Abstract
A significant, and likely dominant, proportion of fraud is now conducted online. Police struggle to integrate this emerging reality into their processes, while expectations of this institution are high. These types of cybercrimes alter the volume and complexity of problems compared to how they previously manifested and require profound transformations of crime analysis methods to address them proactively. These developments face many difficulties, such as the quality of accessible data, the lack of existing analytical models and the need to increase police knowledge of fraud mechanisms within every level of organisations. We suggest methods to overcome these obstacles, which consist of implementing an approach integrating theories from various fields in criminology and forensic intelligence to examine the digital transformations of certain criminal processes. We take, as an example, how a generic script expressing the anatomy of an existing type of fraud can be used to interpret their new digital forms. This modelling activity both provides new insight into specific frauds and highlights relevant dimensions that are useful in orienting the development of crime analysis systems.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
Polices cantonales, personal communications
This was highlighted through specific investigations in Switzerland during the 1980s, but the order of magnitude was never studied, to our knowledge.
References
ABS (2016) 4528.0 – Personal fraud, 2014–15. , Australian Bureau of Statistics, http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Latestproducts/4528.0Main%20Features152014-15?opendocument&tabname=Summary&prodno=4528.0&issue=2014-15&num=&view=.
Atkins, B., & Huang, W. (2013). A study of social engineering in online frauds. Open Journal of Social Sciences, 1(3), 23–32.
BCS (2016) Crime in England and Wales-Year ending March 2016, https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/bulletins/crimeinenglandandwales/yearendingmarch2016
BCS (2019) Crime in England and Wales-Year ending March 2019, https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/bulletins/crimeinenglandandwales/yearendingjune2018
Beals, M., M. DeLiema and M. Deevy (2015) Framework for a taxonomy of fraud, Longevity Center/FINRA Financial Investor Education Foundation/Fraud Research Center, Washington DC: Stanford. , http://162.144.124.243/~longevl0/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Full-Taxonomy-report.pdf
Bergmann, J. D. (1969). The original confidence man. American Quarterly, 21(3), 560–577.
Birrer, S., Ribaux, O., Cartier, J., Rossy, Q., Capt, S., & Zufferey, M. (2007). Exploratory study for the detection and analysis of links between prospective advance fee fraud e-mails in an intelligence perspective. IALEA Journal Vol, 17, 11–21.
Bollé, T., & Casey, E. (2018). Using computed similarity of distinctive digital traces to evaluate non-obvious links and repetitions in cyber-investigations. Digital Investigation Vol, 24, S2–S9.
Boullier, D. (2017) 'Big data challenge for social sciences and market research: from society and opinion to replication' in F. Cochoy, J. Hagberg, M. Petersson McIntyre and N. Sörum (eds), Digitalizing consumption, Tracing How Devices Shape Consumer Culture, Routeledge, London and New York.
Braucher, J., & Orbach, B. (2015). Scamming: the misunderstood confidence man. Yale Journal of Law and the Humanities, 27(2), 249–292.
Broséus, J., Rhumorbarbe, D., Morelato, M., Staehli, L., & Rossy, Q. (2017). A geographical analysis of trafficking on a popular darknet market. Forensic Science International Vol, 277, 88–102. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forsciint.2017.05.021.
Buchanan, J., & Grant, A. J. (2001). Investigating and prosecuting Nigerian fraud. United States Attorneys’ Bulletin, 49(6), 39–47.
Burgess, E. W. (1925) 'Can neighborhood work have a scientific basis? ' in R. E. Park, E. W. Burgess and R. D. McKenzie (eds), The city: suggestions for investigation of human behaviors in the urban environment, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL, 142–155.
Burns, R. G., Whitworth, K. H., & Thompson, C. Y. (2004). Assessing law enforcement preparedness to address Internet fraud. Journal of Criminal Justice, 32(5), 477–493.
