This typology report is the result of a cooperative effort of MONEYVAL, the Council of Europe’s Global Project on Cybercrime and the joint project of the European Union and of the Council of Europe against money laundering and the financing of terrorism in the Russian Federation. The report analyses the links between cybercrime and money laundering, the most frequently used methods and instruments for laundering criminal proceeds from cybercrime and through the Internet, as well as the risks and vulnerabilities posed by this type of money laundering. It sets outs a number of findings as regards cybercrime and money laundering and of available countermeasures and good practices, which could inspire policy makers and regulators or become elements of more systematic future approaches and strategies that are aimed at the prevention of money laundering and the financing of terrorism, and at the search, seizure and confiscation of proceeds of crime on the Internet.
The Objectives of the Study can be summarized as follows:
1. Information and communication technologies (ICT) and in particular the Internet linking up computers worldwide offer unique opportunities to societies worldwide. The Internet allows an increasing number of people1 and organisations to communicate, exchange information, to offer and
make use of services, and to exercise their rights. At the same time, the reliance on ICT and the Internet makes societies vulnerable to threats such as cybercrime.
2. For the purposes of this study, cybercrime denotes:
– offences against computer data and systems: this includes in particular the so-called “c.i.a.-offences” against the confidentiality, integrity and availability of data and systems;
– offences committed by means of computer data and systems: this includes offences such as fraud and child pornography or offences related to intellectual property rights that gain a different quality and impact if committed through computer systems.
3. The fact that any economic or serious crime may involve computer systems makes cybercrime a very broad and cross-cutting concept. In addition, cybercrime is highly transnational in nature. It is increasingly targeted at generating economic proceeds involving different types of fraud
and economic and organised crime. While some are new types of crime, many are traditional types of crime that are now committed more effectively on the Internet. In addition, a digital underground economy is in place and growing, which involves organised crime, available IT experts, hackers, mules and other persons for hire, and is designed to provide the necessary tool and services to facilitate the commission of cybercrime or to ensure the disposal of crime proceeds. Organised crime groups do not necessarily need to develop their own expertise about the Internet, as such skills or services can be recruited to respond on a needs basis, creating a sort of transactional basis network connection between “small- time criminals” and organised crime, even located in different parts of the world. This suggests large amounts of criminal money flows on the Internet
and more….
Direct link to the pdf report: here