Red alert as online shopping soars

And a number of new high-profile cases reveal that most online users are at risk. A major international operation, run with the help of a former Russian bank chief, resulted in tens of thousands of British, American and Spanish account holders being defrauded. Police believe the Internet-based enterprise, founded on strict business lines, ran for 10 years. Yorkshire Today reports that compromised credit cards were used to buy large amounts of electrical goods, later sold to customers on the eBay Web site in Britain and abroad. A library of false documents and even a bogus firm of solicitors were used to generate numerous fictitious identities and open hundreds of bank accounts to hold the huge amounts of ‘illicit cash’ flooding in. At its heart was Anton Dolgov, former head of the ill-fated Moscow City Bank. For part of the time he ran the operation from an unassuming-looking ‘nerve centre’ in north Kensington, London, equipped with state-of-the-art computers protected by cutting-edge encryption software. He will be sentenced next week. Full Yorkshire Today report

And, around the world, other cases of Internet fraud continue to surface. A Sydney man has been charged over an alleged $1.2m Internet banking scam. An AustralianIT report says that the 42-year-old man was arrested by detectives attached to Strike Force Ackeron, established in 2003 to investigate the scam. Police allegedly seized British passports and a computer during a raid on the man\'s apartment in Sydney. He was questioned by fraud squad detectives and charged with five offences, including three counts of possessing falsified foreign passports. Full AustralianIT report

In the UK, fraudsters are preying on people who are worried about card cloning and skimming. E-mails are being sent to people across Peterborough claiming to be an official message from Barclays. They warn that financial institutions around the world have been subject to attempts by criminals to try to defraud money from them and their customers. The Peterborough Today reports that it invites readers to click on an Internet link that leads to a homepage that is remarkably similar to the official Barclays Web site. People are asked to enter all their security details such as surname, account number and a password. Barclays has warned customers not to give out any of their details. Full Peterborough Today report

Computer users who type in the same username and password for multiple sites – such as online banks, travel agencies and booksellers – are at serious risk from identity thieves. Tiscali notes that the International Telecommunication Union, a Geneva-based UN branch, said businesses and regulators need to find a solution to the spread of personal information on the Internet, possibly by developing more streamlined identification methods. At the moment, the ITU said the sheer number of identifiers and passwords required from computer users made it nearly inevitable that they repeat codes. Meanwhile, APACS, the UK payments association is launching a fraud awareness campaign to promote the online security systems provided by Visa and MasterCard. Easier Finance reports that figures released by APACS early in November showed that overall card fraud was in decline. However, Internet, telephone and mail order fraud, which now accounts for 46% of all losses, grew by 5% year on year. Full Tiscali report Full Easier Finance report