Dennis Lormel on Terrorism and Credit Card Fraud

By Ilan Weinglass

I'd like to point out a new white paper authored by Dennis Lormel on the role credit card fraud plays in terrorist financing, titled Terrorism and Credit Card Information Theft. The article contains a good general overview of terror financing in general, as well. While there are no new revelations in the white paper, it outlines the increasing use of credit card fraud by terrorist groups, as well of several case studies of such use.

The real take-away I get from the white paper is that terrorists are constantly changing their methods of funding and it is up to government and financial institutions to keep up with these changes. As Lormel writes:

One of the true challenges in dealing with terrorist financing is the recognition of the dynamics of change and understanding that terrorist and terrorist financing methodologies will constantly change to avoid detection. Developing mechanisms to identify emerging trends should be incorporated into the risk analysis process.

In addition, an article assessing Lormel's white paper can be found here.

Comments

[Westgate Capital]

As a consistent continuation of the series of fraud scheme investigations that became very urgent and timely in light of the financial crisis which fell upon the whole world, the FBI arrested four top investment managers who were to appear before a federal judge in Manhattan. As the head of the company James Nicholson has been arrested on charges of bank fraud and securities fraud. Nicholson allegedly took investment monies, intended for investing in a hedge fund, and then he and his partners essentially took all of it. They even went so far as to put up a Westgate Capital branded investments division complete with virtual address and a phone number that only went to an answering service.

[John Beck]

Terrorist financing has become common resulting in different financial cases , hence detection have to be done in accordance to prevent frauds .