Crooks targeting internet shoppers

SUPERMARKETS and stores selling goods online have been warned their customers are the next targets for 'phishing' - the crime sweeping the internet. Phishing is where crooks send bogus emails purporting to be from legitimate enterprises.

Customers are directed to a website where they are asked to reveal personal information such as account numbers and passwords, which is used for identity theft.

The National Criminal Intelligence Service's High Tech Crime Unit has told online retailers such as Sainsbury, Ocado and Tesco that they need a massive upgrade in security to counter the growing threat.

Tony Neate, the unit's industry liaison officer, said: 'We have warned all the big retailers that we consider them to be the next targets and are helping them to secure their sites against the attacks we think are coming. We are working with the online retailers, but are also working to educate their customers and make them aware of the problems.'

Jason Gissing, co-founder and finance director of online groceries retailer Ocado - used by Waitrose - said he was aware of the threat. 'Every internet retailer has to know what is going on,' he said. 'We must stay one jump ahead of the hackers.'

Ocado and other retailers, including Tesco and Sainsbury, have been swapping information through the Interactive Media Retailer Group. The group's chief executive, James Roper, said: 'The young hackers who used to annoy local businesses are now getting big money from real gangsters to carry out mass attacks.'

Peter Warren, co-author of internet crime book Cyber Alert, to be published this week, said: 'The conmen will send emails offering a bottle or two of champagne as an inducement to check out the site and register to shop. But anyone falling for it will have handed their details to scam merchants.'