Glossary of Digital Financial Crime

Thirty-nine terms that recur across the analyses on this platform: fraud typologies, laundering techniques, forensic methods and the regulatory frameworks that govern them. Each term links to the full German entry, which carries the longer definition, the practical context and how it differs from related terms.

The terminology follows the usage of FATF, Europol, INTERPOL, UNODC and the German BKA and FIU. Where a German term has no established English equivalent, the German original is given alongside.

• AMLA (Anti-Money Laundering Authority)The new EU anti-money laundering authority based in Frankfurt am Main. From 2028 it will directly supervise selected high-risk financial institutions and coordinate national supervisors.Full entry in German
• APP Fraud (Authorised Push Payment)Fraud in which the victim authorises and executes the payment themselves. Offenders obtain that authorisation by deceiving the victim about identity or purpose, which leaves banks in a liability grey zone because the transaction looks formally legitimate.Full entry in German
• Asset FreezeThe freezing of assets by issuers of centralised tokens, usually at the request of law enforcement. A freeze secures assets and stops their outflow; returning them to victims remains a separate, often lengthy legal procedure.Full entry in German
• Bridge (Cross-Chain Bridge)A technical connection between two blockchains that moves assets from one chain to another. In money laundering, bridges serve as a tool to distribute a trail across several ledgers.Full entry in German
• CASP (Crypto-Asset Service Provider)A crypto service provider as defined by the European MiCA regulation. Custody, exchange or trading of crypto-assets inside the EU requires CASP authorisation.Full entry in German
• Chain HoppingAn obfuscation technique in which assets are moved between different blockchains in rapid succession. Every hop makes the trail harder to follow because each chain keeps its own ledger.Full entry in German
• Chinese Money Laundering Networks (CMLN)Professional laundering service providers rooted in Chinese underground banking. They launder proceeds from fraud, drug trafficking and other offences, and connect cash, banking and crypto circuits across borders for a commission.Full entry in German
• Cluster AnalysisA blockchain forensics method. Individual addresses are attributed to a common holder based on transaction patterns and technical characteristics, turning scattered addresses into an identifiable entity.Full entry in German
• Cybertrading FraudInvestment fraud run through fake online trading platforms. Victims see manipulated prices and profits while their deposits flow directly into the offender structure.Full entry in German
• DeepfakeAI-generated audio, image or video content that imitates real people convincingly. In financial fraud, deepfakes increasingly replace human contact in identity verification and executive impersonation.Full entry in German
• DeFi (Decentralised Finance)Financial applications built on smart contracts that operate without a central operator. Relevant to money laundering because many protocols perform no identity checks at all.Full entry in German
• DEX (Decentralised Exchange)A trading venue for crypto-assets without a conventional customer account and usually without a central operator. Trades run directly through smart contracts, so the point at which identity would normally be verified does not exist.Online addition, not in the 2026 print edition · full entry in German
• FATF (Financial Action Task Force)The intergovernmental body based in Paris that sets the global standards against money laundering and terrorist financing. Its 40 Recommendations form the reference framework for national legislation.Full entry in German
• Financial Agent (Finanzagent)The German term for a person who makes their bank account available for forwarding criminal proceeds, whether for commission or under a pretext. Recruitment usually runs through fake job offers or relationship fraud.Full entry in German
• Foreign Offences (Auslandstaten)German crime statistics category for cases where the damage occurs in Germany but the suspect acted from abroad or from an untraceable location. These offences sit outside the headline figures of the core statistics.Full entry in German
• Guarantee MarketplaceAn online marketplace that brokers illegal services through an escrow system: mule accounts, stolen identity data, fraud kits and laundering services. It functions as the wholesale layer of the fraud industry.Full entry in German
• KYC (Know Your Customer)The obligation to identify customers at financial service providers and the foundation of any anti-money laundering regime. AI-generated identity documents and deepfake video calls attack precisely this foundation.Full entry in German
• Liveness DetectionA verification method in video identification intended to establish whether a living person is acting in front of the camera rather than a recording, a mask or an AI simulation.Online addition, not in the 2026 print edition · full entry in German
