Submitted 20 hours ago by Nziom@lemmy.world to nostupidquestions@lemmy.world
Say hypothetically a really rich billionaire wants to donate/invest a lot of money to/in you what would be the best non crypto option to get that money since PayPal most bank accounts for that matter would stop and question you on it and probably wouldn’t believe it’s a donation?
Send me it as a pallet of copper bricks and I’ll work out the rest.
OP, if this is anything more than “hypothetically”, you are absolutely definitely being scammed right now. Break off chat with the “billionaire”. If you’ve given them your financial details, call the phone number printed on the back of your bank card. If you use Windows or MacOS, run a scan with Seraph Secure to make sure nobody has remote access to your computer.
Mark the email as spam and move on.
If they really wanted to help, I would not be the person to come to.
It’s a scam. Do not engage. If a billionaire really wanted to send you money, they can pay for the lawyers and accountants to make sure it is all above board. Maybe thry make a foundation and give you a cushy job there. That’s how actual billionaires do it.
Ironically, if it weren’t a scam, then crypto can be the safest way to receive any funds. If you securely generated your own crypto wallet, and sent him an address on a reputable blockchain to send funds to, and he actually sent them, then the money is yours, forever, no backsies.
Of course, that’s not how crypto scams work, either. They always guide you to use a wallet that they control (and can drain funds out of easily), or tell you to send crypto to them first to unlock something.
They just make a bank transfer. The real issue is the taxation.
Every country has a threshold for how much someone can receive without paying taxes.
They would have their people set up a trust fund for you, or they would have their people transfer the money to you.
This is not a problem you need to consider in this situation
Any billionaire that wants to donate money to a cause won’t be giving it to an individual. Only an organization that can give them a tax receipt.
Hypothetically: Banks don’t generally scrutinize the source of the money or why it’s being transferred. If the funds exist in the account, they just make the transaction. Also it’s on the gift giver to pay any applicable taxes.
In real life: Scammers posing as a billionaire are infinitely more likely to contact you than a real one. The scammers will depend on you thinking a normal bank transaction won’t work so you can jump through some hoops that will inevitably have you paying them real money instead.
There is a law called Know Your Customer.
In the USA banks most definitely scrutinize the source of money and why it’s being transferred.
Emphasis on “generally” in my statement. Of course there are exceptions where they would, but if I had a multi-million dollar check from Warren Buffett for replacing a few light bulbs in his house, the bank isn’t going to call him and make sure that’s a reasonable price or anything.
If they are willing to invest millions in me, they can fly their ass over to me and deliver it themselves.
I’d also be willing to fly out to them if theyd rather just buy me the plane ticket.
Unless he’s standing at your door with a big bag of clean dollar bills, ignore it.
It’s a scam at best. At worst you find yourself being part of a death game, thinking you can win all the money by killing all of the other players - only to get executed in the end anyway.
They don’t, they want to help themselves, if you happen to benefit as well, it’s basically a rounding error on their part which they’ll be sure to minimize in the future.
If my nigerian princes have taught me anything is that these kind of things are always best done by western union.
Using legit regular banks would be your best bet to avoid scams or being accused of fiscal crimes.
It depends on where the billionaire’s and your bank account are located (some restrictions may apply), but a normal bank transfer works perfectly for any amount. Of course for large amounts it’s better to contact the banks first because it may reject a large deposit if it comes out of the blue.
For donations there will be taxes and some bureaucracy, the anti money laundering will be triggered, but it’s nothing impossible to handle.
Don’t give the Nigerian prince your account details!
The funny thing is I genuinely asked this question spontaneously I forgot that is an actual excuse scammers use and some people believe it
If billionaires w actually wanted to help people, they wouldn’t be billionaires.
Tell them you want a meeting in person to discuss exactly what the investment plan is and what they envision coming from it. If they really wanted to invest “millions” then they won’t mind meeting in person
You don’t get to be a billionaire by being nice. They will wring every last bit of value out of you.
What if I spontaneously sprouted wings and flew? It’s about as likely.
They don’t.
The day a camel walked through a needle's loop.
Start a foundation, advertise that they are passionate about cause, reach out to you to arrange an in person meeting with you or your legal representative, write a check.
But also, it’s not a donation. You are not a 501c or a 527. There is a maximum gift allowance that is tax free in the US. You have to pay taxes on top of that amount.
You should go through your bank because your bank knows the relevant tax laws and theoretically is capable and willing of countering money laundering
First world problems
Just do an airdrop. Bag of cash on my porch is fine.
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 1 hour ago
check? EFT? ACH? bank transfer? depends on the amount. When you are dealing with that much money, Step 1: Accountant, Step 2: Attorney. You will be paying taxes, it is their job to minimize it. It is not your job to worry about it. If you are worrying about it, You. Are. Doing. It. Wrong.