Online retailers which sell software by download could be brought down by fraudsters, a Web commerce company claims.

In a letter in today's FT, Freddy Tengberg, CEO of the Buyonet group, wrote that the company, in its original guise as a software retailer, had been subject to a barrage of fraud.

"After just three months of trading 25 per cent of our transactions, representing 30 per cent of our revenue, were fraudulent. As a retailer, we would have been liable for our costs," he wrote.

It took the quick installation of a "highly-efficient anti-fraud system", to save the company, he said.

Tengberg does not specify how the fraudster perpetrated their dastardly deeds - wouldn't the company have been insured against dud credit cards? So What about crackers? Do they work their way into the system, press the download button, say, 20 times. Why do this when there a dozens of warez sites where you can download your software for free. Yes, we know that this is illegal, but it's a darn sight easier than targeting an software download retailer with dodgy plastic. ®