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1 – 10 of over 1000Neha Chhabra Roy and Sreeleakha Prabhakaran
The study aims to overview the different types of internal-led cyber fraud that have gained mainstream attention in recent major-value fraud events involving prominent Indian…
Abstract
Purpose
The study aims to overview the different types of internal-led cyber fraud that have gained mainstream attention in recent major-value fraud events involving prominent Indian banks. The authors attempted to identify and classify cyber frauds and its drivers and correlate them for optimal mitigation planning.
Design/methodology/approach
The methodology opted for the identification and classification is through a detailed literature review and focus group discussion with risk and vigilance officers and cyber cell experts. The authors assessed the future of cyber fraud in the Indian banking business through the machine learning–based k-nearest neighbor (K-NN) approach and prioritized and predicted the future of cyber fraud. The predicted future revealing dominance of a few specific cyber frauds will help to get an appropriate fraud prevention model, using an associated parties centric (victim and offender) root-cause approach. The study uses correlation analysis and maps frauds with their respective drivers to determine the resource specific effective mitigation plan.
Findings
Finally, the paper concludes with a conceptual framework for preventing internal-led cyber fraud within the scope of the study. A cyber fraud mitigation ecosystem will be helpful for policymakers and fraud investigation officers to create a more robust environment for banks through timely and quick detection of cyber frauds and prevention of them.
Research limitations/implications
Additionally, the study supports the Reserve Bank of India and the Government of India's launched cyber security initiates and schemes which ensure protection for the banking ecosystem i.e. RBI direct scheme, integrated ombudsman scheme, cyber swachhta kendra (botnet cleaning and malware analysis centre), National Cyber Coordination Centre (NCCC) and Security Monitoring Centre (SMC).
Practical implications
Structured and effective internal-led plans for cyber fraud mitigation proposed in this study will conserve banks, employees, regulatory authorities, customers and economic resources, save bank authorities’ and policymakers’ time and money, and conserve resources. Additionally, this will enhance the reputation of the Indian banking industry and extend its lifespan.
Originality/value
The innovative insider-led cyber fraud mitigation approach quickly identifies cyber fraud, prioritizes it, identifies its prominent root causes, map frauds with respective root causes and then suggests strategies to ensure a cost-effective and time-saving bank ecosystem.
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Katelyn Wan Fei Ma and Tammy McKinnon
The emergence of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has threatened physical and mental health, and changed the behaviour and decision-making processes of individuals, organisations…
Abstract
Purpose
The emergence of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has threatened physical and mental health, and changed the behaviour and decision-making processes of individuals, organisations, and institutions worldwide. As many services move online due to the pandemic, COVID-19-themed cyber fraud is also growing. This article explores cyber fraud victimization and cyber security threats during COVID-19 using psychological and traditional criminological theories. It also provides a COVID-19-themed cyber fraud typology using empirical evidence from institutional and agency reports. Through organizing COVID-19-themed cyber fraud into four different categorizations, we aim to offer classification insights to researchers and industry professionals so that stakeholders can effectively manage emerging cyber fraud risks in our current pandemic.
Design/methodology/approach
The approach the study take for this conceptual paper is typology.
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Neha Chhabra Roy and Sreeleakha Prabhakaran
This paper aims to focus on the different types of insider-led cyber frauds that gained mainstream attention in recent large-scale fraud events involving prominent Indian banking…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to focus on the different types of insider-led cyber frauds that gained mainstream attention in recent large-scale fraud events involving prominent Indian banking institutions. In addition to identifying and classifying cyber fraud, the study maps them on a severity scale for optimal mitigation planning.
Design/methodology/approach
The methodology used for identification and classification is an analysis of a detailed literature review, a focus group discussion with risk and vigilance officers and cyber cell experts, as well as secondary data of cyber fraud losses. Through machine learning-based random forest, the authors predicted the future of insider-led cyber frauds in the Indian banking business and prioritized and predicted the same. The projected future reveals the dominance of a few specific cyber frauds, which will make it easier to develop a fraud mitigation model based on a victim-centric approach.
Findings
The paper concludes with a conceptual framework that can be used to ensure a sustainable cyber fraud mitigation ecosystem within the scope of the study. By using the findings of this research, policymakers and fraud investigators will be able to create a more robust environment for banks through timely detection of cyber fraud and prevent it appropriately before it happens.
