Dynamic and bibliometric analysis of terms identifying the combating financial and cyber fraud system

Abstract

The main purpose of this study is to conduct a dynamic and bibliometric analysis of the main terms that identify the system for combating financial and fraud to identify trends in the formation of social and scientific thought. The review of the scientific literature indicates an increase in the number of scientific publications over the past ten years. It was revealed that the most cited works cover the problems associated with cyber threats in everyday life, among which are botnets, cyber bullying, as well as financial fraud implemented through cryptocurrencies, smart contracts, and the black market on the Internet. Cloud forensics, technical and intellectual analysis are proposed as countermeasures. The research tools were a dynamic analysis of global network user requests, implemented using Google Trends, and a bibliometric analysis of scientific publications by the world’s leading scientists, performed using the VOSviewer analytical package. The search terms “Fraud”, “Finance Fraud”, “Cyber Fraud”, “Finance Cyber Fraud”, “Money Laundering”, “Anti-Money Laundering” and “Anti-Fraud” for the period from 08/07/2017 to 08/07/2022. For bibliometric analysis, two datasets with a length of 2,000 observations were formed based on queries in the Scopus database regarding the terms “Cyber Crime” and “Anti-money Laundering”. The results of the dynamic analysis revealed a decrease in the level of interest in fraud and financial fraud since the beginning of 2021, while the trend of cyber fraud is increasing. This led to the conclusion that there was an impact of the pandemic, which caused an increase in cybercrime. The results of the analysis of requests for “Fraud” and “Finance Fraud” by geographical distribution showed that they interested users belonging to countries with a significant difference in economic development. That is, representatives of poor countries are potential cyber fraudsters, and developed countries are potential victims of fraud. Conducting a bibliometric analysis made it possible to obtain clusters of promising areas of scientific research in the field of cybercrimes, among which mathematical and network tools for combating them, general concepts, digitalization and digital forensics, cyber protection, data protection, authentication and encryption of data, etc. are highlighted. At the same time, the focus of research is shifting towards methods of countering cybercrimes. Promising directions in the field of Money Laundering are mathematical methods and information technologies, cryptocurrencies and blockchains, corruption, financial terrorism, etc. The greatest potential belongs to money laundering through cryptocurrencies and blockchains. The lessons learned can be useful for improving the strategy of combating financial and cybercrimes and forming an analytical basis for the scientific community and practitioners.