smurfing

smurf

1. noun, slang A money launderer. When I worked as a smurf for a drug cartel a few years ago, I used to spend all my time traveling across the country to make deposits small enough not to get the feds' attention.
2. noun, slang In competitive online video games, an experienced player who poses as an inexperienced one in order to gain an advantage over other players. This guy's profile says he's only level 4, but he's been getting more kills than all of us combined. I have a feeling we've got a smurf in the game.
3. noun, slang Someone who visits various stores and pharmacies to buy enough pseudoephedrine to synthesize methamphetamine, especially on behalf of someone else. The meth cook hires a bunch of different people to act as his smurfs, all of them rotating around the stores in the city so as not to arouse any suspicions.
4. verb, slang To launder money. A: "My boss has me take the money and deposit it into ATMs around the city. He says it's to reduce the fees we pay." B: "You've been smurfing for your boss? That's money laundering, dude!"
5. verb, slang In competitive online video games, for an experienced player to pretend to be an inexperienced player in order to gain an advantage over other players. Turns out that the dude banned for smurfing had 10 different accounts he'd been using to harass noobs.
6. verb, slang To visit various stores or pharmacies in an area to buy enough pseudoephedrine to synthesize methamphetamine, especially on behalf of someone else. The suspect was caught smurfing in a CVS on Tuesday. He had nearly 200 boxes of cough medicine in his trunk, which he told police were for a friend of his.

smurfing

1. slang Money laundering. A: "My boss has me take the money and deposit it into ATMs around the city. He says it's to reduce the fees we pay." B: "That's called smurfing, and it's totally illegal. You're money laundering, dude!"
2. slang The practice of visiting various stores or pharmacies in an area to buy enough pseudoephedrine to synthesize methamphetamine, especially on behalf of someone else. The suspect was arrested for smurfing on Tuesday. He had nearly 200 boxes of cough medicine in his trunk, which he told police were for a friend of his.
3. slang Of an experienced, skilled player in competitive online video games, the act of creating one or more fake accounts or profiles in order to pose as a weak or inexperienced player and thus gain an advantage over other players. Turns out that the dude banned for smurfing had 10 different accounts he'd been using to harass noobs.
See also: smurf
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
See also:
  • smurf
  • smurfed
  • jack
  • jacked
  • jacking
  • mickey mouse
  • juice
  • juiced
  • garbage
  • edge
References in periodicals archive
combat smurfing? The state maintains that possessing more than specified
Colorado's rollout of legal marijuana is succeeding: a report on the state's implementation of legalization
Using the 'cuckoo smurfing' technique, small amounts of cash were transferred into the bank accounts of innocent people, who did not suspect anything as they were expecting money transfers from abroad for similar sums.
'Aro6ant' crook has jail sentence cut
Tom Jensen, the Republican sponsor of the prescription bill, is an attorney who recently represented a family friend's daughter, arrested for smurfing. Jackie Steele, the commonwealth's attorney in the county and one of the bill's major law enforcement backers, has a family member who was sent to jail for having meth precursors.
Merchants of meth
The scam - known as "smurfing" - sees the money mules carry lots of smaller amounts so gangs can transfer a small fortune out of the country.
EURO-PLANES; Gangsters smuggle millions in dirty cash out of Ireland on flights using money mules
Further advantages for money launderers employing digital value smurfing include the quick conversion of cash to digital value, and the potential to employ different digital value pools such as on-line accounts and Internet payment clearing services.
Easy Bhatta Telenor easypaisa helps criminals
I'll get you, I'll get all of you, if it's the last thing I ever do!" La, la, la, la, la, la, now you "know the tune La, la, la, la, la, la, you'll be Smurfing soon.
She wears the masks: bluefacing in Nilaja Sun's "Black and Blue" and "La Nubia Latina"
GREYHOUNDS NEWCASTLE (BAGS) 11.11 (480m): Steel Cash, Flick The Bails, Smurfing Melody, Galtee Yazmin, Tasha's Dream, Lil Twilight.
SPORT IN BRIEF
This method of acquiring pseudoephedrine is often referred to as 'smurfing'...." (30)
Shake and bake: the meth threat and the need to rethink 21 U.S.C. (section) 841(C)(2)
A common technique, known as "smurfing," is to divide the cash into small sums that fly under the radar of BSA reporting requirements.
Protecting CPAs--and their clients--from the risk of financing terrorism: requirements for preventing money laundering affect many businesses
(176) Smurfing is accomplished by breaking a large transaction into multiple, smaller transactions which would fall below the $10,000 CTR threshold.
Hawala, money laundering, and terrorism finance: micro-lending as an end to illicit remittance
In this overview of 18 US Code 1956, Doyle (American Law Division, Congressional Research Service) describes four kinds of money laundering: promotional, concealment, "smurfing" (online gaming) and tax evasion.
Money laundering; federal criminal law
"smurfing": the practice by which, "[i]n order to obtain
One stop, no stop, two stop, Terry stop: reasonable suspicion and pseudoephedrine purchases by suspected methamphetamine manufacturers
special maritime and territorial jurisdiction, torture, firearm attacks in federal facilities, killing federal employees, killing certain foreign officials, conspiracy to commit violence overseas, harboring terrorists, assault on a flight crew member with a dangerous weapon, certain weapons offenses aboard an aircraft, aggravated identity theft, "smurfing" (a money laundering technique whereby a large monetary transaction is separated into smaller transactions to evade federal reporting requirements on large transactions), and criminal violations of certain provisions of the Sherman Antitrust Act.
Title I: USA PATRIOT Improvement and Reauthorization Act
The launderers may well attempt to break their cash down into relatively small units, to below the threshold - a process known universally as 'smurfing'.
Why dirty money should never be laundered
If the gang are unable to take the cash abroad they could use a technique known as "Smurfing", according to Mr Horan.
How can gang spend the cash?