Research limitations/implications
The study focuses on fraud, risk and mitigation from a victim-centric perspective and does not address it from the fraudster’s perspective. Data availability was a challenge. Banks are recommended to compile data that can be used for analysis both by themselves and other policymakers.
Practical implications
The structured, sustainable cyber fraud mitigation suggested in the study will provide an agile, quick, proactive, stakeholder-specific plan that helps to safeguard banks, employees, regulatory authorities, customers and the economy. It saves resources, cost and time for bank authorities and policymakers. The mitigation measures will also help improve the reputational status of the Indian banking business and prolong the banks’ sustenance.
Originality/value
The innovative cyber fraud mitigation approach contributes to the sustainability of a bank’s ecosystem quickly, proactively and effectively.
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This paper seeks to examine the problem of cyber fraud, a situation created by online financial transactions.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to examine the problem of cyber fraud, a situation created by online financial transactions.
Design/methodology/approach
Examines the challenges to regulating financial fraud in cyberspace, e.g. those responsible for the fraud; the possibility of prosecution; and the position of cyberspace in the light of jurisdiction and control.
Findings
Finds that the introduction of internet specific regulation would be useful in combating cyberspace fraud.
Originality/value
This paper arguably breaks new ground in recommending measures to combat financial fraud in cyberspace.
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Fraud is not a new offence. However, the recent evolution and proliferation of technologies (predominantly the internet) has seen offenders increasingly use virtual environments…
Abstract
Purpose
Fraud is not a new offence. However, the recent evolution and proliferation of technologies (predominantly the internet) has seen offenders increasingly use virtual environments to target and defraud victims worldwide. Several studies have examined the ways that fraud is perpetrated with a clear demarcation between terrestrial and cyber offences. However, with moves towards the notion of a “digital society” and recognition that technology is increasingly embedded across all aspects of our lives, it is important to consider if there is any advantage in categorising fraud against the type of environment it is perpetrated in. This paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper examines the perceived utility of differentiating online and offline fraud offences. It is based upon the insights of thirty-one professionals who work within the “fraud justice network” across London, UK and Toronto, Canada.
Findings
It highlights both the realities faced by professionals in seeking to ether maintain or collapse such a differentiation in their everyday jobs and the potential benefits and challenges that result.
Practical implications
Overall, the paper argues that the majority of professionals did not feel a distinction was necessary and instead felt that an arbitrary divide was instead a hindrance to their activities. However, while not useful on a practical front, there was perceived benefit regarding government, funding and the media. The implications of this moving forward are considered.
Originality/value
This paper provides new insights into how fraud justice network professionals understand the distinction between fraud offences perpetrated across both online and offline environments.
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Steven Furnell and Samantha Dowling
The purpose of this paper is to review current evidence in relation to scale and impacts of cyber crime, including various approaches to defining and measuring the problem.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to review current evidence in relation to scale and impacts of cyber crime, including various approaches to defining and measuring the problem.
Design/methodology/approach
A review and analysis of survey evidence is used to enable an understanding of the scope and scale of the cyber crime problem, and its effect upon those experiencing it.
Findings
The analysis evidences that cyber crime exists in several dimensions, with costs and harms that can be similarly varied. There is also a sense that, moving forward, the “cyber” label will become somewhat redundant as many crimes have the potential to have a technology component.
Research limitations/implications
The key evidence in this particular discussion has some geographic limitations, with much of the discussion focussed upon data drawn from the Crime Survey for England and Wales, as well as other UK-based sources. However, many of the broader points still remain more widely relevant.
Practical implications
This study helps in: better understanding the range and scale of cyber crime threats; understanding how the cyber element fits into the wider context of crime; improving the appreciation of what cyber crime can mean for potential victims; and recognising the cost dimensions, and the implications for protection and response.
Social implications
The discussion will help businesses and individuals to have a better appreciation of the cyber crime threat, and what ought to be considered in response to it.
Originality/value
The discussion is based upon recent evidence, and therefore represents a more up-to-date view of the cyber crime landscape than reviews already available in earlier literature.
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The purpose of this paper is to consider the increased exposure to cyber crime which would result if one‐day cheque clearance were introduced in the UK.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to consider the increased exposure to cyber crime which would result if one‐day cheque clearance were introduced in the UK.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper undertakes a comparative analysis of the UK and US cheque‐clearance systems, examines the enhanced vulnerability to fraud occasioned by a one‐day cheque clearance system and considers the resulting evidential difficulties encountered in US cheque fraud prosecutions. The paper then anticipates the UK experience and examines recent cyber‐crime cases in the UK. Finally the paper explores the possibility of biometric fingerprint authorisation as a prevention strategy.
