Drops for stuff: An analysis of reshipping mule scams

Credit card fraud has seen rampant increase in the past years, as customers use credit cards and similar financial instruments frequently. Both online and brick-and-mortar outfits repeatedly fall victim to cybercriminals who siphon off credit card information in bulk. Despite the many and creative ways that attackers use to steal and trade credit card information, the stolen information can rarely be used to withdraw money directly, due to protection mechanisms such as PINs and cash advance limits. As such, cybercriminals have had to devise more advanced monetization schemes towork around the current restrictions. One monetization scheme that has been steadily gaining traction are reshipping scams. In such scams, cybercriminals purchase high-value or highly-demanded products from online merchants using stolen payment instruments, and then ship the items to a credulous citizen. This person, who has been recruited by the scammer under the guise of "work-from-home" opportunities, then forwards the received products to the cybercriminals, most of whom are located overseas. Once the goods reach the cybercriminals, they are then resold on the black market for an illicit profit. Due to the intricacies of this kind of scam, it is exceedingly difficult to trace, stop, and return shipments, which is why reshipping scams have become a common means for miscreants to turn stolen credit cards into cash. In this paper, we report on the first large-scale analysis of reshipping scams, based on information that we obtained from multiple reshipping scam websites. We provide insights into the underground economy behind reshipping scams, such as the relationships among the various actors involved, the market size of this kind of scam, and the associated operational churn. We find that there exist prolific reshipping scam operations, with one having shipped nearly 6,000 packages in just 9 months of operation, exceeding 7.3 million US dollars in yearly revenue, contributing to an overall reshipping scam revenue of an estimated 1.8 billion US dollars per year. Finally, we propose possible approaches to intervene and disrupt reshipping scam services

Mittelalter im Labor

Mit diesem Band präsentiert das Schwerpunktprogramm 1173 der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft „Integration und Desintegration der Kulturen im europäischen Mittelalter“ erste Ergebnisse seiner Arbeit. Von Anfang an war ihm die Aufgabe gestellt, das mittelalterliche Europa in transkultureller Perspektive und auf Wegen einer transdisziplinären Wissenschaft zu erforschen und zu begreifen. Immer ging es darum, die disziplinär verfassten Einzelwissenschaften durch transdisziplinäre Arbeit zu ergänzen. Das wissenschaftliche Anliegen des Programms ist es, das europäische Mittelalter von seinen geografischen Rändern und seinen kulturellen Differenzen her zu erforschen und zu beschreiben. Der holistischen Frage nach der Einheit Europas wird die innere Vielfalt als gegenständlicher Ausgangspunkt entgegengesetzt. Europa wird nicht als abgeschlossenes, kohärentes Gebilde verstanden, sondern als ein Kontinent, dessen permanente Austausch- und Wechselbeziehungen zwischen den verschiedenen Regionen und Kulturen überhaupt erst zur Ausbildung seiner charakteristischen Merkmale geführt haben

Europeização e/ou africanização da Espanha Medieval: diversidade e unidade cultural européia em debate Europeanization and / or africanization of Medieval Spain: european cultural diversity and unity in discussion

Os conflitos políticos e sociais dos últimos anos na Europa, como os com a imigração e o terrorismo, orientam muitas questões levantadas pelas ciências humanas na atualidade. No que se refere à medievalística, muitas obras e projetos europeus apresentam a discussão em torno da diversidade cultural européia, a qual pode ser fundamentada desde a Idade Média através do convívio e trocas culturais entre cristão, judeus e muçulmanos. No centro destas discussões, está a crítica à idéia de centro e periferia dentro da própria Europa e no mundo, além da reflexão sobre conceitos de europeização e africanização, utilizados pela historiografia européia desde a primeira metade do século XX até poucos anos atrás. Neste artigo, serão apresentadas, à luz da Nova História Cultural Alemã (Neue Kulturgeschichte), algumas críticas aos conceitos de europeização, africanização, centro, periferia e unidade cultural na Idade Média européia. Questões estas que acaloram os debates na Alemanha atual.<br>Political and social conflicts during recent years in Europe - such as immigration and terrorism - have guided humanities issues today. Regarding Middle Age research, many works and projects present a debate on European cultural diversity, which lay the foundations since the Middle Ages through interaction and cultural exchanges between Christians, Jews and Muslims. Within the discussion, is the criticism to the idea of center and periphery within Europe itself and the world, as well as the consideration of concepts such as europeanization and africanization, used by European historiography, from the first half of the twentieth century until a few years ago. This article presents criticism to the concepts of europeanization, africanization, center, periphery, and cultural unity in the Middle Ages, in light of the New German Cultural History (Neue Kulturgeschichte), issues that inflame the debate in Germany today