The Fraudster Glossary is maintained by Eric Huber. The best way to reach me about anything below is through LinkedIn.
This is a one-person project run alongside a full-time job, so response times vary. Every message gets read.
Submitting a term
New terms are the most useful thing you can send. Fraud slang moves faster than any one person can track, and most of what’s in the glossary got there because someone shared what they were seeing.
A good submission includes:
- The term, spelled the way you actually saw it used.
- What it means, as best you can tell. A partial or uncertain definition is still worth sending — say so and I’ll dig.
- A real usage example if you have one. This is the part that makes the glossary useful to other analysts, because it shows how the term appears in context rather than in the abstract.
- Rough context — what platform, what kind of channel, roughly when.
Before you send anything, please defang URLs and strip identifying details. Never include victim personal information, and don’t send anything tied to an active investigation that hasn’t been made public.
Anonymous submissions are fine
Plenty of people who see this language day to day have good reasons not to be named. You don’t have to tell me who you are, and I’ll never credit anyone without asking first. If you’d like to be credited, say so and I’ll add you to the contributors list — otherwise the entry just goes in.
Corrections
If a definition is wrong, outdated, or missing an important nuance, please tell me. A reference that can’t be corrected isn’t worth much, and being wrong in public is worse than being incomplete. Point me at the entry and explain what’s off — I’d rather fix it than defend it.
Press and research inquiries
Journalists, academics, and analysts citing the glossary are welcome to get in touch. The glossary is licensed CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, so you can quote and adapt it for non-commercial use with attribution — no permission needed. Reach out if you want background, context on a particular term, or to check that you’re reading something correctly.