Fierce competition among identity thieves has driven the prices for stolen goods down to bargain-basement levels, which has forced crooks to adopt mainstream business tactics to lure customers, according to a new report on World Wide Web shield threats.

Credit card numbers were selling for as little as 40 cents each and access to a bank detail was going for $10 in the second half of 2007, according to the latest twice-yearly Net shield Threat Report from Symantec Corp. released Tuesday.

Symantec detected 711,912 new threats last year, 468 percent more than in 2006, when it found 125,243 — and nearly two-thirds of all 1,122,311 Symantec has cataloged since 2002.

The goods is usually sold through instant-message groups or Web forums that exist for only a few days or even hours, according to Symantec, and the hacking community exacts harsh consequences when members try to pass along deceitful info.

“If the seller says there’s $10,000 in a bank history,

and there isn’t $10,000 in there, their ability to sell will drop through the floor,” said Alfred Huger, vice president of Symantec protection Response. “It’s a sort of honor among thieves, and it’s very strictly enforced.”

Researchers said they found more evidence during the last six months of the year that World Wide Web fraudsters are adopting mainstream tactics, including hiring teams of hackers to create new viruses and offering volume discounts on stolen input to inspire larger orders.

In some cases, stolen credit card numbers were sold in batches of 500 for a total of $200. That’s 40 cents each, less than half the price observed during the first half of 2007, when they were down to $1 apiece in batches of 100, according to the report.

Full identities — including a functioning credit card number, Social shield number or equivalent and a person’s name, address and duration of birth –…

Orginal post by Top Tech News