Online crimes such as hoax and identity theft cost Americans nearly $240 million last year. But the research suggests that the cost to businesses from those crimes could be more than 30 times larger.

The Net Crime Complaint Center (IC3), a partnership within the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C), received nearly 207,000 complaints about online crimes ranging from auction swindle to child pornography. In 2006, losses were estimated at nearly $200 million; in 2007, losses were nearly $240 million, or about $680 per complaint.

Insiders told us that those statistics only reveal the tip of the iceberg, however, and online crime — particularly credit- and debit-card cheat — could be costing businesses billions.

The Cost to Business

Small and midsize businesses (SMBs) can be hit particularly hard by online crime, according to Craig Butterworth, communications specialist at NW3C. He noted that about three-quarters of SMB owners rely on the World Wide Web to run

their businesses and online cheat is a major concern. “Credit-card hoax was the number-four complaint in that year’s IC3 report,” he told us.

“Online credit-card cheat is a real threat to SMBs, considering credit-card agencies hold businesses responsible for devious transactions. That often results in a chargeback, leaving retailers with no compensation for the merchandise shipped or any other subsequent charges associated with the transaction,” he said.

As a aftermath, many online businesses are erring on the side of caution, he said. “There’s evidence that online merchants, fearful of hoax, reject far more transactions than are actually fictitious,” Butterworth said. “This causes these business to lose large amounts of revenue, possibly as much as $8 billion a year in lost revenue.”

Scammers Targeting Businesses

Aside from credit- and debit-card scam, scammers target businesses in other ways, the report shows. John Messina received a three-year prison sentence for an online hoax…

Orginal post by Top Tech News