At least AfterPay limit the per-user loses to $1000. Protecting...

At least AfterPay limit the per-user loses to $1000. Protecting both themselves and the consumer.

WRT AfterPay not chasing it up—how nice of them is that! But note: you will only get away with doing your swindle once! You will never be able to use AfterPay again. It's their way of weeding out those who shouldn't use their platform, and those with low moral scruples who would do as you suggest.

I believe they simply expect most users to be decent, law-abiding citizens.

The $1000 cost to work out that a user is untrustworthy, for the small percentage of users who fail to repay, is probably worth the cost.

I also expect they will report the non-payment to your credit card provider (if it isn't already automatically flagged), probably even try to recoup the money directly from them. And then the credit card provider will chase you up. Is a bad credit rating really worth stealing $1000?

And as a word of advice, you really don't want to ignore a debt collector if one ever comes knocking. One day, and it may be decades later, someone WILL buy AfterPay's bad debt book and they will come a knocking. I hope the decades of waiting for someone to come and forcefully retrieve their money (with a huge interest bill) is worth the pittance you illegally gained.