Fraud hits record levels in 2011 "With over 236,500 frauds confirmed in 2011, a larger number than any previous year, this confirms that as austerity bites, economic crime continues to be a stealthy, insidious danger," said Richard Hurley, of CIFAS. Many of these frauds will undoubtedly be committed by organised criminal elements, but many will also be committed by people who seemingly feel that their circumstances leave them no choice. CIFAS Chief Executive, Peter Hurst, said: "With the cost of living increasing, pay levels frozen for many, and tax and VAT changes taking effect, perhaps it is unsurprising that fraud has rocketed again. Prevention, however, remains better than cure, and it is time for all organisations and consumers to start reviewing their approaches to preventing fraud rather than trying and failing to recover losses. Fraud to look out for in 2012 includes that perpetuated via social media. With more of us using Facebook, Twitter and other networking media, fraudsters are using "social engineering" to extort money. Once a virus infects a user's computer, it will, when they next visit a site such as Facebook, raid the user's "friends" list. The virus then sends an email to each friend asking them to click on a link to view a photo or video. The friends trust the name of the sender, click on the link, and in doing so their computer becomes infected. "[The emails] might look like they come from a friend," Neil Fisher, head of global security systems at Unisys, says. But click on them and they contain a hidden 'package'. This could contain keystroke-logging software that will find your passwords and other details. Alternatively, you may end up with a man-in-the-browser virus. When a user logs on to specific online banking sites, the virus, or Trojan, is activated and intercepts banking data.