Banks will often have dye packs that can be mixed in with bills that are given to bank robbers. They’re explosively rigged, so that when triggered, they will contaminate an entire large container full of bills. So the robber is just left with a bunch of weirdly dyed bills that scream “robbery money.”

So, just for entertainment purposes, would it be possible to purchase just the dye used in those cartridges, or a similar dye?

And then imagine you took your own completely legal and taxed currency. You withdraw money right from your account at the ATM. So no actual theft is involved. You withdraw however much you want to dye, dye it, and now you have a large collection of purple money that screams “robbery money!” And then you just spend it as normal, casually handing what appears to be criminal evidence to random services, restaurants, and stores.

Would this be legal? Is there anything preventing you from dying currency, if there is no intention or act of counterfeiting? Can I just dye legal cash purple if I want?

If one actually did this, the obvious risk would be having the cops raid your house thinking you’re a bank robber. But if you were willing to take that risk, maybe didn’t have any weapons or anything illegal in your home? Maybe not so great a concern for some.

But in terms of actual criminal liability, would this be legal? Is there anything legally stopping you from making your town think you’re a gangster who robbed a bank and somehow got away with it?

  • litchralee@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    6·
    3 days ago

    Is there anything legally stopping you from making your town think you’re a gangster who robbed a bank and somehow got away with it?

    If the goal is to convince other people to think you’re a bank robber, but without actually having to rob a bank, I think it could be done with much less effort and likely more effective. But this then gets into the ethical line between little white lies and outright deception or misinformation.

    Because one way to achieve that goal is to doctor a bunch of evidence that would “incriminate” yourself, such as AI-generated video, then disseminate that to local reporter s, while also plastering it on social media using astroturf accounts, and might as well stuff a copy into a manila envelope and mail to the local District Attorney.

    And all of that is probably legal in most jurisdictions in the USA, with the probable sole exception of intentionally wasting the prosecutor’s office’s effort, since they had not solicited such evidence. Compare this to “tip lines”, which expressly seek info and they are fully cognizant that not all the tips will be good.