London, Nov 24: Credit card numbers and bank details have apparently come as a boon for tech-savvy thieves, for they have actually made a fraud of a huge 3.35 billion pounds in the last one year, according to a new research.

The study by Symantec calculated the amount so that it could quantify the scale of fraud during a year-long look at the internet''s underground economy.

The researchers found that credit card numbers were the most popular item on sale.

In fact, credit card made up 31 percent of all the goods on offer.

Second in line of vulnerability towards Internet fraud were bank details that made up 20 percent of the items being offered on criminal chat channels.

The 3.35bn pounds figure was reached by multiplying the average amount of fraud perpetrated on a stolen card, 234 pounds, by the many millions Symantec observed being offered for sale.

In the same way, the reports guessed that if hi-tech thieves plundered all the bank accounts it saw being offered for sale they could net up to 1.7billion dollars.

According to Symantec, that there’s a possibility that many of the cards offered for sale were invalid or cancelled and bank accounts closed.

"These figures are indicative of the value of the underground economy and the potential worth of the market,” the BBC quoted the report as saying.

Credit card numbers were proving so popular among hi-tech thieves because they were easy to obtain and use for fraudulent purposes. (ANI)