Deviating from the cybercriminal script: Exploring the contextual factors and cognitive biases involved in carding

Abstract

This thesis explores the contextual factors and cognitive biases involved in the decision-making of carders. Carders engage in carding, the obtaining and cashing out of stolen payment card details. This works examines what operational security carders employ to stay secure and how they can make mistakes in these processes. It also analyses what mechanisms are in place to create bonds of trust in pseudonymous environments on the Web and how this complicates investigations into such illicit activities. Tutorials, created by carders, are analysed with crime script analysis to create insights into ‘optimal’ decision-making and to design situational crime prevention measures. An analysis of the organisation and tasks involved in carding with the CommonKADS method, however, will show that more extensive mapping of the carding process is required to understand decision-making. Cognitive biases will be explored to better understand the psychological reality of online crime commission. Expert interviews with law enforcement officers, bankers and card issuers will provide some evidence for the existence of such biases in carders. These interviews will also create novel insights into tactics against carding and common issues encountered in policing such international online crimes.

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Identifiers

ORCID for Gert Jan Van Hardeveld: orcid.org/0000-0001-8847-4662

ORCID for Kieron O'hara: orcid.org/0000-0002-9051-4456

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