Clean Fraud

Clean fraud encompasses deceptive transactions that elude easy detection because they convincingly mimic genuine activities. These deceptive methods frequently rely on authentic data that has been illicitly obtained or pilfered by a third party. Nevertheless, clean fraud is a broad term that encompasses diverse strategies.

For example, an offender may pilfer someone’s credit card and personal information, subsequently employing these details to perpetrate fraud against online retailers, extracting cash or valuable merchandise through deceit. In the eyes of the merchant, the cybercriminal often presents as an entirely legitimate customer, thereby inducing trust and goodwill.

What distinguishes clean fraud is its use of meticulously crafted, authentic-seeming data, making it considerably more challenging for automated algorithms and human analysts to raise suspicion.

Clean fraud predominantly revolves around financial objectives, targeting e-commerce establishments and merchants. It primarily involves the manipulation of bank cards and online payment methods.

A straightforward, clean fraud scenario unfolds as follows:

• A cybercriminal gains unauthorized access to an individual’s account on an e-commerce website.
• Assuming the identity of the familiar and trusted user, they assert that a previously ordered item was never delivered and demand a refund.
• The merchant delves into the claim and assesses its validity.
• In many cases, even though the item was legitimately delivered to the actual customer, the merchant lacks the means to verify this fact. Consequently, due to their established rapport with the supposed customer, they extend trust and accept the claim, resulting in a refund to the criminal’s payment method or issuing a gift card for potential fraudulent use.

In this type of scenario, the merchant’s pre-existing relationship with the cardholder or customer often fosters a sense of trust, making them more inclined to accept claims of missing or defective items or unprocessed refunds, even when they may not have clear evidence to support such assertions.