Fake Money Transfer Website

[Michael_125]

I made a fake money transfer platform where it gives the user real user interface experience which allows him to be able to send amount to users, be able to receive amount, withdraw the amount, add payment method (which i dont save it in database) and see analytics of the user profile history. I also made Help Center where users have the feeling of reading legit real life money app like paypal, venmo, cashapp etc... My question is is there i chance i can get in trouble?

[rproffitt]

Yes.

[Michael_125]

@rproffitt Yes without any explanation or facts?
Why would i belive you?

[rproffitt]

Let's read a legal definition of fake money at https://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Fake+money

I don't know what country you are in but here in the USA the authorities tend to come down hard on fake money.

[Dani]

I think you are misunderstanding the question, rproffitt. Michael is not producing fake or counterfeit money. He created a fake money transfer platform. He didn't create fake money. He created a "fake" website. In other words, he created a phishing site that gives the illusion that you are transferring money into someone else's account, but on the backend, there's no database or API calls or anything.

This, in itself, is not illegal. Lots of programming students have school projects in which they're tasked with creating a fake ATM program. However, although creating the platform itself is not illegal, there are two caveats:

Firstly, a phishing website is most likely against the terms and service of your ISP, domain registrar, and hosting company. By being against their terms of service, that means that they can kick you off and take whatever civil measures they feel they are entitled to for violating their terms of service, that you agreed to when you signed up with their platform.

Secondly, while creating the website might not be illegal, actually utilizing it most likely is. For example, if you are conning people into submitting sensitive information to you, and you are not using it explicitely for the purposes they believe you are, then that can fall under the broader laws against identity theft or wire fraud.

[Michael_125]

And what if i have in my ToS writen that this site is for testing purposes and the money displayed is not refer to real money.

We never take full credit card information from users and will never share it with third parties or be abused in any way. Instead we take only the first two (2) numbers to detect the card type and the last four (4) for UI (User Interface) design and experience. If the user or any other person initiates a lawsuit against us or the website, we will not be obliged to pay any court costs or fees. The initiator of the court procedure will have to pay the costs for us and for the whole procedure until the case is clarified. The money you see in the website app is not real money and cannot be transferred to your bank account or transaction. They are virtual assets that you can send from one account to another in the website just like any other similar or real platform like this. The website Help Center is also designed for testing and research purposes. This means that the text written is NOT accurate and It will not matter, will have no value or weight with the user experience.

We strongly advise You to NOT to use your real passwords on our site. Instead, create a new password that you never used before on any website or app you use.

Any illegal activity with this platform is strongly prohibited and it may result in filing a lawsuit against the fraudulent user.

[Dani]

A terms of service is null and void if it includes wording that contradicts any laws. For example, just because you have in your terms of service that you don't have to pay if someone takes you to court and sues you, that cannot be honored if someone actually does take you to court, and the judge finds you in the wrong. In other words, I can't put into my terms of service, "If I murder your family, then I won't have to face any penalties." You can't put in your terms of service anything that contradicts what the legal system says.

Of course I'm not an expert in this, but it does seem to me that you could be charged for wire fraud. To the best of my knowledge, wire fraud is when you create or do something online that could be used to trick people into giving you their information, money, or property. Just because you might have fine print in a terms of service does not mean that the website isn't designed to trick people.

[Dani]

Of course, the workaround is to put a huge alert message at the top of every page that says, "This is for entertainment purposes only. Enter fake information." The line you don't want to cross is that if you are creating something that deceives or tricks people.

[Dani]

You cannot put in your terms of service something to the effect of, "Even though tricking people online is illegal, I cannot be charged for it." You can't put anything into your terms of service that contradicts the legal system.

[rproffitt]

Thanks for more information (Dani and Michael.)

Your question was "is there i chance i can get in trouble?"

To that it's still yes. You lead with the "fake money" line in your first sentence. I'm going with my first answer even with added inputs.

Why not change your "fake money" to clams (nod to the comic strip B.C.) Or any of the other coins that games and comics use. Also, avoid mention of those money apps since they could notice you and make you change it.

[Dani]

rproffitt, the concept of whether it's real money or fake money or any type of money is not the issue. The issue is that they are creating a website that asks users to enter their full name, a password, and the last four digits of their credit card, while giving the end-user the perception that it is an authentic financial site, when in reality, it's a phishing site designed to deceive the user into handing over their credentials.

