-------- Original Message -------- Subject: [Information_technology] Daily News 12/24/02 Date: Tue, 24 Dec 2002 10:24:51 -0800 From: "NIPC Watch" <nipc.watch@private> To: <information_technology@private> December 23, Observer (London) - Cyber thieves net millions as Christmas shoppers go online. Online retailers are set to lose almost pounds 100 million in business over Christmas and New Year as gangs of fraudsters cash in on the internet sales boom. While high street sales are up by about 6 per cent on this time last year, online sales are expected to reach pounds 2 billion in the next three weeks - double last year's total. Yet as more than 10 million people have shopped by computer, there has been a corresponding rise in crime. "Although significant steps have been taken to try and combat online fraud, it is increasing at around 30 per cent per year," said fraud expert Peter Doddington of software company SAS. "As we eliminate opportunistic fraud, we are left with a highly-skilled 'professional' class of fraudster, often linked to organized crime." Today the criminals will set up a bogus but professional-looking website offering desirable goods at well below high street prices. Buyers input their details - including billing address and security numbers - but when they try to purchase something, the site will tell them their card cannot be processed. People running the site will have collected the information they need. They sit on it for six to eight weeks, then use it fraudulently," Doddington added. Dozens of chatrooms and specialist sites exist where hackers swap personal details of card holders. The numbers are exchanged for cash or in return for passwords allowing free access to websites that normally require payment. According to research carried out by Gartner Inc, actual fraud will account for only around pounds 11m in losses, but security set up by the retailers mean that millions more in potential sales are lost. Source: http://hoovnews.hoovers.com/fp.asp?layout=displaynews&doc_id=NR20021222670.4 _5afb00250093f92e _______________________________________________ Information_technology mailing list Information_technology@listserv http://listserv.infragard.org/mailman/listinfo/information_technology
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