You'll probably have dedicated professionals with specialized contacts and knowledge to do so on any TL9+ world.

When I run campaigns, that's the sort of thing PCs can get from contacts, not the sort of thing they pull off on their own. The time, detail, and effort involved in spoofing the necessary records is pretty extreme.

I think the Stainless Steel Rat books are a good example of how difficult it is to have a career beyond your first scam (if that long) in such situations.

Of course, there are backwater worlds where you can swindle people more easily, but the value level of the scam will be proportionately smaller.

 

[actionman]

He even got a few hundred settlers who showed up to wilderness

There are probably a lot of scams or frauds like this. Some fly by night "company" sets up a "colony", hypes up all the pre-built facilities and resource potential (fraudulent assessments, inspectors bribed), gets people to pay in for generous land parcels, and the first wave of 100 "settlers" are really people just paid to give glowing reports (they don't even go there). When the real settlers show up, the pre-built facilities are cheap trash, and months later they figure out that the resource assessments are vastly inflated. But they're already there, they've sunk thousands of credits into getting there, and they have to have money to get back or even send a message, if ships even stop there. If the scammed settlers even get someone to help them, then the fake company was probably set up under planetary law somewhere, and the fraudsters responsible are light years away.

 

[rinku]

The big factor is... how expensive is it to set up the con? These sort of scams only make sense if there's a big payoff.

Ironically, doing it totally legit and trapping workers into punitive contracts with no practical way to leave is probably much more profitable.

 

[actionman]

Other fraud is probably more like corporations overcharging governments and delivering cheap poor quality products, corporations trapping planetary populations in "company store" type arrangements, and scammers trying to pass forged bank checks from other worlds. This is probably much more difficult than most people believe, because of the relationships that banks have with each other and with planetary authorities, and the fraud prevention techniques they've developed over centuries of getting scammed over and over again. IMTU banks don't lend money to scruffy bands of player characters to buy beaten up ships.

There are probably subsector or sector banks which deal in interstellar commerce transactions. There are probably "Imperial" banks, which deal with truly massive capital flows from Imperial government transactions. Megacorporations probably have their own banks. I wonder if the Imperial armed forces and Imperial ministries have their own banks. Imperial banks (banks which have the highest standards of quality, stability, and security), are granted the right to be known as an Imperial bank (affiliated in good standing with the Imperial Treasury), by the decree of the Emperor.


IMTU:

There are probably banking hubs on worlds profitable enough to have them, under their own jurisdictions. Some banking hubs, where all the banks have their offices, are on the grounds of the starport and benefit from starport extrality, others could be on the estates of Imperial fiefholders and benefit from a similar extrality, or be in separate suburbs or in fortified bunkers designed to resist orbital bombardment. These locations could be considered satellite locations of the starport, and also possess extrality. A banking hub on the estate of an Imperial fiefholder could be a lucrative asset indeed. The banks would profit by being taxed only by the fiefholder at the Imperial The fiefholder receives massive rents, the banks don't pay taxes beyond that, and everybody wins except the planetary government. Starport businesses would pay a flat tax of 10% to the Imperial fiefholder as Imperial taxes.

Example: A legitimate bank check from the Bank of Rhylanor is sent by J-6 courier to its branch on Mora. This bank check would have the authorizations from the sending branch, an Imperial backed underwriter (a neutral third party essentially saying yes, this is legit), and it would be encrypted in Bank of Rhylanor encryption, then transmitted to the encrypted data storage on the courier ship. It would arrived by J-6 courier, be transmitted to the Bank of Rhylanor branch on Mora, where it would be decrypted and processed. I'm sure every part of this process would be recorded by some sort of blockchain method, which the receiving bank would be able to inspect.

IMTU, the days of scruffy player characters showing up with a paper bank check scrawled in crayon because somebody made his JoT forgery roll are over.

 

[Condottiere]

Beyond a sector, it becomes too complex to supervise.

Clearinghouse likely done intrasector, and intersector done quarterly.

 

[ottarrus]

IMTU, official communications between agencies are heavily encrypted. And not just military, political, or intelligence reports either. There are cyphers for the whole gamut of Imperial information transfer including things like social and financial data; the Third Imperium has not forgotten that poor financial management was what brought down the Second and they pay a lot of attention into the economy. I assume that there are competent officials mixed with the time-servers, remittance men, and noble cousins who take the information security of the government seriously... if only because that's their job. Even worlds with low law levels have surveillance for safety purposes [one example: Efate /Regina is a high pop /high tech world with an LL of 0. But it still requires surveillance against theft, traffic control, atmospheric integrity, etc.]. And where there's a camera, there's evidence to be found.

This doesn't mean there isn't room for a well run scam, of course, but it would have to be a nearly pristine operation with minimal sophont involvement. To get a really big score you have to find a really big target. That means you're looking the high-tech, high-pop 'islands of civilization' amid all the Class C and D ports out there. These are the places where the money and the power gathers and that means 'security' in large doses. If the players want to go all Ocean's 11 with it, they'd better have high skill levels, good dice rolls, an excellent plan, and near flawless execution. And someplace to run to in a hurry.

