Whilst I have a large presentation on my cybercrime research, it features many elements I’ve not individually blogged about. As I find the time and motivation I’ll be revisiting key points.

One of the economies I’ve looked into in significant details is that of Carding, the structured process of stealing and laundering financial and personal data for fun and profit. Since the price of a verified working stolen credit card is so low (<£20), this means significant amounts of the profits are from the laundering side of the operation.

One of the most popular methods is through the purchase and resale of consumer goods like so:

The eBay of carders, not to be confused with the eBay of of the darknet markets

For carders who don’t fancy getting their hands dirty with an honest day’s work packing and shipping stolen goods, you could go fully digital via buying different types digital game currencies, laundering them then selling them back for clean cash:

You probably should think twice about buying that World of Warcraft gold…

Still, not everyone is running a full-blown criminal enterprise off these ill gotten gains, so people who know their local takeaway chain will reliably take their stolen credit card details may offer to ship you pizza on the cheap.

And the final listing looks something like this:

Does the crime enhance the flavour I wonder?

Let me know any related topics you might like me to cover in more detail in future posts!