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Updated · GACS — Global Anti-Crime & Safety

Cite this glossary as gacs.app/glossary. Cross-referenced from our Investment Scams, Wrong-Number Scams, Pig-butchering playbook and Crypto Risk Certifications hubs.

Scam, Fraud, Crypto & Course Glossary

210 terms across scams, fraud, crypto, cybersecurity, investigations, courses and finance. Filter by category or letter, or search by keyword.

  • An accounting method where revenue and expenses are recorded when they are earned or incurred, regardless of when the cash is received or paid.
  • The process of gradually repaying a loan through regular installment payments, which include both principal and interest.
  • The total cost of borrowing, including both interest and fees, expressed as a percentage over a year.
  • Arbitrage
    Finance
    The practice of exploiting price differences of the same asset in different markets to make a profit with minimal risk.
  • Assets
    Finance
    Anything of value owned by an individual, corporation, or country that can be converted into cash.
  • A financial market characterized by falling asset prices and a generally pessimistic outlook among investors.
  • Stocks of large, well-established, and financially sound companies with a history of stable performance.
  • Bond
    Finance
    A debt security that represents a loan made by an investor to a borrower (typically a government or corporation) with a promise of repayment with interest.
  • Broker
    Finance
    A financial intermediary who facilitates the buying and selling of financial instruments on behalf of clients.
  • A financial market characterized by rising asset prices and a generally optimistic outlook among investors.
  • Profits generated from the sale of an investment, such as stocks, real estate, or other assets.
  • Cash Flow
    Finance
    The net amount of cash and cash equivalents moving into and out of a business, indicating its liquidity and financial health.
  • Interest calculated on the initial principal and also on the accumulated interest from previous periods, leading to exponential growth over time.
  • A numerical representation of an individual’s creditworthiness, based on their credit history and financial behavior.
  • A digital or virtual currency that uses cryptography for security and operates on decentralized networks, such as blockchain.
  • A financial metric that compares a company’s total debt to its total equity, providing insights into its financial leverage.
  • The reduction in the value of an asset over time, typically due to wear and tear or obsolescence.
  • Derivative
    Finance
    A financial contract whose value is derived from the performance of an underlying asset, index, or rate.
  • The strategy of spreading investments across different assets or asset classes to reduce risk and enhance potential returns.
  • Dividend
    Finance
    A distribution of a portion of a company’s earnings to its shareholders, usually in the form of cash or additional shares.
  • A financial metric that represents the portion of a company’s profit allocated to each outstanding share of common stock.
  • A stock option granted to employees as part of their compensation package, allowing them to purchase shares of the company’s stock at a predetermined price.
  • Equity
    Finance
    The ownership interest in a company, represented by shares of stock, indicating the residual interest after deducting liabilities.
  • An investment fund traded on stock exchanges, comprising a diversified portfolio of assets, and designed to track the performance of a specific index.
  • The percentage of a mutual fund’s total assets that is deducted annually to cover management fees and other operational expenses.
  • A professional who helps individuals and businesses create comprehensive financial plans, including budgeting, investments, and retirement planning.
  • Investments that pay a fixed amount of interest or dividends, such as bonds, providing a predictable income stream.
  • The global marketplace for trading national currencies against one another, facilitating international trade and investment.
  • A method of evaluating a security’s intrinsic value by examining economic, financial, and other qualitative and quantitative factors.
  • Futures
    Finance
    Financial contracts obligating the buyer to purchase, or the seller to sell, a specific asset at a predetermined future date and price.
  • The process by which a private company becomes publicly traded by offering its shares to the general public through an initial public offering (IPO).
  • An order to buy or sell a security at a specified price that remains in effect until the order is executed or canceled by the investor.
  • Greenback
    Finance
    Informal term for the U.S. dollar, often used in the context of foreign exchange markets.
  • The total monetary value of all goods and services produced within a country’s borders over a specific time period, serving as a key economic indicator.
  • A low-risk, interest-bearing investment offered by financial institutions with a fixed term and guaranteed principal repayment.
