Before 9/11, a writer using the pseudonym W.G. Hill published articles and books detailing methods for anonymous offshore operations, aiming to evade tracking and identification. While these strategies might have been effective until the late 1990s, they are now largely obsolete. W.G. Hill’s work, in itself, isn’t a scam, but its content has become outdated. Selling his works today without a prominent disclaimer about their dated nature is unethical. Buyers seeking a current roadmap to the offshore world will find these books misleading.
The offshore landscape has undergone significant transformation. Many individuals enjoy reading about offshore solutions without ever implementing them, for whom outdated books may suffice. However, acting on information from any book carries inherent risks, as the content is invariably written months, if not years, before publication. Websites, too, can suffer from outdated information. A prime example is the Sparbuch account, a former anonymous Austrian passbook account. It required a passbook and passcode, enabling transactions up to $20,000 daily at special Austrian ATMs without identification. In December 2000, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) threatened to blacklist Austria if Sparbuch accounts weren’t discontinued, which they promptly were. Yet, even today, some websites still offer these accounts. If Austrian banks were to offer such accounts, many other countries would follow suit. If such accounts were legitimate, Austria would be violating its agreement with FATF and be blacklisted. This highlights the risk of relying on outdated websites, or worse, encountering intentional scams.
W.G. Hill was a strong proponent of Sparbuch accounts. Selling outdated information is unethical. Imagine someone buying W.G. Hill’s materials, learning about Sparbuch accounts, searching for them online, and placing an order that can never be fulfilled. This demonstrates how scams operate. It wouldn’t be surprising if there was a link between sellers of W.G. Hill’s literature and sellers of Sparbuch accounts.