Abstract: Merchant accounts associated with sales of counterfeit or other prohibited goods may be automatically discovered by identifying websites that have traits characteristic of those that sell prohibited goods. Automated browsing sessions are established with the respective websites, in which communication traffic, page identifiers, and page contents are captured for analysis. During each of the automated sessions, a website is automatically navigated to locate and visit a payment-processing page associated with a known payment processor. The captured data from the session is analyzed to identify a merchant account established with the payment processor for receiving proceeds from sales of prohibited goods. In some cases, the captured data is analyzed to identify a common merchant and/or page identifier that was encountered in multiple sessions. Multiple otherwise unrelated websites may thereby be grouped together as being likely associated with a common merchant account.

Abstract: Merchant accounts associated with sales of counterfeit or other prohibited goods may be automatically discovered by identifying websites that have traits characteristic of those that sell prohibited goods. Automated browsing sessions are established with the respective websites, in which communication traffic, page identifiers, and page contents are captured for analysis. During each of the automated sessions, a website is automatically navigated to locate and visit a payment-processing page associated with a known payment processor. The captured data from the session is analyzed to identify a merchant account established with the payment processor for receiving proceeds from sales of prohibited goods. In some cases, the captured data is analyzed to identify a common merchant and/or page identifier that was encountered in multiple sessions. Multiple otherwise unrelated websites may thereby be grouped together as being likely associated with a common merchant account.