A nondescript Office in a business park on the banks of the Monongahela River in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. An unnamed entrance opposite a sandwich bar near the Houses of Parliament in London. These may not look like the front line in the war against a crime wave as globally devastating as the credit crisis. But behind these unremarkable doors are the people who smoke out some of the world's biggest online crooks. And they can be as reclusive as their prey.
In Britain alone, 44 percent of small business have fallen victim to cybercrime and 2007 saw a nine percent increase. "Retailers alone lost more than $440 million in 2007 from internet fraud," says Andrew Goodwill of fraud prevention speacialist The Third Man. "And that's just the figures reported by the banks- they're a shadow of the real figure." According to the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, these crimes could be worth as much as $100 billion a year globally, thanks to the fact that online criminals know no geographical boundaries and no conspire and co-operate without ever meeting.
By TIM BOUQUET
In the shadowy world of internet crime, it can be hard to tell the good guys from the bad
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