Button, M., C. Lewis and J. Tapley (2009) Fraud typologies and the victims of fraud: literature review, National Fraud Authority, London, http://www2.port.ac.uk/media/contacts-and-departments/icjs/ccfs/Fraud-typologies-and-victims.pdf
Button, M., Nicholls, C. M., Kerr, J., & Owen, R. (2014). Online frauds: learning from victims why they fall for these scams. Australian & New Zealand Journal of Criminology, 47(3), 391–408. https://doi.org/10.1177/0004865814521224.
Caneppele, S., & Aebi, M. (2019). Crime drop or police recording flop? On the relationship between the decrease of offline crime and the increase of online and hybrid crimes. Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice, 13(1), 66–79. https://doi.org/10.1093/police/pax055.
Canler, L. (1882) Mémoire de Canler, Ancien chef du service de sûreté, F. Roy, Paris.
Chinelli, A. (2019). Analyse des escroqueries par Internet reportées à la police Msc thesis, University of Lausanne, Lausanne.
Choi, K., Lee, J. L., & Chun, Y. T. (2017). Voice phishing fraud and its modus operandi. Security Journal, 30(2), 454–466.
Clarke, R. V. and J. Eck (2005) Crime analysis for problem solver in 60 small steps, U.S. Department of Justice, COPS, Washington, http://www.popcenter.org/learning/60steps/ (accessed August 5th 2016).
Cohen, L. E., & Felson, M. (1979). Social change and crime rate trends: a routine activity approach. American Sociological Review, 44(4), 588–608.
Cornish, D. (1994) 'The procedural analysis of offending and its relevance for situational prevention' in R. V. Clarke (eds), Crime prevention studies, Criminal Justice Press, New-York.
Cornish, D. and R. Clarke (1986) The reasoning criminal: Rational choice perspectives on offending. , Springer, New-York.
Correia, S. G. (2019). Responding to victimisation in a digital world: a case study of fraud and computer misuse reported in Wales. Crime Science, 8(1), 4. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40163-019-0099-7.
Cross, C. (2018) Expectations vs reality: responding to online fraud across the fraud justice network, International Journal of Law, Crime and Justice Vol 55, 1–12.
Cross, C., & Blackshaw, D. (2015). Improving the police response to online fraud. Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice, 9(2), 119–128. https://doi.org/10.1093/police/pau044.
D.H.H. (1949). The Spanish prisoner letter. Western Folklore, 8(3), 265.
Dupont, B. (2013) 'Skills and trust: a tour inside the hard drives of computer hackers. ' in C. Morselli (eds), Illicit networks, Routledge, London, United Kingdom, 195–217.
Dupont, B. (2017) 'Bots, cops, and corporations: on the limits of enforcement and the promise of polycentric regulation as a way to control large-scale cybercrime', Crime, Law and Social Change Vol 67 no 1, 97–116, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10611-016-9649-z.
Durkin, K. F., & Brinkman, R. (2009). 419 FRAUD: a crime without borders in a postmodern world. International Review of Modern Sociology, 35(2), 271–283.
EC3 (2017) Common taxonomy for law enforcement and the national network of CSIRTs, Europol, European Cybercrime Center.
Fischer, P., Lea, S., & Evan, K. (2013). Why do individuals respond to fraudulent scam communications and lose money? The psychological determinants of scam compliance. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 43(10), 2060–2072.
Freedman, J. L., & Fraser, S. C. (1966). Compliance without pressure: the foot-in-the-door technique. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology Vol, 4, 195–202.
Goldstein, H. (1990) Problem oriented policing, Temple University Press, Philadelphia.
Goodman, M. (2015) Future crimes. Inside the digital underground and the battle for our connected world, Anchor, New-York,
Gregg, D. G., & Scott, J. E. (2008). A typology of complaints about eBay sellers. Communications of the ACM, 51(4), 69–74.
