ABSTRACT
Executive Summary Online financial cyber crime (hereafter, “cyber fraud” for brevity’s sake) has increased exponentially in the past 4 years, forming the foundation of a trend that shows no signs of abating. What began with simple 419 scams and rudimentary phishing has grown into a highly complex underground economy generating professional-quality software tools, legitimate businesses that provide protection to cyber criminals, sophisticated stock-manipulation schemes, and, most tellingly, a sense of community among the criminals. e global total of criminal gain from cyber fraud is impossible to estimate precisely, but most indicators suggest it stands in the high tens of billions of dollars, perhaps in the hundreds.