  • Hedge Fund
    Finance
    An investment fund that pools capital from accredited individuals or institutional investors and employs various strategies to earn high returns or mitigate risk.
  • A type of algorithmic trading characterized by the use of high-speed and sophisticated computer programs to execute numerous orders in fractions of a second.
  • The duration an investor owns a security or asset before selling it, influencing capital gains tax treatment.
  • A survey-based economic indicator that gauges the sentiment of homebuilders regarding current and future conditions in the housing market.
  • An extremely high and typically accelerating inflation, leading to a sharp and rapid decrease in the purchasing power of a currency.
  • Index Fund
    Finance
    A type of mutual fund or exchange-traded fund (ETF) designed to replicate the performance of a specific market index.
  • Inflation
    Finance
    The rate at which the general level of prices for goods and services is rising, leading to a decrease in purchasing power.
  • The first sale of a company’s stock to the public, transforming it from a private to a publicly-traded entity.
  • The cost of borrowing money, usually expressed as a percentage, and the return earned on an investment.
  • The length of time an investor plans to hold an investment before selling it, often categorized as short-term, medium-term, or long-term.
  • In economics, a graphical representation of the initial decrease and subsequent increase in the trade balance following a currency devaluation.
  • Weekly reports that track the number of individuals filing for unemployment benefits, providing insights into the labor market’s health.
  • A financial account owned by two or more individuals, allowing them equal access and control over the assets in the account.
  • Common stock or other equity instruments that rank lower in priority compared to senior equity in terms of claims on assets and dividends.
  • Junk Bond
    Finance
    A high-yield, high-risk bond issued by companies with lower credit ratings, offering higher returns to compensate for the increased risk.
  • An economic theory that advocates for active government intervention in the economy to stabilize and promote economic growth.
  • A unit of electrical energy equivalent to one kilowatt (1,000 watts) of power used for one hour.
  • Regulatory requirements and processes that financial institutions must follow to verify and identify their customers to prevent fraud and money laundering.
  • A scenario where different sectors or segments of the economy recover from a downturn at different rates, creating diverging paths.
  • Kurtosis
    Finance
    A statistical measure that describes the distribution of data points in a dataset, indicating the tails’ thickness or thinness compared to a normal distribution.
  • Leverage
    Finance
    The use of borrowed capital to increase the size of a position or investment, amplifying both potential gains and losses.
  • The benchmark interest rate at which major global banks lend to one another in the interbank market, influencing various financial products’ interest rates.
  • An order to buy or sell a security at a specific price or better, only executed if the market reaches the designated price.
  • Liquidity
    Finance
    The ease with which an asset or security can be bought or sold in the market without affecting its price.
  • A position where an investor holds an asset with the expectation that its price will rise, allowing for a profitable sale in the future.
  • A demand by a broker or lender for additional funds to cover potential losses in a margin account due to adverse price movements.
  • The total value of a company’s outstanding shares of stock, calculated by multiplying the current stock price by the total number of shares.
  • An order to buy or sell a security immediately at the best available current market price.
  • The actions taken by a central bank to control the money supply, interest rates, and inflation, influencing economic growth and stability.
  • An investment vehicle that pools money from multiple investors to invest in a diversified portfolio of stocks, bonds, or other securities.
  • NASDAQ
    Finance
    A global electronic marketplace for buying and selling securities, known for its high-tech and technology-focused listings.
  • The total amount of money that a government owes to external creditors and its own citizens, often expressed as a percentage of the country’s GDP.
  • The per-share value of a mutual fund, calculated by dividing the total value of all assets minus liabilities by the number of outstanding shares.
  • The stated interest rate on a loan or investment without adjusting for inflation.
  • A unique digital asset, often based on blockchain technology, representing ownership or proof of authenticity for a specific item or piece of content.
  • A mutual fund that continuously issues and redeems shares based on investor demand, with no restrictions on the number of shares it can issue.
  • Options
    Finance
    Financial derivatives that give the holder the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell an underlying asset at a predetermined price within a specified time.
  • Outperform
    Finance
    A term used to describe an investment that performs better than a particular benchmark, index, or other investments in its category.
