Businesses warned over card fraud danger

The danger posed by criminals using the internet to trade in stolen credit card details has been 'underestimated' according to a report by BBC News.

In an undercover investigation, BBC journalists posed as hackers to infiltrate a website selling card details that had been stolen from small online retailers.

The journalists calculated that, had failed fraud attempts been successful, the UK would be looking at a total of £500 million in card losses for the year. The amount is significantly higher than last year's banking industry figures for successful phone, internet and mail order card fraud, which total £290.5 million.

James Roper, of the Interactive Media in Retail Group (IMRG), told More Than Business News that "the bad guys are getting cleverer and cleverer".

"Anyone's susceptible to this, large organisations and small ones," he said, although he noted that small businesses were often better at keeping control of their customers' data.

Mr Roper advised firms to reduce the risk of being hit by fraud by carefully screening potential employees and by supporting them properly once they are hired.