Dirty Digital Dollars
by John Bandler
(Originally published 2016 by Fraud Magazine, a publication of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, July/August 2016, and now reproduced here. This article is not updated but remains relevant)
Cybercrime and identity theft have evolved into a sophisticated global economy. Perpetrators use the anonymity provided by digital currency and the internet to hide themselves, their criminal acts and their gains. This nine year cybercrime investigation case illustrates one of the few law enforcement successes in fighting these crimes.
In early 2005, I was a junior prosecutor at the New York County District Attorney's Office. In addition to my usual duties prosecuting street crimes, I was assigned to the identity theft unit, which famed DA Robert M. Morgenthau had recently formed. I received a complaint, which alleged that a victim's credit card had been used without authorization at an online retailer to ship merchandise to a Manhattan address.
My fellow investigators and I followed the money trail of the online participants in this theft, and we found ourselves looking at a digital currency exchanger in Manhattan called Western Express International Inc.
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Originally published 2016 by Fraud Magazine, a publication of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, July/August 2016, and now reproduced here. This article is not updated but remains relevant.
This article is static and will not be updated.
See my book Cybercrime Investigations or my article on Virtual Currency and Cryptocurrency.