Cost-effective business of fraudsters

Growth of cybercrime is expected to go on throughout 2008. An opportunity to get access to big funds with little risk to be apprehended or traced is too attractive and lucrative to give it up.

The online fraud 'business' is estimated to be tens of billions of dollars yearly. Today it is even larger than drug operations. Many criminals turn their eyes to Internet on account of the same privileges they gain here as ordinary people do practice legitimate business. Among them there are a global reach, automated transactions and large auditorium of potential victims.

Something else that attracts fraudsters is a possibility to stay concealed as there is no need to be in direct contact with the victims to get their passwords and other financial information. They may live in another country which implies practical unfeasibility to be prosecuted and imprisoned.

There are a lot of fraud patterns existing today. Extortion rackets, phishing, information and identity theft, and money laundering are just a few examples. But to fight the plague, there are a great number of protective measures either. Nevertheless, most companies demonstrate their incompatibility with current data security standards.

A common standard today is the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard. It was developed by the major credit card companies to safeguard customer information. Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and other credit card associations urge merchants and retailers to bring the way they store, process and transmit cardholder data in conformity with minimum security standards. All the companies worth their salt should make every effort to achieve high-level security and reliability. There is no place for self-confidence and trade-off.