One of the puzzles of the life of crime is that it often takes more effort than getting and holding a real job. This came to my mind when I read this story from Las Vegas yesterday about criminals finding a way to utilize the credit cards they steal.

Obviously, the decline of cash has limited what criminals can do with ill-gotten gains in many cases. The victims of theft and fraud can cancel their credit and debit cards relatively quickly, so if you’ve gotten hold of a card by theft or robbery, there’s an urgent need to “use it or lose it.” So what’s a crook to do?

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