NESTA Crime Online - University of Brighton Repository

Source: John Leyden, “Trojan trawls recruitment sites in ID harvesting scam,” The
Register, 8 th July 2008.
2.2.2 Capabilities and specialisation in the exploitation of information
At the lower end, specialisation in exploitation is minimising the level of skills required to
perpetrate crime. Some examples are shown below.
Use of non-cyber skills to exploit information.
In a survey conducted in June 2007, the UK's leading online companies revealed that
criminal ‘shoppers’ use their stolen cards to go shopping between 9 pm and midnight
because there are likely to be limited staff at this time of the day. About 28 per cent of
the companies surveyed declared that this was the period in which most credit card
fraud was conducted. 202
They also tend to buy items in the £250-500 range because these items tend less to
arouse suspicion, or merit careful scrutiny by the company’s fraud team, or the attention
of the card owner or the company issuing the credit card. 203 A recent survey of fraud
managers showed that 43 per cent of attempted fraudulent transactions were in the
£250 to £500 range and that 29 per cent were in the £500+ range. 204
Many credit card fraudsters prefer to obtain cards themselves but without stealing them.
One way of doing this is known as account takeover. 205 Here, the fraudster manages to
obtain sufficient information about the victim to impersonate him or her in bank
dealings, in person, by telephone or in writing. The fraudster changes the address
associated with the account so that all mail is delivered to another address. The
fraudster then gets a new card by reporting the loss of an existing card or requests an
additional card.
202 192.com Business Services, (2008), The Fraudster’s Modus Operandi. London, p.10.
203 192.com Business Services, (2008), , p.11. Interviews with directors of fraud investigation also say that a
main way of detecting fraudulent activity on credit cards is the unusual transaction activity on the card.
Interviews were conducted on 11 th and 26 th November.
204 192.com Business Services, (2008), , p.11.
205 192.com Business Services, (2008), , p.9.
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