Re: [tlug] Pretending to be outside Japan?

[Darren Cook <darren@example.com>]

> Just now I managed to send myself an Amazon Gift Card on the Amazon.com
> site using a credit card that's attached to a Japanese address. At no point
> did it ask for a physical address for the recipient. So, one way you could
> go is to set-up a dummy email address (gmail, hotmail, etc) and use your
> own CC to send a gift card to the dummy address. Then, from a US-based IP
> address, register with Amazon under a different name and use the gift card
> to pay for your mp3. I can't imagine why they would block someone in Japan
> from sending their US-based friends gift cards.

That is an interesting approach, and I think it would work to avoid the
Japanese consumption tax, except:
  * If significant sums are used you'll come under investigation for
money laundering. (Look at how hard it is to send people money with
PayPal nowadays; or even how hard it is for parents to send cash to
their going-to-university-overseas children.)

  * If you gave a false residential address when registering your dummy
account you are almost certainly breaking one of their terms and conditions.

(But is a P.O. box allowed, I wonder? Can I even get a U.S. P.O. box
from outside the country? The FBI/NSA would be all over you if you tried
it, I'm sure!)

Darren

P.S. To avoid confusion, this is purely hypothetical and just out of
interest in tax law practicality: there is nothing I personally need to
buy from amazon.com without them knowing I am in Japan :-)