Fencing

A fence, also called a receiver or moving man, is a person who knowingly buys stolen goods in order to resell them for profit, acting as a middleman between a thief and buyers who may not know the goods are stolen. Receiving stolen goods was not treated as a felony under English common law until 1691, and the trade reached its peak in early eighteenth century London under Jonathan Wild, a thief taker who was himself executed in 1725 after Parliament passed the Transportation Act of 1718, sometimes called the Jonathan Wild Act, to target receivers directly. Fencing remains illegal in every jurisdiction that has examined the practice and is a recognized source of income for organized crime; a newer form, e-fencing, sells stolen goods or stolen financial information through online marketplaces and was estimated to be a 37 billion dollar business by 2007.