2008 'Boom year' for hi-tech criminals

Despite the down turn in the economy, it seems one sector is still making money, and growing. That is the criminal sector.

The newest scam is setting up fake Internet background check companies. These companies are for small businesses to do background check on potential employees. But in truth they collect the data from employment applications and use it for ID theft. This not only makes the potential employer liable for the losses but also makes the potential employee subject to being not hired by other companies because of id theft and a bad credit history caused by the id theft. This could even cause the job applicant to get arrested for fraud done by the ID thieves. In addition this could cause the company using the fake background check company a lot of money if they are sued by the job applicant.