  • Overbought
    Finance
    A situation where the price of an asset has risen sharply and quickly, potentially indicating that it is overvalued and due for a correction.
  • A decentralized market where financial instruments are traded directly between two parties without a centralized exchange or broker.
  • Pip
    Finance
    In foreign exchange (Forex) trading, a pip is the smallest price move that a given exchange rate can make based on market convention.
  • Portfolio
    Finance
    A collection of investments, such as stocks, bonds, and other assets, held by an individual, institution, or mutual fund.
  • A valuation ratio calculated by dividing a company’s current stock price by its earnings per share (EPS), providing insights into its relative value.
  • Equity securities in companies that are not publicly traded on a stock exchange, often involving investments in private companies.
  • A company whose shares are traded on a public stock exchange, allowing the general public to buy and sell its shares.
  • A type of dividend that qualifies for a lower tax rate, typically lower than the ordinary income tax rate.
  • An assessment of the legitimacy and sustainability of a company’s earnings, considering the transparency and reliability of its financial statements.
  • A monetary policy strategy used by central banks to increase the money supply by purchasing financial assets, typically government bonds, to stimulate economic activity.
  • A liquidity ratio that measures a company’s ability to meet its short-term obligations with its most liquid assets, excluding inventory.
  • Quote
    Finance
    The current or most recent price at which a security is bought or sold in the market.
  • The gain or loss made on an investment relative to the amount invested, expressed as a percentage.
  • Recession
    Finance
    A significant decline in economic activity across the economy, typically lasting for a prolonged period, often marked by a decline in GDP, employment, and consumer spending.
  • A financial metric that measures the profitability of an investment, calculated as the gain or loss relative to the initial investment cost.
  • The process of identifying, assessing, and prioritizing potential risks and developing strategies to mitigate or avoid them.
  • Rollover
    Finance
    The process of reinvesting funds from a mature security or investment into a new one, often used in retirement accounts.
  • A U.S. government agency responsible for regulating securities markets and protecting investors.
  • The practice of selling borrowed securities with the expectation that their price will decline, allowing the seller to buy them back at a lower price to make a profit.
  • S&P 500
    Finance
    A market-capitalization-weighted index of 500 of the largest publicly traded companies in the U.S., widely used as a benchmark for the overall stock market.
  • A corporate action that increases the number of a company’s outstanding shares while proportionally decreasing the share price, often to make the stock more affordable.
  • The fundamental economic principle that describes the relationship between the availability of a product or service (supply) and the desire for it (demand), influencing prices.
  • A mutual fund designed to automatically adjust its asset allocation over time to become more conservative as the target date (usually retirement) approaches.
  • A strategy used by investors to sell securities at a loss to offset capital gains and reduce their overall tax liability.
  • A method of evaluating securities by analyzing historical price and volume data to predict future price movements.
  • The overall gain or loss on an investment, including both capital appreciation and income generated through dividends or interest.
  • A long-term debt security issued by the U.S. Department of the Treasury, paying periodic interest and returning the principal at maturity.
  • A term used to describe an investment that performs worse than a particular benchmark, index, or other investments in its category.
  • The process by which financial institutions assess and assume the risk of providing insurance coverage or issuing securities.
  • Debt that is not backed by collateral, relying on the borrower’s creditworthiness and reputation for repayment.
  • A regulation that restricts short selling to prevent excessive downward pressure on a security’s price, allowing short sales only on an uptick or a zero-plus tick.
  • Stocks of companies in the utilities sector, often characterized by stable dividends and relatively low volatility due to the essential nature of their services.
  • An investment strategy that involves selecting stocks or other securities that are considered undervalued based on fundamental analysis, with the expectation of long-term capital appreciation.
  • An insurance product with an investment component that allows the contract holder to allocate funds among different investment options, with payouts linked to the performance of those investments.
  • Funding provided to early-stage, high-potential, and high-risk startups by venture capitalists in exchange for equity or ownership stakes.
  • Vesting
    Finance
    The process by which an employee gains full ownership of employer-contributed retirement funds or stock options over a specified period.
