He receives cash from the final customer in an electronic cash account or an escrow account from where he converts it into hard cash. Escrow is a legal arrangement in which an asset (such as cash, real property or other tangible assets) is deposited into safekeeping (e.g. a bank account) under the trust of a neutral third party (escrow agent) pending satisfaction of contractual contingency or condition. Once the condition has been met, the escrow agent will deliver the asset to the party prescribed by the contract.

Thus during the entire transaction the hacker can manage to cruise through without leaving a trace. Says IT risk and consulting firm Mahindra Special Services Group Captain, Raghu Raman, “Most hackers try and steal small amounts–just 2-3% of a monthly transaction to avoid getting caught. In large transactions, the banks usually call and ask the customer immediately to cross check whether a transaction was done by him. Hackers are also using card numbers to get a subscription or download a costly software which they in turn sell it online.” Thus, this makes it difficult to catch them also.

However, all is not lost for the credit card customers. There are certain precautions which one can adopt so as to be on the safe side. Net security experts have warned that web transactions with credit cards are no longer 100% safe. They suggest the use of credit cards only on sites which are ‘Https’ (Hypertext Transfer Protocol over Secure Socket Layer) and direct the transaction webpage to a payment gateway. Deleting cookies and browsing history from your computer after a transaction might also help prevent the cyber thief stealing your card number.