Son is 18. That’s about $43.5k USD. For reference, I earn ~9000 lei per month, and that’s considered a very good salary here. There are still people working for ~2500 lei a month. Son forgot to close this Revolut tab on the living room PC, that’s how I came across it.
There is a decent possibility he is a money mule, he may be unaware that what he is doing is illegal. There is some precedent specifically for criminals in China using people overseas as money mules.
Might be a scam, where they send you large amounts of money, you pass it on to some other account. Then the original transaction is revoked and you’re left holding the bag.
This sounds serious. Can’t help but think about the possibility of human traffic.
does he make YouTube videos?
Did looking at the transactions gave you an idea about the source?
The big transfers come from someone with a Chinese name and they’re in yuan, it says the name + “plata catre alta banca” (payment to another bank) - + $ (whatever money’s being sent). Wife says considering that she thinks it’s a boyfriend, cause only to a lover you’d send so much money regularly. The rest of the transactions are just normal spending (online, restaurants, shopping, etc).
Yeah that’s disturbing
There are several possibilities unrelated to lovers. As others have mentioned, cryptocurrency is likely. Selling drugs is also possible. Organized crime in China is very real so it could be other things besides drugs.
It could also be a relatively legitimate side-hustle. Art, music, or video production could yield this kind of money for a big project, especially over time.
If they’re not paying taxes, this is a problem no matter what. That is too much money for the banks to not take notice and report on it. This needs to be addressed either way.
How much are “big transactions”? That will help us understand what kind of payments are being received.
20k - 30k yuan every week or so. Someone mentioned a scam where you get money, send it to another account and keep a %, but the money here are not sent to another account. They’re spent normally.
Possibly money mule. Could be holding it for a time then will transfer it out later. Your child’s percent could be taken then.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-ordinary-people-get-duped-into-becoming-money-mules/
Yikes. That’s a LOT of money to be received ~weekly from an international source.
That means this has been going on for 2-4 months
This amount of money is likely to be reported to tax authorities if it hasn’t been already.
Is your son a talented artist of some kind? Musician? Video editor? Anything that might get them a contract job online that could be billed in different amounts each week? (A typical job would pay the same amount every week, whereas if they’re billing for “hours worked” it will be different each time)
I’m trying to be as generous as possible with explanations but I think you are right to be concerned (unless your son has a reason he would hide money from you, like a history of having his possessions disrespected or taken from him)
The only talents my son has are his looks and personality. Which makes me inclined to believe my wife’s sugar baby theory. Either way guess we won’t know until we ask him.
It is possible that the sender made a misstake and sent the money to the wrong account, but this needs to be dealt with.
If the banks in Romania are anything like the banks in Sweden, they will report this to the tax office.
Onlyfans?
This is serious, you need to make sure you know the origins of the money even if it is legit.
Here in Sweden your earnings are reported directly to the tax office, banks are also required to verify the origin of large payments.
How does taxes work in Romania?
Here they are being pulled straight from your salary before you get it, but selling financial instruments works differently, I sold some shares from an inheritance to by a car last year, I had to report the income when doing my taxes, I also had to use a standard earnings calculation as I didn’t know the value of the shares when I got them.
I would start by telling him he needs to pay rent.
Non accusatory, mostly. I would just straight up ask, how he got the money (and make sure that he doesn’t commit tax evasion by accident). He would have the option to not tell me of course.
Son is 18.
Ask for more rent.
Probably either from crypto or dealing drugs
Straw man for money laundering maybe? The “receive, keep x percent, send the rest on” kinda scheme.
I guess that’s possible, I was just saying the two most likely things that came to mind. I wouldn’t necessarily expect money launderers to rely on a teenager, but I also don’t have any personal experience in this area.
Ask him.
He is an adult, mind your own business until he approaches you for advice.
Don’t ever have kids. If you already have, I’m sorry for them.
Start by apologizing for looking into his bank account? Then the best approach might just be going along with it at first.
If it’s crypto, that could easily be a gambling addiction. If they’re dealing drugs, they might be in danger if you force them to just stop.
I thought gambling addicts were broke?
They wind up broke, sure, because the house always wins in the end. But that doesn’t mean they’re broke all the time. Winning is what makes it addicting in the first place. You’re up $100. Then you’re up $1000. Then you’re down $2000. That’s how it works
Sometimes you get lucky, that’s gambling. That’s also why it’s addictive.
Eventually