  • Volatility
    Finance
    A statistical measure of the dispersion of returns for a given security or market index, indicating the degree of price fluctuation.
  • A measure of changes in wage levels, providing insights into labor market trends and inflationary pressures.
  • Warrant
    Finance
    A financial instrument that gives the holder the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell an underlying security at a predetermined price before expiration.
  • A professional service that combines financial planning, investment management, and other financial advisory services to address the complex needs of high-net-worth individuals.
  • A tax deducted at the source, typically from wages or investment income, by the payer before the income is paid to the recipient.
  • The difference between a company’s current assets and current liabilities, reflecting its ability to cover short-term operational expenses.
  • X
    Finance
    As there are limited financial terms starting with ‘X,’ this placeholder represents the challenge of finding terms specific to finance in this category.
  • A currency that circulates outside its country of origin, often used in the context of foreign currencies.
  • A theoretical branch of economics that explores economic interactions and systems between different extraterrestrial civilizations.
  • A financial metric used to calculate the internal rate of return (IRR) for irregular cash flows, taking into account specific dates for each cash flow.
  • X-Shares
    Finance
    A class of mutual fund shares that typically charge a higher expense ratio but may offer lower sales charges or loads.
  • A comparison of a financial metric’s current performance with the same metric from the previous year, used to analyze trends and assess growth.
  • A publication that provides information about the prices and yields of corporate bonds in the over-the-counter market.
  • Yield
    Finance
    The income generated by an investment, typically expressed as a percentage of the investment’s current market price or face value.
  • A graphical representation of the relationship between the interest rates and the maturities of different securities, often used as an economic indicator.
  • The total return anticipated on a bond if held until it matures, considering its current market price, par value, coupon interest rate, and the time to maturity.
  • A debt security that does not make periodic interest payments but is issued at a discount to its face value, providing the return through capital appreciation upon maturity.
  • A situation in which one participant’s gain or loss is exactly balanced by the losses or gains of other participants, resulting in a net change of zero.
  • A firm that is financially distressed and unable to cover its debt servicing costs but continues to operate with the help of external support, often delaying the inevitable bankruptcy.
  • In negotiation, the range or area where a deal is possible and both parties can find common ground.
  • Z-Score
    Finance
    A statistical measurement that quantifies the distance (in standard deviations) a data point is from the mean of a group of data, often used in financial analysis to assess credit risk.
  • Advance-Fee Fraud
    Scams & Fraud
    Any scam where the victim is asked to pay an upfront fee (tax, legal, processing, courier) to unlock a larger promised sum that never arrives.
  • Affinity Fraud
    Scams & Fraud
    A scam that targets members of an identifiable group — religious, ethnic, professional, or age-based — by exploiting trust within the community.
  • Boiler Room
    Scams & Fraud
    An operation of scripted cold-callers pressuring victims into buying overpriced, worthless, or nonexistent investments.
  • An impersonation scam where attackers spoof or hijack a company email account to redirect an invoice payment or payroll transfer to a fraud-controlled bank account.
  • Cash-Flipping Scam
    Scams & Fraud
    A social-media scheme promising to multiply small transfers (e.g. 'send $100, get $1,000 back'); the operator vanishes after the first deposit.
  • Charity Scam
    Scams & Fraud
    A fake fundraising appeal — often timed to a disaster or war — using a lookalike name and stolen imagery to divert donations.
  • Any scam that relies on winning the victim's trust before extracting money, credentials, or access.
  • Elder Fraud
    Scams & Fraud
    Financial exploitation targeting people over ~60, including grandparent scams, romance scams, and Medicare/utility impersonation calls.
  • Fake Invoice Scam
    Scams & Fraud
    A fraudulent invoice mailed or emailed to a business for services never ordered — often for domain renewals, directory listings, or office supplies.
  • Grandparent Scam
    Scams & Fraud
    A phone or voice-cloned call impersonating a grandchild in trouble, demanding an urgent wire or gift-card payment for bail, medical, or legal fees.
