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Sunday 26 August 2018
Unpicking the cyber-crime economy
Turning virtual cash into real money without being caught is a big problem for successful cyber-criminals.
They often have to get creative when “cashing out” or laundering the money they have stolen, according to a security expert.
The problem of how to handle a large sum of stolen money without arousing suspicion is what Silas Marner thinks would deter burglars from stealing his money – a heap of guineas, crowns and half-crowns – secreted in his cottage, in the novel by George Eliot.
Not that the idea of being robbed presented itself often or strongly to his mind: hoarding was common in country districts in those days; there were old labourers in the parish of Raveloe who were known to have their savings by them, probably inside their flock-beds; but their rustic neighbours, though not all of them as honest as their ancestors in the days of King Alfred, had not imaginations bold enough to lay a plan of burglary. How could they have spent the money in their own village without betraying themselves? They would be obliged to “run away”—a course as dark and dubious as a balloon journey.
BBC News