Günther, W. A., Rezazade Mehrizi, M. H., Huysman, M., & Feldberg, F. (2017). Debating big data: a literature review on realizing value from big data. The Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 26(3), 191–209. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsis.2017.07.003.
Halttunen, K. (1982) Confidence men and painted women: a study of middle-class culture in America, 1830–1870, Yale University Press, New Haven.
Holt, T. J. and A. Bossler (2016) Cybercrime in progress: theory and prevention of technology-enabled offenses, Routledge, London & New York.
Holt, T. J., & Graves, D. C. (2007). A qualitative analysis of advance fee fraud email schemes. International Journal of Cyber Criminology, 1(1), 137–154.
Holtfreter, K., Reisig, M. D., & Pratt, T. C. (2008). Low self-control, routine activities, and fraud victimization. Criminology, 46(1), 189–220.
ICPC (2018) 6th International report on crime prevention and community safety: preventing cybercrime. International International Centre for the Prevention of Crime, http://www.crime-prevention-intl.org/fileadmin/user_upload/Publications/International_Report/ICPC_Report_2018.pdf
Jakobsson, M. (2016) Understanding social engineering based scams. , Springer, New York.
Jones, J. and D. McCoy (2014) The check is in the mail: monetization of craigslist buyer scams. Electronic Crime Research, APWG Symposium.
Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking fast and slow. Londres: Allen Lane.
Ladji, B., & Bazare, R. N. (2016). Pratiques festives des brouteurs en Côte d'Ivoire. Entre ritualisation de la fête et categorisation sociale du cybercriminel. European Scientific Journal, 12(17, dx.doi.org). https://doi.org/10.19044/esj.2016.v12n17p198.
Laney, D. (2001) 3D data management: controlling data volume, velocity, and variety, Gartner Report, File 949, https://blogs.gartner.com/doug-laney/files/2012/01/ad949-3D-Data-Management-Controlling-Data-Volume-Velocity-and-Variety.pdf
Lea, S., P. Fischer and K. Evans (2009) The psychology of scams: provoking and committing errors of judgement, Office of Fair Trading, www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/reports/consumer_protection/oft1070.pdf
Leukfeldt, E. R., & Yar, M. (2016). Applying routine activity theory to cybercrime: a theoretical and empirical analysis. Deviant Behavior, 37(3), 263–280. https://doi.org/10.1080/01639625.2015.1012409.
Leukfeldt, E. R., Kleemans, E. R., & Stol, W. P. (2017). Cybercriminal networks, social ties and online forums: social ties versus digital ties within phishing and malware networks. The British Journal of Criminology, 57(3), 704–722. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azw009.
Levi, M. (2008). Organized fraud and organizing frauds: unpacking research on networks and organization. Criminology & Criminal Justice, 8(4), 389–419.
Levi, M., A. Doig, R. Gundur, D. Wall and M. Williams (2017) 'Cyberfraud and the implications for effective risk-based responses: Themes from UK research', Crime, Law and Social Change Vol 67 no 1, 77–96, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10611-016-9648-0.
Louwage, F. E. (1932) Technique de quelques vols & Escroqueries, Anneessens, Ninove.
Loveday, B. (2018). The shape of things to come. Reflections on the potential implications of the 2016 Office of National Statistics Crime Survey for the police service of England and Wales. Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice, 12(4), 398–409. https://doi.org/10.1093/police/pax040.
Maurer, D. W. (1999) The big con, Anchor Books, New-York.
McGuire, M., & Dowling, S. (2013). Cyber crime: a review of the evidence. Summary of key findings and implications, Home Office Research report, 75.
Pollitt, M. (2010) A history of digital forensics. Advances in Digital Forensics VI, Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg,
Pratt, T. C., Holtfreter, K., & Reisig, M. D. (2010). Routine online activity and Internet fraud targeting: extending the generality of routine activity theory. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 47(3), 267–296. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022427810365903.
