Identities sold for 80 pounds

[17 November 2008]

Online fraudsters sell financial identities for just £80, according to the online safety group Get Safe Online.

Details sold online include names, addresses, passport numbers and confidential financial data such as credit card numbers. Six out of 10 people now manage their finances online, and experts say that people need to do more to protect identities online. Get Safe Online is a group backed by police, government and banks and say that ID theft is a serious and growing problem because of an international trade in stolen identities and data. Online market places are often situated in countries with lax controls against e-crime. They go on to sell bundles of data harvested in attacks against poorly defended computers in wealthier nations. It is estimated that half of all computer users in the UK are vulnerable because they are not using defensive measures including firewalls and up-to-date software which can identify malicious problems.

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