E-commerce has been a boon to many businesses — but chief among them is the business of cybercrime.

Although e-commerce is the fastest-growing segment of the North American economy, it’s also become one of the biggest feeding grounds for fraudsters.

CyberSource, an e-commerce payment management company that represents online Canadian and U.S. merchants, estimates that last year’s losses, when tallied up, will exceed $3.6 billion.

Although the percentage of online revenues lost to payment fraud has been declining over the last four years, to 1.4 %, CyberSource reports that total losses have been steadily increasing with the highest-risk category still international sales.

The folks at CyberSource also report that escalating levels of fraud involving debit cards has prompted Canada’s largest debit card network to begin embedding computer chips in its cards.

The chip cards, which began appearing last October, are already being used successfully in France, where debit card fraud has now dropped by eight per cent. It’s estimated debit card fraud in Canada runs at about $70 million a year.

Other fraud schemes to guard against: Scammers last fall began using the Better Business Bureau’s name to advise companies of alleged complaints against them. Target companies were offered an e-mail hyperlink to download a copy of the complaint. By doing so, the companies exposed themselves to computer viruses that helped channel their confidential business information to scam operators.

Tags: Better Busines Bureau, debit cards, e-commerce, fraud, management, payment, scams