The OP's specific question is whether, despite being a phishing site, they can absolve themselves of any wrongdoing by putting into a terms of service that it's a phishing site that doesn't actually do any of the services the rest of their site gives the illusion that they do.

In other words, if I create a phishing site designed to con you out of your sensitive information, does having fine print on my site with wording to not to enter your real information absolve me of the crime of tricking you into submitting your sensitive information? Is the onus on you to read the terms of service before submitting your information?

[rproffitt]

(Tongue in cheek mode) Should I note our current POTUS and family?

Thanks Dani,

I hope Michael understands that his top question on its own leading with fake money is just to opening to all the things that can get them into trouble.

To the question in the top post I maintain that it's still "Yes."

[Dani]

An online platform that uses fake money is not illegal or nefarious at all. There's nothing illegal about monopoly money. Whether it's Reddit coins, DaniWeb dollars, Amazon gift cards, or anything in between.

I can think of ten trillion companies that issue gift cards that clearly specify a dollar value, yet have fine print that says they cannot be exchanged for legal tender.

There is nothing wrong at all with the sending, receiving, or transfer of fake money online.

[Dani]

I just want to clarify that my above post in that there's nothing wrong with creating an online platform that allows its users to buy, sell, or trade monopoly money.

The illegal part is in that it tricks users into submitting sensitive information, such as their name and the first two and last four digits of their credit card. This is nefarious in that the platform gives the illusion to users that it's doing something that it's not with the purposes of tricking users to give up their sensitive information. That's why it constitutes wire fraud. Being a platform for the exchange of non legal tender is not the problem at all.

I also think, rproffitt, that you're still misreading the initial question. It's not that he's creating a transfer platform for fake money. It's that he's creating a money transfer platform that's fake, in that it doesn't actually transfer the money. You're reading it as [fake money] transfer platform when you should be reading it as fake [money transfer platform].

[rproffitt]

And you did clarify it was monopoly money. Michael wrote "fake money" which I wanted to be sure we all knew what that was.

Even Monopoly money could run into trademark issues.

Anyhow, the one thing we all should agree on is we don't want to tempt fate here.

[Dani]

Michael wrote "fake money" which I wanted to be sure we all knew what that was.

No, no, no. You're still misunderstanding :(

He's not talking about fake money. He's talking about a fake money transfer platform. You've misread the OP's post. He's talking about the platform being fake, not the money being fake.

In other words, he's talking about creating a fake platform that, in this case, does money transfers. Instead of "money transfer website" let's replace that with "banking website". He's created a fake banking platform.

[rproffitt]

@Dani. That sounds even worse in some ways.

To Michael. My advice is to not go near this as a fake "money transfer" site or use the word "bank" as both can attract legal scutiny.

Also, collecting email and any partials on credit card or other identifiable data pushes this closer and closer to what a phishing site would be.

Me? Just someone that has had lawyers as clients in the past and very sensitive towards how easily this can get us into trouble. Thankfully all my clients were fantastic people.

[Dani]

@Dani. That sounds even worse in some ways.

Yes.

Also, collecting email and any partials on credit card or other identifiable data pushes this closer and closer to what a phishing site would be.

Yes, that's the point. He has created a phishing website that purports to be from a financial institution. He wants to know if he has terms of service fine print that essentially say, "This is not a real banking website. Don't fill out your actual information." absolves him of any legal trouble.

Nothing at all to do with fake money or monopoly money or counterfeit money. My advice to him was that deceiving the end-user in such a way is wire fraud.

[Michael_125]

I already got like 10k registrations on the website, 600 credit cards and 900 IBAN's
Like i said i never search for the full info on he credit cards and i never store full IBAN code.

Here is an example of what my DB with cards table looks like
https://gyazo.com/be406abf43c842790261384d802184ca

[rproffitt]

Well Michael, I'm going to write again "Yes" to your top question.

Also, I hope you can avoid jail or worse.

[Dani]

Yes, what you're doing is illegal, and you could receive jail time for it if you are in the US.

[Michael_125]

Those "money" which are in the "moneyApp" are earned from another website that i got. I have an idea which i want to realise and i dont do any fraudulent stuff like taking Full CC number, full name, IBAN etc... i also never take money from the user directly. It might be indirectly but never directly on my websites. I am gonna be connecting those platform to a dropshipping website where i want to give the user option to purchase something from the eStore, and they got some benefit from the whole system i got.

At the end i didnt took anyones money but gave him oportunity to earn money online.

[Reverend Jim]

I can't say whether or not this is illegal (I suspect it is) but I do think it is highly unethical.