Fraud Definitions Archive

Deep Fake

A technology that overlays a video with different audio or video, in order to make a real-looking video of somebody saying or doing something. A famous example could be a deepfake of Nancy Pelosi (in May 2019) that caught a lot of news attention before being recognized as an authentic-seeming deepfake.

Deep learning is an artificial intelligence function that imitates the workings of the human brain in processing data and creating patterns for use in decision making. Deep learning is a subset of machine learning in artificial intelligence (AI) that has networks capable of learning unsupervised from data that is unstructured or unlabeled.

Deep Web

The Deep Web, What is it?

The entirety of the web that is not accessible by search engines. Regular browsers, like Google and Bing, search the so-called “surface web", defined by public links, and the search stops there. The "Deep Web" and "Dark Web" are more in-depth, allow for privacy, and serve different purposes. When discussing them, it is important to remember their distinctions, as there are many.

The "deep" portion of the web is just like it sounds — below the surface and not completely dark. For instance, online banking pages, legal and government documents, or scientific reports have no reason to be indexed. Personal emails and secure information, like bank statements, can also not be searched.

The dark web represents a sliver of the deep web, and while many of its websites are generally harmless, it is often associated with illegal activities, only accessible via the Tor browser, and such sites can lead to serious consequences. Dark Web vs. Deep Web Inforgraphic

The Dark Web's Risk to Your Business

A nearly infinite supply of stolen payment cards and identities can be acquired on the dark web. The cost of an identity can range from a few dollars to a few thousand dollars, depending on the detail. Many sellers offer guarantees as to the data’s validity and will provide replacement identities if out of date or inaccurate. Escrow services are available for larger purchases and fraud-as-a-service, using local proxy servers, can further improve the odds of illicit transactions getting past anti-fraud systems.

Monitoring programs can also be customized within certain bounds to address gift card and digital product theft, the sale of credentials and customer data by insiders, and other specific merchant challenges.