Zappers: Tax Fraud, Technology And Terrorist Funding

“Zappers,[1]” or automated sales suppression devices, have brought unheard of efficiencies and economies of scale to a very simple tax fraud – skimming the cash sales that pass through point of sale (POS) systems, network connected electronic cash registers (ECRs). Until recently “the largest criminal tax case in the history of Connecticut,”[2] which also was the “largest computer driven tax-evasion case in the nation,”[3] was a Zapper case. Stew Leonard’s…