Cards, Money and Two Hacking Forums: An Analysis of Online Money Laundering Schemes

The emergence of the internet as a global, borderless communication platform afforded a wide range ofsocial and economic opportunities to people throughout theworld. Criminals have exploited the ability to communicateinstantaneously around the globe to facilitate crossjurisdictionalcyber-fraud and subsequently, online moneylaundering. Coordinating international fraud and moneylaundering schemes requires a medium of communication, suchas online hacking and carding forums, where offenders meet toexchange information and to engage in their illegal business. Forthe study presented in this paper, publicly available onlinecarding and hacking forums were downloaded and keywords ofinterest pertaining to online money laundering were extracted. This study undertakes an analysis of two large Russian-speakinghacking and carding forums by qualitatively analyzing andquantifying contexts of keyword usage. Findings indicate thatcyber-fraudsters are primarily interested in cashing outdigitally stolen funds and do so mainly by resorting to theservices of money mules and virtual casinos.