Reep-van den Bergh, C. M., & Junger, M. (2018). Victims of cybercrime in Europe: a review of victim surveys. Crime Science, 7(1), 5.
Reiss, R. A. (1911) Manuel de police scientifique (technique). Vols et homicides, Payot Alcan, Lausanne.
Ribaux, O. (2019) 'Federalism and Swiss police reforms' in J. Janssen, K. Lünnemann, W. D’haese and A. Groenen (eds), Cahiers Politiestudies, Gompel&Svacina,51, 247–260.
Ribaux, O., Crispino, F., Delémont, O., & Roux, C. (2016). The progressive opening of forensic science toward criminological concerns. Security Journal, 29(4), 543–560. https://doi.org/10.1057/sj.2015.29.
Rossy, Q. and D. Decary-Hétu (2017) 'Internet traces and the analysis of online illicit markets' in Q. Rossy, D. Decary-Hétu, O. Delémont and M. Mulone (eds), The Routledge international handbook of forensic intelligence and criminology, Routeledge, Abigdon, UK, 249–263.
Rossy, Q., Ioset, S., Dessimoz, D., & Ribaux, O. (2013). Integrating forensic information in a crime intelligence database. Forensic Science International Vol, 230, 137–146. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forsciint.2012.10.010.
Schank, R. C. and R. P. Abelson (1977) Scripts, plans. goals and understanding: an inquiry into human knowledge, Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ.
Schur, E. M. (1957). Sociological analysis of confidence swindling. The journal of Criminal Law, Criminology, and Police Science, 48(3), 296–304.
Smyth, S. M. and R. Carleton (2011) Measuring the extent of CyberFraud: a discussion paper on potential methods and data sources, Public Safety Canada.
Snyman, H. F. (2001). Nigerian organised crime in South Africa. Secruity Journal Vol, 14, 61–71.
Sood, A. K., & Enbody, R. J. (2013). Crimeware-as-a-service—a survey of commoditized crimeware in the underground market. International Journal of Critical Infrastructure Protection, 6(1), 28–38.
Soudijn, M. R. J., & Zegers, B. C. H. T. (2012). Cybercrime and virtual offender convergence settings. Trends in Organized Crime Vol, 15, 111–129.
Vidocq, E. F. (1853) Principal agent of the French police. Written by himself (translated from french), H.G. Bohn, London.
Wall, D. S. (2007) Cybercrime: the transformation of crime in the information age. : , Polity Press., Malden, MA.
Wall, D. S. (2010) 'Micro-frauds: virtual robberies, stings and scams in the information age' in B. S. Holt (eds), Corporate hacking and technology-driven crime: social dynamics and implications, IGI global, Hershey, PA (USA).
Whitty, M. T. (2013). The scammers persuasive techniques model: development of a stage model to explain the online dating romance scam. British Journal of Criminology, 53(4), 665–684.
Whitty, M. T. (2015a). Anatomy of the online dating romance scam. Security Journal, 28(4), 443–455. https://doi.org/10.1057/sj.2012.57.
Whitty, M. T. (2015b). Mass-marketing fraud: a growing concern. IEEE Security & Privacy, 13(4), 84–87.
Whitty, M. T. (2019). Predicting susceptibility to cyber-fraud victimhood. Journal of Financial Crime, 26(1), 277–292. https://doi.org/10.1108/JFC-10-2017-0095.
Yar, M. (2005). The novelty of ‘cybercrime’. An assessment in the light of routine activity theory. European Journal of Criminology, 2(4), 407–427.
Acknowledgements
We thank the anonymous reviewers who have contributed their time and expertise, which significantly contributed to the quality of the paper.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Rossy, Q., Ribaux, O. Orienting the Development of Crime Analysis Processes in Police Organisations Covering the Digital Transformations of Fraud Mechanisms. Eur J Crim Policy Res 26, 335–356 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10610-020-09438-3
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10610-020-09438-3