Findings
The introduction of one‐day cheque clearance in the USA heralded an increase in cyber‐crime banking fraud and a reduction of the ability of the prosecuting authorities to bring cases to court because of the paucity of documentary evidence. The same pattern of activity would be likely to occur if one‐day cheque clearance were to be introduced in the UK. Banks should lobby for the replacement of cheque banking with biometric fingerprint authorisation of electronic banking transactions as the best way forward.
Practical implications
This paper indicates the most pragmatic way forward for banks targeted by this type of cyber‐crime and warns the legal profession of the evidential difficulties in US prosecutions.
Originality/value
This paper is of value to legal practitioners, academics, students and financial market professionals with interests in banking, fraud, and cyber‐crime.
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The criminalization of online financial fraud is examined by analyzing the existing literature, policies and state statutes within the context of the cybercrime ecosystem…
Abstract
Purpose
The criminalization of online financial fraud is examined by analyzing the existing literature, policies and state statutes within the context of the cybercrime ecosystem. Therefore, this paper aims to investigate online fraud policies within the USA and the prevalence of such incidents to explore the effectiveness of current fraud policies.
Design/methodology/approach
This examination explores policies related to online fraud within the USA by defining online financial fraud incidents within the context of the cybercrime ecosystem and analyzing such incidents with routine activities theory to emphasize the current legislative inadequacies with provisional policy recommendations.
Findings
This research suggests online financial fraud is not unanimously conceptualized among regulating or criminal institutions. Although federal regulators have governed financial institutions, federal institutions have failed to account for the capabilities of computer-mediated and technological device use (12 USC §1829).
Research limitations/implications
The limited research analyzing the effectiveness of guardianship that prevents or deters internet-mitigated or dependent financial fraud crimes.
Practical implications
Policy recommendations include but are not limited to mandating federal and privatized financial institutions to disclose all fraudulent activity to all stakeholders (e.g. customers and local and federal criminal justice agencies).
Originality/value
This paper provides an innovative approach using a criminological theory and policy framework to examine the prevalence of online fraud and the regulations enacted to counteract such violations.
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This study aims to define fraud crimes, its most prevalent categories and examines the most common of these schemes during the COVID-19 pandemic by drawing on the experiences of…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to define fraud crimes, its most prevalent categories and examines the most common of these schemes during the COVID-19 pandemic by drawing on the experiences of several countries and the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) updated paper issued during the pandemic.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses a comparative analysis methodology in conjunction with a descriptive analytical approach to compare four FATF member countries in light of the fraud activities that occurred on their territory during the pandemic and their respective law enforcement measures. It makes use of secondary data sources, namely, the theoretical literature on the subject and FATF’s updated paper on money laundering and terrorism financing during COVID-19.
Findings
This study found that fraudsters exploited the difficult circumstances during the pandemic in the majority of countries worldwide and identified various fraud schemes based on the incidents reviewed, such as the abuse of economic stimulus in Italy, counterfeiting medical goods in Brazil and investment fraud schemes in California, USA. In Spain, the fraud schemes tended to be cyber related. Such variations were also observed by the law enforcement agencies in the above-mentioned countries.
Originality/value
Numerous studies on fraud schemes are available to researchers. However, few such studies have been conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, this study makes a unique contribution to the literature.
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Oluwatoyin Esther Akinbowale, Heinz Eckart Klingelhöfer and Mulatu Fekadu Zerihun
The purpose of this paper is to review the effect of cybercrime in the banking sector.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to review the effect of cybercrime in the banking sector.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses a survey of literature and the balanced scorecard (BSC) to analyse the effect of cybercrime on the banking sector.
Findings
The literature reviewed confirms an increasing wave of cybercrime that has impacted negatively on the good will and economic growth of financial institutions, indirectly through loss of trust in the digital infrastructure or directly through fraud and extortion in both developing and developed countries.
Research limitations
This study is limited to the application of BSC to analyse the effect of cybercrime in the banking sector only.
Practical implications
To avert on going massive losses owing to cybercrime, the authors quest for development of an alert system that can create the awareness of both the banks and the customers by effectively implementing and integrating big data technology into their system to mitigate the negative impacts of cybercrime.
Originality/value
The novelty of this study lies in the fact that this study uses the BSC for the analysis of cybercrime in the banking sector, a problem that has not been sufficiently highlighted in the existing literature.
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