2. Theft of Money

Electronic Commerce is now a multi-billion pound fact of life and so crime has followed the money on to the Internet.

Commerce on the Internet is mainly paid for through the use of credit cards, either personal or corporate credit cards. Therefore thieves have been very active in obtaining stolen credit card details to purchase goods and services over the Internet. This type of crime runs to millions of pounds per year.

Until recently credit card numbers were printed on supermarket receipts etc, but you may have noticed that many businesses only print part of the number now. This has been done to make it harder to steal vital details.

On-line companies can now also check that the address for delivery is the same as the true credit card owner, making it harder for the thief to use the stolen card.

The 'chip and pin' credit card is now commonplace - and it is reported that this has reduced this type of crime by about a third.

How are the numbers stolen? - one method is "skimming".

Skimming is a process whereby the data from a card's magnetic strip is electronically copied onto another card.

This fraud may be carried out by dishonest employees in restaurants, shops and petrol stations - you hand over your card and a replica card is secretly produced and used, sometimes on the other side of the world.

In the past, skimming UK cards netted fraudsters more than £100m a year.

But the gradual introduction of chip and pin has seen counterfeit card fraud falling.

Fraudsters will still be able to skim cards but the counterfeit will not have a working chip, this means that it should be rejected by most ATMs and shop tills.