Sales of digital goods such as virtual objects and currency used in online games are taking off with consumers. Unfortunately for their vendors, they are increasingly popular with cyber criminals, too. Merchants that sell digital goods lost 1.9% of all revenue to fraud in 2009, compared with a 1.1% fraud rate for companies that sell physical goods online, according to CyberSource Corp., which processes credit cards for online merchants.

Federal and state authorities on Thursday said they were beefing up efforts to protect consumers against fraud, particularly ones that prey on homeowners at risk of foreclosure. Attorneys general from 12 states attended the meeting with Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and others, according to a news release. Many of them said that mortgage rescue scams have become a serious problem in their states.

The Wisconsin Better Business Bureau issued a consumer warning Wednesday about iJango, a new, self-described multi-level online marketing company.The BBB says iJango appears to be a pyramid scheme, in which people are paying hundreds of dollars in upfront fees based on the claim that they can earn money by recruiting others to do the same.

Paypal is the most used payment processor on the web, but does that necessarily mean that they are number one? Let us just reflect on for a minute the principles we were taught way back in elementary school, when our parents taught us just because our peers were doing something that was popular, doesn't mean it was good for us. For instance, we past hundreds of people on the street daily, with cigarettes dangling from their lips.

A Brooklyn court indicted 8 persons for running a fraudulent scheme that involved such dealers as Got Wireless and KP Wireless who used customer details to order handsets. The court documents say that the two of the defendants who ran cellular dealerships in New York and Florida, picked up customer details from the network's databases, then used the details to impersonate those customers and order additional handsets, as well as making insurance claims for broken handsets.

Federal prosecutors have accused 37 people and 4 business of mortgage fraud. Those charged people include mortgage brokers, loan officers, appraisers and the executive of a title company. There is no relation among the cases. According to authorities lenders in those schemes lost millions of dollars after loans went to default and properties were foreclosed upon.

 As mobile phones have been evolving to become more and more like computers when it comes to useful features and functions available with PCs at the same time they incurred the same problems we have when using our desktops and laptops. Smartphones with the options and operating systems much like computers have are also vulnerable to malicious applications and virus attacks which often results either in device damage or identity theft.

According to the recent report provided by McAfee Inc. some of the riskiest searches on the Internet today are associated either with finding items for free, such as music or screensavers, or looking for work that can be done from home. Cybercrooks deploy search categories like these to trick unwitting users into visiting their sites where they will be offered to download files carrying malicious software.

ZapShares Inc today declared about launch of their free ZapShares software. It is the first software, which is specifically designed to help protect the 200 million users of P2P file-sharing software who are at high risk of identity theft and lawsuits. ZapShares software scans a user’s computer, identifies any potential security threats, and prevents potentially sensitive files from being shared. 

The stories about electronic break-ins, hacking, and cyber fraud are always hot topics in news and blogs. Although the banking industry states that their services are safe and secure, others claim that any online account can be penetrated under the right circumstances. There is only one way for people to judge their accounts' security - to find out how a typical break-in could be carried out.

Going to withdraw money from a local ATM or buy gas with your plastic? Beware of skimming! The Internet is full of dramatic stories about fraudsters stealing credit and debit card information from unsuspecting consumers. The victims don't become aware of the identity theft until they receive a bank statement. 

Last 6 months were full of news on all kind of frauds online. InternetRetailer.com has published an interesting article. So, according to the site 2008 saw more electronic records breaches than previous four years combined. 

Globo.com posted an unconfirmed report where it said that the site of Brazilian largest bank Bandesco was attacked by the cybercrooks who redirected its customers to fraudulent websites that attempted to steal passwords and install malware, reports the Register. The redirection is said to be the result of cache poisoning attack on Brazilian internet service provider NET Virtua.

The Times has today reported that 1,295 machines at NATO and foreign ministries, embassies, banks and news organizations across the world, as well as computers used by the Dalai Lama and Tibetan exiles were compromised by some spy system. A spy network believed to have been controlled from China has hacked into classified documents on government and private computers in 103 countries, according to internet researchers, says British newspaper.  

In these tough economic times, many of us are looking for work to make ends meet. The Internet is great global marketplace for different types of work which can be done at home: freelance writing, editing, data entry, blogging, forum posting, home-based call center, and a lot more. Isn’t it great – to avoid office environment and wear your pajamas as a uniform?