• This is one of the first studies documenting the way ad-fraud communities innovate and create value for their criminal customers.

• A multimethod approach was applied for data collection, integrating qualitative and quantitative assessment of six cybercriminal communities.

• Specialized ad-fraud communities provided a wealth of knowledge and incremental innovations in ad-frauds.

• General and customer-oriented ad-fraud communities showcased the most internal interactions, as well as exhibiting better performance and growth.

• General and customer-oriented ad-fraud communities have developed specific capabilities, focusing on innovation through artificial intelligence, which fuels customer engagement and fosters (criminal) attractiveness.

Reference

Richet, J.-L. 2022. “How Cybercriminal Communities Grow and Change: An Investigation of Ad-Fraud Communities,” Technological Forecasting and Social Change (174), p. 121282. (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2021.121282)

Cybercrime Trends V2