Cyber Laundering: An Analysis of Typology and Techniques

Wojciech Filipkowski

University of Bialystok, Poland

Abstract:

The Internet is a great tool for exchanging information. However there are people who want to take advantage of it in order to commit crimes. The main goal of this paper is to answer following question: How the Internet could be and is abused by 'launders" - criminals who want to legitimize their illicit profits? And the whole phenomenon is called cyber laundering. The main goal of this paper is to present a typology of criminal activities - both potential as well as actual - which can be described as cyber laundering. It consists of four parts. The first and the second one briefly present the characteristics of the Internet and the financial services available on-line, correspondingly. The third part is a presentation of different techniques applied by criminals to launder money via the Internet. It bases on the information available from articles, papers, government reports and other sources. The last part presents some examples and symptoms of cyber laundering.

Keyword:

money laundering; Internet; cyber laundering; typology; techniques