London: Shopping online has its advantages, but it also comes with its dangers: internet-related fraud is big business.

While the introduction of chip and PIN technology has driven face-to-face fraud down, criminals are increasingly turning to cyberspace.

Card-not-present fraud - that committed over the phone, over the internet or by mail order - rose 37 per cent last year, according to the figures from Apacs, the UK payments association.

That, coupled with overseas fraud, helped to reverse a two-year decline in total fraud losses. They rose 25 per cent to £535.2 million in 2007.

It seems many Britons are failing to protect themselves, regularly risking identity theft by being careless with their personal information.

Two-thirds of office workers make private phone calls at their desks and openly disclose personal information, according to a poll by insurer Sheila's Wheels. Almost the same percentage does not keep personal documents secure in the home, another survey by CPP found.

When it comes to the internet, consumers are also not doing enough to avoid falling victim to scams such as "phishing" - where fraudsters purport to be from banks and building societies and ask consumers to disclose their personal security information.

There were more than 10,000 reported phishing incidents in the first quarter of 2008 - up over 200 per cent on the same period last year, according to Apacs.

Although the number of people either deleting or taking no action when receiving such e-mails rose to 82 per cent last year from 75 per cent in 2006, almost a fifth of people do not follow these common-sense precautions.

And, although 93 per cent of people have anti-virus software on their computers, almost a third have no anti-spyware software.

"The advice is quite simple: just remember that your bank will never send you emails asking you to disclose PIN numbers, login details or complete passwords," says Sandra Quinn, director of communications at Apacs.

Rich pickings

But as consumers become more aware of phishing, fraudsters are turning their attention elsewhere. The rise of social networking websites - Bebo, Facebook, MySpace and the like - are proving rich pickings.

"If there's a dialogue box, we feel we have to fill it in - salary range, age, mother's maiden name, date of birth, place of birth: just the information fraudsters are looking for," said Greg Day, a security analyst at McAfee.

"Unfortunately, we still live in this era where people see technology as something of a black art.

"If a stranger walked up to you in the street and asked you for personal information, you'd run a mile.

"But online people seem to be more willing to disclose this type of information, because they don't want to seem ignorant and ask the dumb question."

Retracting information once it has been posted even once on the internet can prove almost impossible. websites, such as "people search" site Spock.com, aggregate information available in cyberspace on people all over the world.

"Once it's there, it's permanently there," says Day.

Protection is, of course, better than cure.

"The first someone will know that they have become a victim of this fraud is when their credit card bill or bank statement arrives with transactions they didn't make," says Neil Munroe, external affairs director at credit reference agency Equifax.

Equifax offers the following tips to protect yourself against fraud:

  • Be wary of emails that begin "Dear customer", rather than using your name, or phone calls "phishing" for further personal information.
  • Your bank will never ask you to reveal your PIN or passwords in full. Don't reveal these to anyone.
  • Do not use the same PIN number for all your cards and never write your PIN numbers down.
  • Check your bank statements for unusual transactions.
  • When using online banking, ensure people can't view your details and log out of the site, rather than just closing the window.
  • When disposing of an old computer, destroy information on the hard drive.
  • Install virus protection that ideally updates hourly.
  • Be careful of what you carry around in your handbag or wallet. Credit card receipts, payslips, driving licences, bank statements and utility bills reveal a lot of information.
  • When using social networking sites do not give common verification, such as your date of birth or mother's maiden name. Set up privacy on your profile, so only close friends can view your information, and be wary of anyone you meet online.
  • Check your credit file regularly, and at least once per year.