Gift cards for drug dealers

Police arrested Anthony Delmar Anderson of Limestone County, Alabama for allegedly exchanging crack cocaine and pills for gift cards. Reminds me of the hooker who was paid with a gas card. I smell a market opportunity for gift card manufacturers to engage with the underground economy! "Man Accused of Selling Crack for Gift Cards"

David Pescovitz is Boing Boing's co-editor/managing partner. He's also a research director at Institute for the Future. On Instagram, he's @pesco.

More at Boing Boing

The technology that links taxonomy and Star Trek

Hackers prepare for first "national holiday" in their honor

Craigger1

Hey, a guy’s gotta make a buck…right?!!!
Too bad he didn’t accept some cash…He’s going to need it for bail!
TheDiversePurse

That’s just dumb! How does the dealer or sex worker know, during the transaction, that the card is actually activated or even for the amount supposedly on the card (if printed). Cash, dummies!
cha0tic

There was a famous case in the UK of Luncheon Vouchers being used to pay prostitutes.
kgander

All of the gift cards I’ve seen have a phone # and website printed on the back for checking the current balance, so it’s not unreasonable to accept them in lieu of cash.

Another cool feature of gift cards it that you can use them to track the transaction history of the recipient if you record the card # & PIN beforehand. If your dealer takes gift cards you could track his or her purchases, which might be very handy if you were an undercover cop or informant.
sammich

Bollocks. If the police are really using these as evidence of dealing they’re stretching it.
Reminds me of a girl I once knew, a bit of a numismatist, also accused of dealing – they took her framed collection of foreign banknotes as evidence. Never made it to court.
On the other hand, dealers, (I should imagine), are ideally placed to redistribute stolen gift cards. Or indeed counterfeit currency…
If your activities are already criminalised, what’s to stop you?
mdh

This might explain the proliferation of Hallmark Stores?
pilcrow

I guess those gift card really ARE all they are cracked up to be.
grimc

I think a court decision some months back allows people to get the cash value of a gift card from a store if they choose.
John Hell

Can he pay his bail in gift cards?
Anonymous

United Press might not realise it but the word really is “prostitute” or “sex worker”.

Hooker was an American general who wanted to raise his troops morale, it’s old slang but it’s still slang.
Kaden

I used to know a dealer who gave out loyalty cards… buy 10 whatevers, get the next one free.

He’s comfortably retired now. Marketing FTW
Andreas

Took a few seconds before I got it… and before that I had conjured an image of the dealer issuing gift cards followed by one of Christmas morning at the shelter with two of the patrons embracing… “I wasn’t sure if your thing’s crack, smack or meth, so I got you one of these. Merry Christmas, you old bum.” (cue Fairytale of New York)
stegodon

Pills you say, huh? I wonder if this guy likes Crate and Barrel.
businessclass

This is a bartering economy for real now.