These card numbers may be sold for sizeable amounts to counterfeiters, who use special programmes to encode them on counterfeit credit and bankcard magnetic strips, the UN Manual notes. Computer criminals are as diverse as the offences they commit. They may be students, terrorists or members of organized crime. The workshop at the Tenth Congress is intended to serve as a forum for sharing information about investigative techniques and computer crime laws between countries with a wide range of experience and approaches to the problem. In one World Bank survey, more than 150 high-ranking public officials and top citizens from over 60 developing nations ranked corruption as the biggest impediment to economic development and growth in their countries.
Corrupt practices drain government coffers, play havoc with free trade and scare away investors.
The World Bank estimates that corruption can reduce a country's growth rate by 0.5 to 1.0 percent per year. IMF research has shown that investment in corrupt countries is almost 5 per cent less than in countries that are relatively corruption-free. Standard and Poor's, the bond rating agency, gives investors a 50 to 100 per cent chance of losing their entire investments within five years in countries with various degrees of corruption. As evidence mounts of the huge economic costs of corruption, the United Nations has decided to step up efforts to fight it. Several studies have shown that crime prevention can significantly cut down on offences as well as costs.