Since my last comments about phishing, it seems that the BBC has (somehow) unearthed a massive campaign by online fraudsters to use credit card details gleaned from online users, create fake cards with the information, and then clean out accounts by using the self-service checkouts in supermarkets and petrol-stations. Clever Buggers.

But, the UK cyber-police has just shut down an international website where cyber-crooks were trading financial information and ID of users. Darkmarket had been up and running for around three years and being responsible for fraud running into the £millions. It’s quite worrying, but sites and forums like this are increasing – more information here.

But what I truly appreciate, (always look on the brightside of life), is that the site closure and consequent arrests were made due to ex-hackers following electronic trails for the police. Bad-guys-now-turned-good… It’s like a 21st Century Catch Me If You Can. Or WarGames. Or something along those lines.
Whatever; point is, this also appears to be an increasing phenomenon. We owe you thanks, Geeks of Justice!

Ok, there seems to have been some confusion over my opinion that the digital industry will flourish as the economy takes a down-turn.

My original comments related to online marketing.

Alongside my otimistic agency views, I’m also of the opinion that other internet-functioning businesses could be hit pretty hard. Examples:

E-Bay issued a stark warning that profits could be down this christmas – this last quarter saw revenue rise by 12% ($2.12bn) which was lower than analyst predictions. A quick recalculation later and the number-monkeys expect total 2008 revenue to be between $8.53 - $8.68bn (still more money than most people will ever see). 

To be more competitive, Amazon has slashed it’s free delivery qualification costs from £15 to £5. This means that over 90% of their products will be delivered for free. I personally think this is just common sense – leading industry experts have long-advised companies to play around more with free delivery.

Google’s market-share has dipped a teeny-tiny bit. My cynical side says that this explains why they’ve suddenly backtracked on their long-standing policy not to allow gambling advertisements. Now, potentially generating £millions more with this hypocritical move, as we have already seen a quarterly increase on profit this year. I’m sure we’ll see Google beginning to strangle the competition again.

Social networks are struggling to generate viable income. Which is no big secret. Sadly though, this is directly affecting people working in the industry, as they become statistics in the economic downturn. The most recent victim is Hi5, the third largest global network, where it was announced this week that around 10-15% of the workforce would be laid off. Other companies being affected include start-ups and software; again, the most recent casualty being Jive.

When the whole world is suffering economic crisis, it’s obviously going to affect the world-wide-web. But to reiterate my original point; some parts of the digital industry will do well from the misfortune of others. Yes, it will get increasingly competitive, but with decent strategy and user-confidence, those who succeed will be very apparent. Whilst we’re seeing companies collapse every day, I hardly think this is the end of the internet.

In case it’s escaped anyone’s attention, the world is in economic turmoil. However, even people who are completely aware of this seem not to notice the increasing upturn in online fraud.

Recently, the US Federal Trade Commission passed out a warning, indicating a worryingly large growth of problems related to phishing, where information is gleaned from unsuspecting online users. Apparently, phishing attacks have increased more than 180% in a single year, and in its second annual report, the All Parliamentary Group on ID Fraud helpfully pointed out that tighter credit lending rules would lead to more attempts to get at existing bank accounts. This immediately prompted our ever-vigilant goverment to suggest that ID theft is not such a big problem anymore, but instead, anyone using the internet for personal or financial reasons should be more made aware of the potential problems that could occur.

Going back to the FTC, who seem to have a better grasp on highlighting the issues, they outlined the problem perfectly, saying that with rapid changes in the financial industry, where many institutions suddenly have new owners, this could be a green light for phishermen, as fraudsters can easily pose as the new owners of banks or the goverment agencies who are embroiled in the mess.

Secure Computing revealed that it’s October spam report showed many of the banks and other financial institutions involved in the credit crunch were topping the list of phishing targets: Chase, Wachovia and Bank of America were among the most popular targets with scammers and the report also indicated that the company expects British banks to begin creeping into these lists, as mergers and buy-outs are completed.

So, in case you didn’t know, you need to be wary online – don’t reply to emails or pop-ups that ask for any form of personal information, if they look like they’ve come from your bank. Check statements and online transactions carefully. As the philosophical George Bush said, it’s your money – you paid for it.