IT was an innocent mistake that almost plunged Jackie Fisher

into financial chaos.

She thought she was updating her security details for online

banking.

But she was paving the way for a fraudster to take thousands

of pounds from her account.

The 46-year-old machinist from Ilkeston had ignored

countless e-mails sent to her home computer over several

months, purporting to be from banks and building societies.

But when she returned from holiday to find one from NatWest

that had not been filtered out by her security software, she

decided to investigate.

It told her to log on to the bank's website and update her

security details or her internet banking would be stopped.

"It looked like a genuine NatWest site," she said.

"It asked me for my customer number, PIN code and password

and, like a fool, I entered them. It then said my NatWest

banking was up to date."

Two days later, a phone call from NatWest's fraud office

alerted her to the trap she had fallen into. A woman had phoned

the bank to transfer £3,600 from Jackie's account to a Mrs E.

Gujdova.

Horrified, Jackie confirmed she was not that caller.

"I wanted to be sick," she said. "I went into a blind

panic."

Thankfully, NatWest had smelled a rat and stopped the money

being withdrawn. The bank says it never asks for security

information online.

But not everyone who falls for scams like these – known as

phishing – is as lucky. A pensioner in Tayside, tricked by a

similar e-mail, was told he would have to bear the loss of

£2,300 withdrawn by fraudsters because he broke bank rules by

disclosing information about his account to a third party.

The internet has made life easier for us in so many ways but

has also opened up a whole new world of opportunity for crooks.

Phishing is one of the more lucrative.

E-mail allows fraudsters to contact millions of people at

the push of a button. It costs nothing and if only one person

falls for the trap, the crooks are in pocket.

There is a legitimate trade in lists of e-mail addresses,

just as there has been in postal addresses for years. But

fraudsters also send out "generic" e-mail addresses, like

johnsmith@ntlword.com.

"The way these criminals work is that they play a

percentages game in the hope that a percentage of them will get

through," said a spokesman for the Internet Service Providers'

Association

As in Jackie's case, the fraudsters might ask for bank

details but are just as likely to ask you to check the status

of an order. They usually warn of dire consequences if action

is not taken immediately.

"It's a cheaper, more anonymous variant of fly-by-night

operators setting up stalls in abandoned shops," said Detective

Constable Bob Walker, of Derbyshire police's serious and

organised crime unit.

"Web monitoring and hosting companies work hard to shut

these websites down within days but they can harvest thousands

of account details in that time."

The fraudsters' tactics are many and varied, but one of the

most dangerous is known as keylogging.

Fraudsters use spam (junk e-mail) or viruses attached to

e-mails to install software in the recipient's computer and can

then record every keystroke or mouse click made on it, giving

them access to passwords and other private information.

Software to guard against this type of fraud is now on the

market

Most financial institutions indemnify customers against

serious loss from identity theft and will quickly pay back

stolen cash if the victim gets a crime number from the police.

The banking industry is also introducing technical fixes.

But most fraud involving identity theft relies on plain

old-fashioned incentives or flattery, often coupled with a

veneer of officialdom.

"Several recent experiments have shown that nine in 10

people would give up computer passwords in exchange for a small

gift like a chocolate bar when questioned by someone holding a

clipboard," said Det Con Walker.

"All too frequently, people give out sensitive information

over the phone when they have no proof that the person at the

other end is who they say they are."

Police say the benefits of electronic banking and online

shopping are too great to be ignored and if people follow their

advice, they will be as safe using a credit card online as they

are in shops.

But for Jackie Fisher, once bitten is twice shy. After her

near-miss, she visited NatWest in Ilkeston and asked for a

paper statement to put her mind at risk.

"I certainly won't bother with internet banking again," she

said

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