Cyberlaundering evolves. E-Fencing
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E-fencing is a relatively new term in the world of financial crime. This new type of crime has emerged on online auction sites like eBay and definitely involves money laundering.
How it works? The numbers from stolen credit cards are taken by criminals take and spent to buy gift cards online. After that, Then the gift cards are immediately offered for sale at a large discount on the websites. Many people find such offer to be a great bargain and therefore buy gift cards and use them or sell to other unsuspecting people. So, the mechanism is just as simple as that.
Such a simple scheme is very effective and the problem is growing fast as the stolen credit card number can be easily converted into an item that can be easily sold. Even after the card is canceled, the gift card purchase is usually neither discovered, nor canceled. So, by this method the usable life of the stolen credit card number is extended past its cancellation by the owner.
This type of crime is evolving fast for a number of simple reasons – it is anonymous, safe, profitable and less risky than other similar types of crime.
This is why people should be extremely cautious when something offered is too good to be true, because it can be connected with a fraud, a counterfeit, or other criminal act. So, buying something obviously below cost is dangerous and could lead to serious circumstances.