What Is a Dummy Shopper Like in 'Emily the Criminal'?

Aubrey Plaza's film 'Emily the Criminal' left viewers asking if dummy customers are real. Here's what to find out about the unlawful phenomenon.

WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Emily the Criminal.

In 2022, Emily the Criminal used to be certainly one of the cult hit films. Audiences were given sucked into the story of the identify character's descent from a struggling waitress to a criminal mastermind. Aubrey Plaza effectively shed her fan-favorite performance as April Ludgate on NBC's Parks and Recreation to play the corrupted Emily.

However, the film also left audiences with two giant questions: what is a dummy shopper? And are they real?

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Dummy shoppers were not invented for the movie — they are a real concept. And things don't typically pass as well for real-life would-be fraudsters as they did for Emily at the end of the film. Keep reading to be told extra about what a dummy shopper is and how they are portrayed in Emily the Criminal.

What is a dummy shopper? Are dummy shoppers genuine?

A dummy shopper is also known as a "dummy purchaser," and such criminals do exist in real lifestyles. As in the film, they use both pretend bank cards or credit cards that have been stolen to make pricey purchases. They then sell the illegally acquired goods for a profit to third parties.

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'Emily the Criminal' glorified the concept of the dummy shopper.

With a name like Emily the Criminal, film buffs knew that the film was going to learn from the standpoint of the law-breakers. In the movie, Emily Benetto was presented to the international of credit card fraud by way of her co-worker Javier (played through Bernardo Badillo). She joined the fraud ring led by Youcef (Sons of Anarchy's Theo Rossi) and become a dummy shopper.

Over the process the film, Emily scammed a number of shops as she plunged deeper into the prison underworld. Her newfound interests in the long run ate up her when she selected to leave Youcef — whom she had additionally been courting — at the back of to get arrested by means of the police, taking the fraud ring's profits for herself and fleeing the U.S.

The end of the film confirmed Emily setting up her personal fraud organization in South America, committed to a life of illegal activity and luring others into her scheme.

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But whilst Emily the Criminal confirmed dummy shopping as Emily's approach out of poverty and that she reputedly escaped long-term penalties for her movements, that's not how issues work in the real world.

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Dummy buying groceries is illegal and should not be puzzled with secret buying groceries.

In Emily the Criminal, audiences see quite a lot of outcomes of dummy buying groceries. Emily is effectively ready to shop for a flat-screen TV with a fake credit card and false ID, however fails when she tries to buy a automobile using the similar way.

While she in the long run escapes justice and gets to talk over with South America simply like she dreamed of doing, there are quite a lot of criminal fees one would face if they tried the similar in genuine existence. (Again, to be explicitly clear: do not try any of this at house.)

Dummy shopping shouldn't be puzzled with "secret shopping," in which corporations send somebody into a store to pose as a buyer and get feedback on their buying groceries enjoy (which isn't a crime). However, Emily the Secret Shopper should not have been as interesting a movie.

Emily the Criminal is now streaming on Netflix.

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