The paper itself (linked to in the article) is pretty accessible, and a good read. Interesting that they noted for their research, 93.18% of the requests were f

The paper itself (linked to in the article) is pretty accessible, and a good read. Interesting that they noted for their research, 93.18% of the requests were for pharmaceuticals. As for the banks: Azerigazbank in Azerbaijan, St Kitts & Nevis Anguilla National Bank in St Kitts &Nevis, and Danish-owned DnB Nord in Latvia, there is some more interesting factoids in the actual paper: "most herbal and replica purchases cleared through the same bank in St. Kitts (a by-product of ZedCash’s dominance of this market, as per the previous discussion), while most pharmaceutical affiliate programs used two banks (in Azerbaijan and Latvia), and software was handled entirely by two banks (in Latvia and Russia)" As well as the fact that most of the merchant codes were correct: "For example, all of our software purchases (across all programs) were coded as 5734 (Computer Software Stores) and 85% of all pharmacy purchases (again across programs) were coded as 5912 (Drug Stores and Pharmacies). ZedCash transactions (replica and herbal) are an exception, being somewhat deceptive, and each was coded as 5969 (Direct Marketing—Other)." It does make one wonder if spam is a solvable problem.