Criminals and signals: An assessment of criminal performance in the carding underworld

Abstract

Criminals have taken advantage of the Internet's features to create worldwide marketplaces where illegal goods and services can be instantly bought and sold anonymously. This article focuses on an online forum that served as a transactional platform for criminals involved in the illicit trade of credit and banking information. Using Gambetta's adaptation of the signalling theory, this research develops a predictive model identifying the signs and signals that can enhance a criminal's performance in this criminal community. Our findings indicate that criminal performance is not distributed randomly. Individuals that are the most skilled at sending and decoding signals can expect to gain higher rewards.

Deviating From the Cybercriminal Script: Exploring Tools of Anonymity (Mis)Used by Carders on Cryptomarkets

“…A potential behavioural pitfall for miscreants is that they trust the wrong people, send them personal information and do business with them. Because of the nature of the anonymous environment, users may fail to identify that other users are scammers or undercover law enforcement (Décary--Hétu & Leppänen, 2016;Lusthaus, 2012). For example, once a drop address has been sent to an undercover agent, they can surveil the place and identify the individual that picks up the delivered packages.…”

Seller’s reputation and capacity on the illicit drug markets: 11-month study on the Finnish version of the Silk Road

“…Specifically, the capacity figures are dependent on what the sellers have reported as the available stock and we consider them as part of communication with the buyers. It has been also indicated in previous studies that cybercriminals are expected to attract companions in crime through successful communication (Décary-Hétu and Leppänen, 2013).…”

“…Our main goal in this study was to analyse the impact of the seller's reputation and capacity on daily drug sales. Theoretically, the article was grounded on previous work done on trust systems (Resnick, 2000;Houser and Wooders, 2006;Décary-Hétu and Leppänen, 2013;Lusthaus, 2012) and previous research showing that the seller's reputation has a positive impact on sales in drug markets (Hardy and Norgaard, 2015). We also consider the seller's daily capacity (i.e., the reported sales potential), which has been shown to have an interaction with consumer behaviour (Yu et al, 2015), but this effect has not previously been studied in a cryptomarket setting.…”

“…Anonymity directs users' attention to the available features and typically also enforces group behaviour (Keipi and Oksanen, 2014;Spears et al, 2002). Hence, in cryptomarket, trust system is based on both direct feedback and successful communication (Hardy and Norgaard, 2015;Resnick, 2000;Houser and Wooders, 2006;Décary-Hétu and Leppänen, 2013;Lusthaus, 2012). Our hypotheses were grounded on these premises, and we expected that a positive seller reputation would be positively associated with that entity's daily sales.…”

“…Besides user feedback, it is often important to communicate well with the customer and create an impression of trustworthiness. According to Décary-Hétu and Leppänen, successful online criminals have communicative skills that lead to higher rewards (Décary-Hétu and Leppänen, 2013).…”