DARKMARKET

money which the super-rich fritter away on the blackjack and
roulette tables. Guest residents often feel able to dispense
with this cash so lightly because it's money that, under
other circumstances, they would be paying in tax to those
national exchequers where they or their businesses spend
most of their time. As Monaco is a haven for tax evasion -
and, according to the venerable Organisation for Economic
Cooperation and Development, money laundering too - the
authorities on this rocky outpost of fiscal freedom are used
to not asking questions of visitors to their tiny land or the
origins of their funds.

A perfect place, then, for a group of DarkMarketeers
armed with twelve American Express Centurions, the fabled
Black Amex cards, Olympian deities in the Age of Plastic
who grant audiences by special invitation only to
squillionaires from the West, Japan, Hong Kong and the
Middle East. In America, the Centurion user has to pay a
$5,000 joining fee and then subsequent annual fees of
$2,500. But in exchange, Centurion Man receives free plane
tickets, dedicated concierge services, personal shoppers and
membership of elite clubs dotted discreetly around a world of
which we inhabitants of Planet Drudgery have no notion.

And did we talk cash? Present your Centurion and swaddle
yourself in the bucks, euros, sterling, Swiss francs or yen that
the bank cashier will hand over with a hint of a smile that is
reserved for someone of your value and status. A single
Centurion could almost pay the ransom for a hostage captured
by Somali pirates.

There is nothing unusual in a group of youngsters with too
much money for their own good pitching up in Monte Carlo
to spend, spend, spend with their Centurions - in this
environment spoilt brats are the norm. They were determined
to exploit their twelve magic tokens to the full. First a luxury
hotel, then cocktails and a sumptuous meal before they hit
the Casino. 'It was a crazy party,' one of them remembered
dreamily, '2006 was the time when DarkMarket began to soar
in the sky.' By the time they left two days later the young
carders had taken out €400,000 on those Black Amex. Even
they admit to being shocked at how easy it was. 'They didn't
bat an eyelid. Nobody challenged us once, and you got the
feeling that people did this sort of thing all the time.'

The Scandinavians were not alone in hitting the jackpot.
Maksik, a notorious Ukrainian carder, was earning hundreds
of thousands of