As reported by Wired magazine’s Threat Level blog, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has released its Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book report, an annual document that details millions of consumer complaints reported to the FTC. Not surprisingly, identity theft still retains its status as the top consumer complaint for the year 2009.

A story presented today by Krebs on Security truly brings home the threat of sophisticated cybercrime. Cynxsure LLC of Hudson, New Hampshire, lost just under $100,000 to an international Internet fraud attack utilizing American citizens as money mules. However, what sets this theft apart from so many others like it are the preventative measures which Cynxsure had put in place to prevent such an incident.

Today begins the final countdown to Prepaid Expo USA 2010, one of the largest annual gatherings of experts in the prepaid industry. As we’ve covered in previous posts, EVS will be participating in this year’s exposition. From booth #123, EVS representatives will exhibit popular fraud prevention solutions, offer product walk-throughs using interactive demonstrative tools and schedule in-house follow-ups with interested expo participants.

Wired magazine’s Threat Level blog has brought to our attention the historic ruling against 37-year-old Max Ray Vision, who has been ordered to serve 13 years in federal prison for identity theft and hacking. Vision’s sentence is the longest such ruling issued against an identity fraud cyber criminal in the United States.

Identity fraud, more often than not, happens to those consumers who are wealthy and living comfortably. But there are also those who seek to victimize the most vulnerable among us, including the financially discouraged, the sick, and more recently, senior citizens. “Grandparent scams,” or those scams specifically designed to prey on the trusting nature of our eldest relatives, have been reported more frequently according to law enforcement in Merrill, Wisconsin.

The CyberSource 11^th Annual Online Fraud Report has been released for industry review, and it includes some uplifting statistics suggesting that the consistent yearly pattern of lost revenue due to online identity fraud is finally in decline.

Major data breaches, unique and sophisticated hacking attempts, and large-scale cases of identity fraud and account exploitation are frequent sights on industry news networks, blogs and feeds. And while reporting the major incidents shows us how damaging cyber attacks can be, they fail to illustrate just how often the attacks occur. McAfee’s recent survey of over 600 “critical infrastructure enterprise” technology executives does exactly that—and the results are disturbing.