But most card issuers agree that Internet fraud is far more common than fraud in the physical world.
No one is sure exactly how big the problem of Internet fraud is.
The Internet Crime Complaint Center received more than 72, 000 complaints about Internet fraud in 2008 that were referred to law enforcement agencies for further investigation.
But the cost and time may be well worth it for companies who can suffer thousands or millions of dollars in brand damage due to internet fraud.
"The beauty of the Net is that it's very easy to hide who you are, manipulate your appearance and vanish without a trace, " says Phillip McKee of the National Consumers League's Internet Fraud Watch.
This week she announced that her bureau is aggregating Internet auction fraud complaints from state officials, consumer groups and online auctions such as eBay (EBAY) into a massive database for exclusive use by law enforcement.
"The age of Internet voter fraud is here sooner and in more sinister form than even I imagined, " said Deborah Phillips, president of the Voting Integrity Project, an activist group that specializes in Internet and democracy issues.
And the government should do more to publicize and alert us about Internet scams, fraud, and fake work-at-home schemes by creating a Virtual Work Hotline.
Action Fraud, the national reporting centre for fraud and internet crimes, said it had received more than 46, 000 complaints over the past 12 months from members of the public across the UK about "cyber-enabled crime".
Spurred by the angry mob, Johnson typed the word fraud into his Internet search engine.
Orders from Internet websites are especially vulnerable to fraud.
Most banks already offer anti-fraud safeguards and guarantees on Internet transactions.
There is no doubt that the Internet brims with spamming, scamming and identity fraud.
With applicants increasingly relying on the internet to find crew vacancies, deception and fraud have become commonplace, according to both Bennett and Scott.
Though our Nation benefits immensely from the Internet, increased connectivity brings increased risk of theft, fraud, and abuse.
The challenge of the internet, is that it allows for a sophistication that leads to fraud.
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The report, titled "Top Ten Red Flags for Fraud at Lennar Corporation, " was released on the Internet on Jan. 9, 2009.
The Federal Trade Commission recorded 670, 000 cases of reported identity theft and fraud in 2006, 60% of which began with Internet solicitations.
But others already feel that spam, computer viruses, fraud and the theft of personal data are making the internet a dangerous place, and that access to their computers needs to be restricted, not opened up.
Much of that fraud comes from transactions where the card is not physically present, such as telephone or internet sales.
So far, the system had worked, with no fraud reported, although this week, many people could not get through as publicity about the site caused Internet traffic to jump to 28 times normal levels.
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