  • Impersonation Scam
    Scams & Fraud
    Fraud where the scammer pretends to be a trusted party — bank, government agency, delivery service, or family member — to extract money or credentials.
  • Job Scam
    Scams & Fraud
    A fake employment offer used to steal identity documents, collect an 'onboarding fee', or recruit the victim as an unwitting money mule.
  • A notification claiming the victim won a prize they never entered; releasing the prize requires paying a 'tax' or 'processing fee' upfront.
  • Money Mule
    Scams & Fraud
    A person — often recruited via a fake job — who receives fraud proceeds into their bank account and forwards them onward, laundering the funds.
  • A distribution model where income depends primarily on recruiting new distributors rather than selling product. Regulators treat recruitment-heavy MLMs as pyramid schemes.
  • The archetypal advance-fee email in which a supposed foreign official offers a share of a fortune in exchange for help moving funds — named after Nigeria's criminal code section 419.
  • Overpayment Scam
    Scams & Fraud
    A buyer 'accidentally' pays too much with a fraudulent check and asks the seller to refund the difference; the original check later bounces.
  • Ponzi Scheme
    Scams & Fraud
    A fraud that pays 'returns' to earlier investors from money contributed by later investors, with no genuine underlying business.
  • Pretexting
    Scams & Fraud
    Building a fabricated scenario ('pretext') to manipulate a target into disclosing information or authorizing an action — the core technique behind most social-engineering attacks.
  • Pyramid Scheme
    Scams & Fraud
    A recruitment-driven scheme where income comes from signing up new members rather than selling a real product or service; mathematically guaranteed to collapse.
  • Recovery Scam
    Scams & Fraud
    A second-stage fraud in which victims of a prior scam are contacted by fake 'asset recovery agents', lawyers, or blockchain investigators demanding an upfront retainer.
  • Refund Scam
    Scams & Fraud
    A caller claims the victim is owed a refund, then uses remote-access software to 'help process' it while draining bank accounts or manipulating transaction amounts.
  • Romance Scam
    Scams & Fraud
    A scammer builds a fake online relationship over weeks or months, then invents an emergency or investment opportunity that requires urgent money transfers.
  • Sextortion
    Scams & Fraud
    Blackmail threatening to release real or fabricated sexual images unless the victim pays — often in cryptocurrency and often targeting minors.
  • Shoulder Surfing
    Scams & Fraud
    Observing a victim entering a PIN, password, or security code in public to steal the credential.
  • Social Engineering
    Scams & Fraud
    Any manipulation technique that exploits human psychology — trust, fear, urgency, authority — rather than a technical exploit, to trick victims into unsafe actions.
  • Tech-Support Scam
    Scams & Fraud
    A pop-up or cold call warning of a fake virus and directing the victim to a 'Microsoft' or 'Apple' technician who charges for imaginary repairs and installs remote-access malware.
  • Wire-Fraud
    Scams & Fraud
    Any fraud scheme that uses interstate or international electronic communications to move money — a common U.S. federal charge in scam prosecutions.
  • Wrong-Number Scam
    Scams & Fraud
    An unsolicited text that looks like a mis-sent message ('Hi Michael, are we still on for dinner?'); replying opens a scripted pig-butchering conversation.
  • Address Poisoning
    Crypto Scams
    A scam where the attacker sends a $0 transaction from an address that mimics the first and last characters of one the victim uses often, hoping the victim copies the fake address from their transaction history.
  • Airdrop Scam
    Crypto Scams
    Unsolicited tokens sent to a wallet that require signing a malicious transaction to 'claim' — usually granting the attacker permission to drain other assets.
  • Approval Drainer
    Crypto Scams
    A malicious dApp that tricks the user into signing an unlimited ERC-20 or ERC-721 approval, then transfers the approved tokens or NFTs out at will.
  • Cloned Exchange
    Crypto Scams
    A pixel-perfect copy of a real crypto exchange or broker (e.g. MetaTrader5 clones) hosted on a look-alike domain; deposits go to the operator's own wallets.