• MiCA (Markets in Crypto-Assets)The EU regulation for crypto-assets and crypto service providers. It governs authorisation, supervision, custody and stablecoin issuance uniformly across the EEA. It has applied in full since 30 December 2024; the last national transition periods ended on 1 July 2026, in Germany already at the end of 2025.Full entry in German
• MixerA service that pools crypto-assets from many users and pays them out again in order to sever the link between deposit and withdrawal. A central building block of on-chain obfuscation.Full entry in German
• Money Laundering (Three-Phase Model)The classic descriptive model in three stages: placement of criminal funds into the financial system, layering to obscure their origin through transactions, and integration into the legitimate economy.Full entry in German
• Money MuleA person who makes their account or identity available for forwarding criminal proceeds, often recruited through job advertisements or relationship fraud.Full entry in German
• Off-Ramp / On-RampThe transition points between fiat money and crypto-assets. On-ramps move money onto the chain, off-ramps take it back out, and this is where regulation and investigation have the most leverage.Full entry in German
• OSINT (Open Source Intelligence)The gathering of intelligence from openly accessible sources. In crypto forensics, OSINT connects on-chain data with traces from forums, social networks and registers.Full entry in German
• OTC Desk (Over the Counter)A trading desk for large crypto volumes outside public order books. Reputable desks serve institutional clients; unregulated desks are part of the laundering infrastructure.Full entry in German
• Peel ChainAn obfuscation pattern in which a large amount is passed along a long chain of new addresses: at each hop a small part is split off to exchanges, services or cash-out points while the remainder moves on.Full entry in German
• Pig Butchering (Sha Zhu Pan)Long-term fraud in which offenders build a personal relationship with the victim over weeks and then steer them onto fake investment platforms. The term comes from Chinese: the pig is fattened before it is slaughtered.Full entry in German
• PKS Foreign Offence TablesA separate set of tables in the German police crime statistics covering offences with damage in Germany but no traceable domestic point of action. Cases recorded here do not appear in the headline figures.Full entry in German
• Recovery ScamFollow-up fraud against people who have already been defrauded. Offenders pose as lawyers, investigators or recovery services and promise to retrieve lost funds in exchange for advance payments.Full entry in German
• Romance ScamFraud built on a fabricated romantic relationship, initiated through dating platforms and social networks. Weeks of trust-building are followed by demands for money.Full entry in German
• Scam CompoundA sealed-off facility in Southeast Asia where fraud is run on an industrial scale. A substantial share of the workers are recruited under false job promises and held under coercion.Full entry in German
• Section 311 (USA PATRIOT Act)A US legal instrument allowing the Treasury to designate foreign institutions or jurisdictions as a primary money laundering concern. Its sharpest special measure cuts off access to the US banking system entirely.Full entry in German
• Sha Zhu PanThe original Chinese term for pig butchering, literally the slaughter of the fattened pig. The expression comes from the offender structures themselves and describes the method from their point of view.Online addition, not in the 2026 print edition · full entry in German
• Smurfing (Structuring)Splitting large sums into many small transactions below reporting and attention thresholds. In the crypto context, offenders distribute amounts across hundreds of addresses.Full entry in German
• StablecoinA crypto token pegged to a reference currency such as the US dollar. Stablecoins are the preferred settlement medium of industrial money laundering, and centralised issuers can freeze individual addresses.Full entry in German
• Synthetic IdentityA fully or partly fabricated identity, frequently AI-generated, including identity document, face and biography. It is the basic building block for account openings and company formations.Full entry in German
• Travel RuleThe obligation on crypto service providers to transmit originator and beneficiary information alongside transfers, the equivalent of the payment data set in conventional banking.Full entry in German
• Velocity GapThe speed differential between offenders and law enforcement. Criminal assets move across chains and borders in minutes while mutual legal assistance takes weeks or months.Online addition, not in the 2026 print edition · full entry in German
• Wallet (Custodial / Self-Custody)The access point to crypto-assets. With custodial wallets a service provider holds the keys and can act on an official order; with self-custody the holder keeps the keys themselves.Online addition, not in the 2026 print edition · full entry in German

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