Recruiting co-offenders for financial cybercrime: an analysis of police investigations into cybercriminal networks

The aim of the current study is to better understand how financial cybercriminal networks recruit co-offenders. We address important knowledge gaps, as not much is known about pathways into cybercrime due to a lack of research. More knowledge can be used in practice in the context of cybercrime offender prevention. For these purposes, we analyzed 15 closed police investigations into cybercriminal networks from the Netherlands, in accordance with the approach of the Dutch Organized Crime Monitor. This is a valuable and well-established research methodology to study criminal activities of which little is known. Analysis revealed that core members need a variety of co-offenders to successfully commit financial cybercrimes such as phishing and online consumer fraud. These co-offenders can be categorized as professional facilitators, recruited facilitators, and money mules. They were approached on social media, especially on Telegram and Snapchat, as well as in the physical world. Some were promised a financial reward and were actually paid out the money, but others were manipulated and possibly forced to cooperate under threats of violence. It was not always necessary for cybercriminal networks to actively reach out, as co-offenders also found their way to the network. Taken together, our study indicates there are various offline and online pathways into cybercrime, and that cybercrime offenders apply different strategies to recruit co-offenders.