U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government, Department of Justice.

NCJRS Virtual Library

The Virtual Library houses over 235,000 criminal justice resources, including all known OJP works.
Click here to search the NCJRS Virtual Library

Offender Organization and Victim Responses: Credit Card Fraud in International Perspective

NCJ Number
175364
Journal
Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice Volume: 14 Issue: 4 Dated: November 1998 Pages: 368-383
Author(s)
M Levi
Date Published
1998
Length
16 pages
Annotation
This study examines the international applicability of the findings of Tremblay and colleagues regarding credit card fraud, especially counterfeit card markets, in Canada and presents data about the nature of credit card fraud in contemporary North America and the United Kingdom.
Abstract
The discussion notes that Canada's global share of credit card fraud rose faster than any other area of the world except Latin America between 1996 and 1996 and amounted to 7.3 percent of the world total and had a higher rate of fraud than any other region as a percentage of sales. Factors that influence how many people offend and how they organize themselves include the levels, social distribution, and organization of existing criminal activity in a setting; the social and technical skills available; and the motivation levels of those who contemplate fraud. Thus, frauds can be committed by a continuum of organizational forms ranging from lone thieves who use the cards they have stolen to global organized crime syndicates. Methods of obtaining fraud include application fraud, the manufacture of counterfeit cards, and card theft. Barriers to entry for offenders will increase as technologically driven fraud prevention improves; their involvement will depend on the availability of capital investment and technological skills for counterfeiting, as well as on the attractiveness of such frauds compared with other criminal and noncriminal opportunities for any given individual or group. 17 references (Author abstract modified)