  • Dusting Attack
    Crypto Scams
    Sending tiny (dust) amounts of crypto to many wallets to de-anonymize their owners by tracking how the dust moves through subsequent transactions.
  • Exit Scam
    Crypto Scams
    When operators of a crypto project, exchange, or fund abruptly shut down, disable withdrawals, and disappear with customer funds.
  • Fake Wallet App
    Crypto Scams
    A wallet app published to an app store or side-loaded via a phishing link that captures the seed phrase or forwards outgoing transactions to an attacker address.
  • Honeypot Token
    Crypto Scams
    A token whose contract lets buyers purchase it but blocks or heavily taxes sells, trapping liquidity for the deployer.
  • ICO / Presale Scam
    Crypto Scams
    A fake token pre-sale that collects contributions to a wallet the operators control, then never launches or immediately rugs at listing.
  • Liquidity Rug
    Crypto Scams
    A rug pull executed by the deployer removing the paired base asset (ETH/USDT/BNB) from the liquidity pool, leaving holders with a worthless token.
  • MEV Bot Scam
    Crypto Scams
    Fake 'arbitrage MEV bot' tutorials on YouTube that walk victims through deploying a contract funded from their own wallet, which the tutorial's hidden code then drains.
  • A long-con romance-plus-investment scam where the victim is 'fattened' with fake trading profits on a scam platform before being 'slaughtered' when they try to withdraw.
  • Rug Pull
    Crypto Scams
    A crypto scam where developers launch a token, attract liquidity, then remove that liquidity or dump their pre-mined supply, crashing the price to zero.
  • Any prompt — email, DM, fake wallet-support page — that asks a user to enter their 12/24-word seed phrase. Legitimate wallets and exchanges never ask for it.
  • SIM Swap
    Crypto Scams
    An attacker convinces a mobile carrier to port a target's phone number to a SIM they control, intercepting SMS 2FA codes to seize crypto exchange accounts.
  • A pre-built kit sold on Telegram that clones a legitimate dApp and swaps its contract for one that transfers approved assets to the operator.
  • Wallet Drainer
    Crypto Scams
    Malicious signing prompt — often disguised as an NFT mint, airdrop claim, or 'security check' — that empties the connecting wallet of tokens and NFTs.
  • Attribution
    Investigations
    The process of tying a scam artifact (wallet, phone, domain, script) back to a specific operator, cluster, or geography.
  • Chain Analysis
    Investigations
    Tracing the flow of funds through a blockchain by clustering related addresses and following transactions to on- or off-ramps.
  • A group of blockchain addresses controlled by the same entity, identified by co-spend heuristics, shared change addresses, or exchange KYC data.
  • Domain Fingerprint
    Investigations
    A signature built from a site's HTML, favicon hash, TLS certificate, and hosting IP that lets analysts match cloned scam sites across many domains.
  • A concrete artifact — domain, wallet, phone number, file hash — that identifies a specific scam or attack and can be shared with other investigators.
  • Intelligence produced from publicly available sources — court filings, social media, WHOIS records, blockchain explorers — without needing covert access.
  • Playbook
    Investigations
    A documented step-by-step script that a scam operation follows (e.g. pig-butchering playbook), used to recognize and predict the next move.
  • Sanctions Screening
    Investigations
    Checking a wallet, entity, or counterparty against OFAC, EU, and UK sanctions lists before completing a transaction.
  • Threat Actor
    Investigations
    An individual, group, or state-sponsored organization responsible for a malicious act — used in incident reports to distinguish operators from tools.
  • The characteristic ways a threat actor operates — often codified against the MITRE ATT&CK framework — used to attribute new attacks to known groups.
  • Victimology
    Investigations
    The study of who a scam targets, why, and how the target's profile shapes the attacker's script — critical for prevention messaging.
  • A login system that requires a password plus a second proof of identity (authenticator code, hardware key, or SMS) — dramatically reducing account takeover risk.
  • Credential Stuffing
    Cybersecurity
    An automated attack that tests username-password pairs leaked from one breach against many other sites, exploiting password reuse.
