View source for Why forums? An empirical analysis into the facilitating factors of carding forums

{{Publication
|Service=Shadowcrew, Cardersmarket, Darkmarket,
|Feature=Carding,
|Year=2013
|Date=2013-05-02
|Editor=WebSci '13 Proceedings of the 5th Annual ACM Web Science Conference
|Link=http://www.websci13.org/
|DOI=10.1145/2464464.2464524
|Author=Michael Yip, Nigel Shadbolt, Craig Webber,
|Type=Scientific paper
|Abstract=Over the last decade, the nature of cybercrime has transformed from naive vandalism to profit-driven, leading to the emergence of a global underground economy. A noticeable trend which has surfaced in this economy is the repeated use of forums to operate online stolen data
markets. Using interaction data from three prominent carding forums: Shadowcrew, Cardersmarket and
Darkmarket, this study sets out to understand why forums are repeatedly chosen to operate online stolen data markets despite numerous successful infiltrations by law enforcement in the past. Drawing on theories from criminology, social psychology, economics and network science, this study has identified four fundamental socioeconomic mechanisms offered by carding forums: (1)
formal control and coordination; (2) social networking; (3) identity uncertainty mitigation; (4) quality uncertainty mitigation. Together, they give rise to a sophisticated underground market regulatory system that facilitates underground trading over the Internet and thus drives the expansion of the underground economy.
}}