Pune in top in credit card fraud list

All over the world credit card frauds are increasing, but in India Pune is on the top.

On Saturday at ClubHack 2008 – the international convention of hackers was organized in Pune. While speaking at the convention on “Economic Offences through Credit Card Frauds Dissected” Harshad Patil, computer security expert told Pune has been the worst victim of credit card fraud in the country in 2007-08.

In an interview Patil told The Indian Express, “As per a survey by Google on credit card frauds in the world, Pune suffered the most in India with Mumbai coming second. Lack of awareness among card users is the major reason for the significant rise in the frauds”.

He added, “There is an international racket of cyber criminals. Credit card information in India is sold to cyber criminals in other countries. The information is misused for carrying out major financial frauds”.

He further said, “There are various ways like phishing, pharming, skimming and dumpster diving by which money can be extracted from your credit card. Due to lack of awareness, people submit personal details and credit card information to fraudulent emails. Sometimes, fraudsters steal credit card information. Some fraudsters go through trash to find discarded receipts or carbon for obtaining information and then use the account number illegally”.

He informed there were secretive “carder” forums where credit card numbers are bought and sold. These forums bring together people who steal the numbers and those who use them. Patil an individual researcher in cyber crime and cyber laws said economic offences using credit cards have increased in India and countries like US. According to FBI report that credit cards were largely responsible for the $ 315 billion loss the US underwent from financial fraud in 2005. As per study carried out in Europe over 22 million customers had fallen victim to credit card fraud in 2006. “The numbers are increasing,” said Patil.

“The frauds are increasing because of problem faced in extradition of cyber criminals from other countries,” he added. During the panel discussion on cyber terrorism at the hacker’s convention, cyber law expert Rohas Nagpal pointed out India is so far not associated with any extradition treaty with a foreign country due to which the cyber criminals in country can not be held. US expert Chris Goggans said even US is facing difficulties in extradition of criminals.