Digital marketplaces where users can list items and conduct bidding processes in real time, enabling both international participation and transparent competitive auctions.
Main/
Online Auction Platforms
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Code
PS0097
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Name
Online Auction Platforms
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Version
1.0
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Category
E-commerce, Marketplaces & Retail
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Created
2025-03-14
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Modified
2025-04-02
Related Techniques
- Criminals stage auctions with no genuine bidders or artificially inflated bids.
- Once ‘winning’ transactions settle, illicit funds enter the system, masked as legitimate auction proceeds.
- Provide international and often anonymous marketplaces for trading high-value collectibles with minimal AML controls.
- Criminals create multiple user accounts to stage repeat transactions, bidding manipulations, and abrupt price changes, layering illicit proceeds through seemingly legitimate sales.
- Digital platforms facilitate quick, fluid transactions across borders, obscuring the true source of funds.
- Criminals may auction virtual items or entire gaming accounts, masking payment flows behind competitive bidding processes.
- Inflated bids or sham auctions help integrate illicit funds and obscure transaction origins.
- Criminals list digital items (e.g., NFTs) and repeatedly bid on their own auctions using multiple pseudonymous accounts, artificially inflating perceived value and trade volume.
- The rapid transactions and lack of transparent beneficial ownership disclosures enable layering of illicit funds, reframing them as auction proceeds.
- Criminals can exploit digital bidding environments by colluding with accomplices to inflate item prices or place bogus bids, then collect proceeds from apparent sales.
- Suspicious funds deposited for online auctions may be refunded after failed bids, creating a fraudulent but documented income stream that appears legitimate.
- The anonymity of some online platforms and weak participant verification enable criminals to mask their identities and launder funds with minimal oversight.