Silk Road forums
Discussion => Shipping => Topic started by: greencrayon on March 17, 2012, 03:52 am
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I read through all of Janetreno's posts (a former postal inspector intern) and they were greatly helpful. One thing she/he recommended was setting up a shelf company to receive packages. I think this excerpt from Wikipedia is what she was getting at:
"A Reuters report described Wyoming Corporate Services as an example of a vendor of shelf companies, which were literally stored in mailboxes labelled as "corporate suites" in the main room of a 1,700-square-foot (160 m2) brick house a few blocks from the Wyoming State Capitol. Over 700 companies were available at prices depending on their age, ranging from $5,995 for a six-year-old company to $645 for one recently created. It is one of scores of similar businesses setting up shop, primarily in Delaware, Wyoming, and Nevada due to regulatory considerations.[1]"
So you basically start up a company that doesn't do anything and which has a private mailbox. But the mailbox would still be legally registered in your name if you were the owner of the company, right? The mailbox is the "suite". I am not sure if that adds any protection. Although it does feel better not to use my real name and address. Do you think there is any benefit?
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Nevada shelf companies can be purchased using nominee directors...this eliminates the association of name within corporate filings. Nevada uses bearer shares.
If you have no legitimate use for the company....I would suggest stealing companies rather than purchasing them at such a high price. By searching through the secretary of states corporate database one can find abandoned companies. People file LLCs all the time, expecting to start a business but never following through. These companies have no more than the initial fillings listed. After a few years of not filing yearly reports the state will inactivate them. It is often possible to gain control of these entities by filing renewal paperwork and paying a few years fees. Changing the names of officers or registered agents will require falsifying notarial stamp...far easier now that rubber stamp is more regular than embossment.
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What would be better is actually starting up your own virtual office that receives mail, and then either holds or forwards it to people. You receive drug mail there under names with fake ID scans, and are of course extremely helpful if the police ever contact you with an investigation.
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Can you elaborate on this virtual office idea? Do you mean sort of like buying a Mailboxes Etc. franchise, but instead make it home based? In other words, basically charge people to use your home or office suite mailing address as if it was their own business address?
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@OP,
Nominee services aren't nearly enough. I know a fair bit about this subject so if you want to discuss the best method then PM me if you want.
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Can you elaborate on this virtual office idea? Do you mean sort of like buying a Mailboxes Etc. franchise, but instead make it home based? In other words, basically charge people to use your home or office suite mailing address as if it was their own business address?
Yes, that's exactly what I mean. Not sure on details as this isn't something I've actually done yet, but I definitely plan to in the future. I envisaged it more as a rented office space, with a reception area, staff, and a professional website. Although a scaled down operation, like you described, could also be effective in providing plausible deniability.
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Can you elaborate on this virtual office idea? Do you mean sort of like buying a Mailboxes Etc. franchise, but instead make it home based? In other words, basically charge people to use your home or office suite mailing address as if it was their own business address?
- shelf Co's -these establishments are most likely already on LE's radar they not that dumb...its no safer than home or normal delivery and they most likely have more
of your registered details ...to get the virtual Co in the first place; stealing a Co seems a better route yes.
- good idea but the postal service aren't going to put up with / deter receiving mail for 50 "occupants" ....may work...just have my doubts.
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Look around google and local craigslist for virtual offices. They're just rooms in office buildings that you can rent for $25-50/mth to receive packages and mail under any name you give them. The secretary signs for them and you go pick them up later, but have to show ID to p/u (fake ID)
Can also have them rewrap the package, and remail it to you anywhere
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So you set up a virtual office or shelf company. Let's say you then have a package from SR sent to your "company" address. Now if the contents of the package are discovered by the postal inspectors what are you going to do? They'll be waiting for you to pick up that package, or they'll insure that you can't get it without being detained to answer a few questions.
And one of the things they're sure to ask is what you do for this "company," & what kind of business are you in. It's going to look pretty strange if you don't get paid and your "company" has zero cash flow.
Just sayin this to point out how things might look if the postal inspectors get involved.
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So you set up a virtual office or shelf company. Let's say you then have a package from SR sent to your "company" address. Now if the contents of the package are discovered by the postal inspectors what are you going to do? They'll be waiting for you to pick up that package, or they'll insure that you can't get it without being detained to answer a few questions.
And one of the things they're sure to ask is what you do for this "company," & what kind of business are you in. It's going to look pretty strange if you don't get paid and your "company" has zero cash flow.
Just sayin this to point out how things might look if the postal inspectors get involved.
Well if you owned a virtual office, your secretary/you would accept/sign for the package then place it in a file under that customers name. If a controlled delivery is made you would simply explain the situation and provide the customers ID scan (that you created). The only major problem with this is if in the future LE require virtual office businesses to declare that address as a virtual office, and as a result mail sent to VO addresses is flagged due to the inherent smuggling opportunities the business offers. I'm not sure if customs has the logistics to do something like this, and it could be made more difficult for them by having a high volume of mail or simply not declaring the address. This sort of operation is ideal for mid-level distributors, whereas for high-level trafficking you'd need to start an import/export company.
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- and whether you would implicate a secretary should there be an incidents, or how it would affect the legitimate virtual office business -could you afford this?!
- not sure if i would mix the 2 and how many "parcels"...
???
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- and whether you would implicate a secretary should there be an incidents, or how it would affect the legitimate virtual office business -could you afford this?!
- not sure if i would mix the 2 and how many "parcels"...
???
No reason at all for secretary to know anything, all she does is collect the mail and stores it in files under customer names/forwards it to customers. I'm not yet sure of the best way to remove drug mail from the premises, but it should obviously be scanned for tracking devices before moving along with a faraday cage just in case. I agree it could be expensive, and its why I'm not in a position currently to employ the idea, but if I did start distributing large enough quantities of drugs to justify the start up costs, I'm sure I'd already have enough money by proxy of being able to afford large quantities of drugs. Also, I'd imagine that on going costs would be covered by sales, for instance in the UK virtual offices generally charge £45 for 3 months of service.