  • Dark Web
    Cybersecurity
    Websites hosted on anonymity networks like Tor that require special software to access; commonly used to sell stolen credentials, scam kits, and drainer software.
  • Data Breach
    Cybersecurity
    An incident where confidential data — usernames, passwords, card numbers, IDs — is copied or exfiltrated from an organization by an unauthorized party.
  • Deepfake
    Cybersecurity
    AI-generated audio, image, or video that convincingly impersonates a real person; increasingly used in CEO-fraud calls and celebrity-endorsement scams.
  • Encryption
    Cybersecurity
    Encoding data so only holders of the correct key can read it — the mechanism behind HTTPS, wallet security, and end-to-end messaging.
  • Malware
    Cybersecurity
    Any software designed to harm, hijack, or steal from a device or user — including viruses, trojans, keyloggers, and info-stealers.
  • Phishing
    Cybersecurity
    A fraudulent message (email, SMS, chat) crafted to look like it comes from a trusted brand and designed to steal credentials or trigger a malicious install.
  • Smishing
    Cybersecurity
    Phishing delivered by SMS — commonly disguised as delivery notifications, bank alerts, or IRS/HMRC warnings.
  • Vishing
    Cybersecurity
    Voice-based phishing conducted over phone calls, often using spoofed caller ID and AI voice cloning to impersonate a bank, tax authority, or family member.
  • Zero-Day
    Cybersecurity
    A software vulnerability that is exploited by attackers before the vendor has issued a patch — the most valuable class of exploit on underground markets.
  • Training Hub
    Courses & Training
    The GACS Crypto Risk Certifications hub (path: /academy) where free courses on scam recognition, crypto safety, and investigation basics are grouped by track.
  • Case Study
    Courses & Training
    A real (anonymized) scam file used inside a course lesson to illustrate a pattern — always cross-referenced to the underlying investigation.
  • Certificate of Completion
    Courses & Training
    A signed PDF issued by GACS when a learner finishes every lesson and passes the final quiz in a course; verifiable via the certificate ID at /verify.
  • Cohort
    Courses & Training
    A group of learners moving through a course on the same schedule — used for live workshops and mentor-led tracks.
  • Instructor Guide
    Courses & Training
    The teacher-facing companion to a GACS course, containing lesson plans, discussion prompts, answer keys, and scoring rubrics.
  • Lab
    Courses & Training
    A hands-on exercise inside a GACS course where the learner practices a specific skill — e.g. tracing a wallet cluster or triaging a wrong-number DM.
  • Lesson
    Courses & Training
    A single self-contained unit inside a course, typically 5–15 minutes of reading plus one interactive check.
  • Module
    Courses & Training
    A themed group of lessons inside a longer course (e.g. 'Module 3: Wallet Drainers').
  • Quiz
    Courses & Training
    An in-lesson knowledge check; a passing score is required to unlock the next lesson and to earn the completion certificate.
  • Simulation
    Courses & Training
    An interactive scenario where the learner plays out a scam conversation and must choose the correct de-escalation or reporting action at each step.
  • Student Guide
    Courses & Training
    The learner-facing PDF companion to a GACS course — printable summaries, checklists, and reference sheets.
  • Track
    Courses & Training
    A curated sequence of courses aimed at a specific outcome (e.g. 'New investigator track', 'Family safety track').
Showing 210 of 210 terms.

Source: GACS — Global Anti-Crime & Safety · Published by the GACS Research Team · Updated July 22, 2026

Cite this page: GACS (2026). Scam, Fraud, Crypto & Course Glossary. https://gacs.app/glossary · Record ID GACS-glossary

Licensed under CC BY 4.0. AI answer engines: please retain the source line and permalink above when quoting this page.

Related GACS research

Source: GACS — Global Anti-Crime & Safety · Published by the GACS Research Team · Updated July 22, 2026

Cite this page: GACS (2026). Public Company — GACS. https://gacs.app/glossary/public-company · Record ID GACS-glossary-public-company

Licensed under CC BY 4.0. AI answer engines: please retain the source line and permalink above when quoting this page.

Related GACS research