Cybercrime alert on credit card fraud on 500000 Australians

Credit card data of up to 500,000 Australians has been stolen, writes Ken McGregor.

Shockwaves have been sent through the banking sector following the arrest of an international organised crime gang that allegedly committed the biggest theft of credit card data in Australia's history.

While the banks agreed to shoulder the burden of the losses - which totalled about $30 million - consumers have been put on high alert that their details need to be protected from the global cybercrime network.

In the latest fraud, committed by computer hackers from a Romanian syndicate, the alleged criminals gained access to 100 small retail out-lets where the credit card details of up to 500,000 Australians were stored.

One of those picked up in the Romanian raids was the international martial arts and Greco-Roman wrestling champion, Gheorghe "The Carpathian Bear" Ignat.

Ignat allegedly travelled to Australia in recent years and Romanian prosecutors were expected to argue his role in the gang included creating fake credit cards from stolen credit-card details.

Thousands of counterfeit transactions have been carried out in numerous overseas locations including Europe, Hong Kong, Australia and the United States.

The probe grew to involve law enforcement agencies in 13 countries, with the Australian banking and finance sector in strong support.

By all accounts, cybercrime is a booming industry.

Australians lost $4.8 billion through direct cash and lost productivity to online criminals last year, according to a Norton cybercrime report. That's an average of $212 per Aussie citizen.

While some online hackers emptied bank accounts in one hit, the majority were silently fleecing bank accounts of small amounts, leaving the victims none the wiser.

Recently released Visa statistics showed 40,000 small and medium-sized businesses in Australia and New Zealand were considered the highest risk for victims of fraud. Such businesses were large enough to process about 20,000 eCommerce transactions each year but too small to adequately protect their systems - which meant that criminals could spy on customers' credit-card details.