With the introduction of the internet this risk to individuals has grown dramatically in a number of ways. This increase in internet users has turned companies and individuals towards the Internet in order to sell their products or services to a wider audience. Internet credit card fraud is popular as the Internet is a medium which carries less risk to the 'wanna be' criminals due to the lack of face to face contact. On the Internet these checks cannot take place and more than often simple precautions, such as an address check, is not completed. For this reason internet card fraud is worse than the 'conventional' kind.
Hackers can also gain access to databases and e-mail.
These can hold the card details of customers as well as other personal details that a person can use to make purchases from websites. Card numbers can also be found from disregarded receipts. Random digits can also be entered to make a card number. The Internet user may not even know who the card number belongs to. In these cases the amounts can be small and the card owner may not even notice that they have been charged for something they have not received.