Cryptocurrency: a tool and target for cybercrime
Cryptocurrencies are prevalent in South Africa and gaining traction as an alternative online currency. Concomitantly, cryptocurrencies are also establishing themselves as an ideal currency for cybercriminals due to their unregulated and pseudo-anonymous nature. Cryptocurrencies can be used either as...
| Authors: | ; |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
[2018]
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| In: |
Acta criminologica
Year: 2018, Volume: 31, Issue: 3, Pages: 71-92 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Keywords: |
| Summary: | Cryptocurrencies are prevalent in South Africa and gaining traction as an alternative online currency. Concomitantly, cryptocurrencies are also establishing themselves as an ideal currency for cybercriminals due to their unregulated and pseudo-anonymous nature. Cryptocurrencies can be used either as a tool or target in the facilitation of cybercrimes, including cyber money laundering, cyber extortion, phishing, hacking, cyber fraud and other financial crimes such as Ponzi and investment scams. Given the highly technical, decentralised and thus complex nature of cryptocurrencies, it is important for criminologists to have a basic understanding of the modus operandi used in ‘cryptocurrency crime’. This article, therefore, illustrates the use of cryptocurrency in the facilitation of criminal activity through the review of existing literature. This article begins with a brief discussion on the history of cryptocurrencies. The technical underpinnings of a cryptocurrency are thereafter explained in order to contextualise their use in the facilitation of cybercrime. Lastly, an exposition of the crimes is presented in order to demonstrate how cryptocurrencies can be used as a tool and target in the facilitation of cybercrime. |
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| ISSN: | 1012-8093 |