According to an article written by Jon Stewart of USA Today, federal authorities are quietly busting up major internet crime rings. There’ve been eleven indictments of major spammers and that’s just the beginning. A huge stolen credit card forum has been shut down and the world’s largest spam ring is kaput. Yeah! Success is due to several factors including more cooperation with authorities overseas, a better understanding of technology, improved training for agents and stiffer sentences for criminals. Mind you, there’s a lot of work for the Secret Service and FBI, but they’re getting results, thank goodness. The article also reported that cybercrime is an estimated $200 billion a year business. Yikes!

Here’s a novel approach to fraud prevention. Steve Ragan of The Tech Herald reports that four European banks are taking part in a pilot study to combat credit card fraud by introducing a new kind of card that actually generates a one-time transaction code. The front looks like a normal card but the back is pretty fancy with an eight-digit alpha-numeric display and a button keypad. The technology provides a one-time only code which is displayed to the cardholder via the integrated alpha-numeric screen. If you want to look at the card, go to http://www.thetechherald.com/article.php/200847/2462/Visa-offers-cards-with-keypads-to-fight-online-fraud

(This link was working when I tested it before posting on AuthorsDen. If doesn't work try cutting and pasting to a different browser)