A recent study has uncovered unusual activities on the Steam Marketplace, potentially indicating money laundering practices

Recent findings reveal questionable trading activities on the Steam Marketplace, suggesting the platform could be utilized for laundering money.

An investigation published in the Forensic Science International: Digital Investigation journal explored the possibility of money laundering through secondary marketplaces in video games.

This examination centered around transactions in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, utilizing public data to analyze trading patterns over a span of five days in August 2020.

The research analyzed information such as anonymous seller and buyer IDs, item IDs, and the details of each trade, including value and timestamps, to detect "patterns of trades and item movements" indicative of money laundering.

The study identified a small group of frequently appearing traders, with four individuals consistently ranking among the top ten buyers and sellers during the period reviewed.

For instance, it was noted that the top ten sellers executed 4.5% of the total CS:GO trades on the marketplace within this timeframe.

This high frequency of transactions by certain individuals suggested "a potential manipulation of the marketplace or other activities" enabling these traders to conduct buying and selling at such elevated levels.

The study concluded that by applying "standard indicators of money laundering," suspicious behavior can be detected on video game secondary marketplaces, implying that similar assessments could be carried out on other platforms.