And don't assume you can just cross a convenient border and 'disappear into Dog Space' or wherever... The Imperium has people stationed in the neighboring sectors too, they'd be stupid not to. You would have to figure that the Imperial Ministry of Justice has marshals out beyond Imperial borders and the Imperial military has people out there too, both overt and covert. And it's not just the Imperial government, either. All the megacorps have their intel agencies [Tukera's Vemene, SuSag Security, etc.] and the addition of bounty hunters to Traveller is also a cause for concern. Any one of these agencies would put a BOLO out on PCs who'd made the big score.

Now almost all of this falls in the referee's purview. A proper heist adventure should never go smoothly. It's the hiccups that make the adventure, after all. And, of course, the referee needs to make hiding the proceeds just as difficult as stealing them. Stealing the Big Score should be possible, but players also need to accept that going to prison is possible too.

"Don't do the crime if you can't do the time..."

 

[actionman]

And don't assume you can just cross a convenient border and 'disappear into Dog Space' or wherever

A fat Imperial bounty dead or alive would put the Wolves of Space after them in a minute.

 

[Condottiere]

Dogged determination.

 

[actionman]

If the players want to go all Ocean's 11 with it, they'd better have high skill levels, good dice rolls, an excellent plan, and near flawless execution.

Computer skills, technical skills, inside information, a lot. Something I've noticed is that criminals who heist have generally found some kind of weakness in the process, and exploit it.

Possibilities:

War. Military action devastates a subsector capital. Shipments of authorized bank fund certificates never made it out. An intrepid team of adventurers prepares to raid the bank vaults under the noses of the occupiers. Natural disasters or other threats could serve the same purpose.

 

[actionman]

"Don't do the crime if you can't do the time..."

Something that we might give thought to is how crime and punishment works in people's TU's.

Low tech worlds could have brutal tribal or community "justice".

Higher tech worlds:

What is the guiding principle of justice? Do they consider the concept of justice at all, or consider the pragmatic needs of maintaining order and productivity? Who does the legal system serve? The leadership? The people? A particular social class? Is punishment restorative, punitive, or pragmatic, or exploitative?

At the Imperial level, I think there would be a lot of convict labor, prison planets, involuntary colonists, and so on, and the course "justice" would take would depend profoundly on the accused's social class, rank, and relationships. IMO Imperial fiefholders would look to how they could profit or reduce costs. A mob of poors riots and damages the starport? To the mines with the lot of them!

 

[Anstett]

I think also that it depends on what the Travellers think is a big score versus what would be a huge hit to a local economy.

...that means you're looking the high-tech, high-pop 'islands of civilization' amid all the Class C and D ports out there....

I would look at the 20 million credit heist

On a C or D port that might be life altering for the mark, at a A or B it might be an annoyance.
The Travellers should consider if making two 'small' heists of 20Mcr against the easier prey than one 40Mcr against the tougher opposition.

 

[actionman]

Possibilities:

War. Military action devastates a subsector capital. Shipments of authorized bank fund certificates never made it out. An intrepid team of adventurers prepares to raid the bank vaults under the noses of the occupiers. Natural disasters or other threats could serve the same purpose.

@Terry Mixon

The adventure:

• War strikes, the adventurers survive the initial assault, fight bravely against invasion forces, then make it to the last ship out. They are familiar with the capital city and its environs.
• The war is raging, and allied forces are trying to recapture the world. The characters go to the world on some pretense, their goal being to raid the vaults before occupying forces or liberating forces can exert control.
• Challenges include:
  • Getting pressed into service / getting loose from service that they volunteered for to get to the world.
  • Facing the dangers of war: enemy action, civilian resistance units, devastated environments.
  • Problems and obstacles getting there and getting to places. Their ship is waylaid by privateers, etc.
• The characters get to the capital city and fight their way in. They get to the vaults, but they're empty.
• Ref knowledge: They vaults were emptied by bank authorities to evacuate the funds to the starport.
• Ref knowledge: The ships chartered to evacuate the funds offworld were blown up on the pads.
• Ref knowledge: The funds, the precious funds, never made it to the starport. The bank's grav vehicle convoy was shot down over the city. The vehicles and the precious funds lie there in the rubble.
• Or, the funds are on the ships, but the ships are blasted wrecks lying on the pads where they were destroyed... in the middle of a heavily defended enemy occupied starport.

 

[Terry Mixon]

@Terry Mixon

The adventure:

• War strikes, the adventurers survive the initial assault, fight bravely against invasion forces, then make it to the last ship out. They are familiar with the capital city and its environs.
• The war is raging, and allied forces are trying to recapture the world. The characters go to the world on some pretense, their goal being to raid the vaults before occupying forces or liberating forces can exert control.
• Challenges include:
  • Getting pressed into service / getting loose from service that they volunteered for to get to the world.
  • Facing the dangers of war: enemy action, civilian resistance units, devastated environments.
  • Problems and obstacles getting there and getting to places. Their ship is waylaid by privateers, etc.
• The characters get to the capital city and fight their way in. They get to the vaults, but they're empty.
• Ref knowledge: They vaults were emptied by bank authorities to evacuate the funds to the starport.
• Ref knowledge: The ships chartered to evacuate the funds offworld were blown up on the pads.
• Ref knowledge: The funds, the precious funds, never made it to the starport. The bank's grav vehicle convoy was shot down over the city. The vehicles and the precious funds lie there in the rubble.
• Or, the funds are on the ships, but the ships are blasted wrecks lying on the pads where they were destroyed... in the middle of a heavily defended enemy occupied starport.

I like it. Very nice.