"How Cybercriminals Turn Paper Checks Stolen from Mailboxes into Bitcoin"

David Maimon, Associate Professor of Criminal Justice at Georgia State University and the Evidence-Based Cybersecurity Research group he directs, explored 60 black market communication channels on the Internet to gain more insight into the online fraud ecosystem and to systematically gain data on it to identify trends. One of the observations made by Maimon and his team of graduate students is the rise in stolen checks, believed to be taken from US Postal Service and personal mailboxes. They looked at 60 online chat room channels, including group chats on messaging apps such as WhatsApp, ICQ, and Telegram, where people were known to sell fraudulent documents. An analysis of data gathered from those channels revealed that an average of 1,325 stolen checks were being sold every week in October 2021, a significant increase from the 634 being sold per week in September and 409 in August. Cybercriminals can use these stolen checks to steal a victim's identity, submit false applications for loans, access the victim's bank account, and more. This article continues to discuss the increased distribution and use of stolen checks among cybercriminals. 

NextGov reports "How Cybercriminals Turn Paper Checks Stolen from Mailboxes into Bitcoin"