FIRMS in East Lancashire are warned to watch out for a boom in internet fraud.

John Rafferty, fraud investigations expert at Chorley-based Lathams, believes unsuspecting firms could lose millions.

"Fraudsters have not been slow to identify this as a new area in which they can operate as there is little regulation to control their activities," he explained.

"The technology lets fraudsters run the same old scams. The difference now is that the fraudster is making use of the internet to reach more victims, to complete the fraud quickly and to make it harder to identify and track him down."

Common frauds already uncovered include obtaining money up front for products and then not delivering the goods.

"The most high tech con of all is creating web sites that appear to be official for well known businesses but which are, in fact, totally false fronts."

"There is no question that ultimately the internet will be a widespread method of conducting business Regardless of the technology involved your best protection will always be the basic application of common sense when enetering a business deal."

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