Stolen credit card details are changing hands among criminals for as little as £1. Websites used by criminals are advertising UK credit card details with price tags of between £1.03 to £6.19.

Card numbers from US credit cards are even cheaper. Crooks can buy enough information from a US bank card to go on an online shopping spree for just 52 pence, according to Symantec, a computer security firm.

Richard Archdeacon, of Symantec, said: “Card details are sold cheaply because they are usually sold in big volumes. In some cases, the card details will not be used to go shopping. Instead they will be used as part of a bigger scam, such as to apply for a fraudulent personal loan or mortgage.”

Crooks who want a PayPal account, which allows online payments without revealing any credit card details, have to pay substantially more however. Some verified PayPal accounts are advertised for up to £258 while each unverified account can fetch up to £26. Unverified accounts are cheaper because there is a £1,000 spending limit on these accounts.

Sandra Quinn, from APACS, the bank clearing body, said card details offered crooks much less value than other forms of ID fraud. “Banks’ systems detect card fraud very quickly. Unusual payment behaviour would be identified and the card would be stopped immediately.”

Symantec carried out a six-month survey of internet security threats, which identified underground economy servers which are used by criminals to host websites which sell stolen information. “There are hundreds of sites where crooks can pick up illegally obtained information. But these sites move quickly, so the police can’t always close them down,” Mr Archdeacon said.

Details of “compromised” computers - computers which have been infiltrated by hackers - are relatively cheap at between £3 and £10. If a computer is compromised, its owner can become part of a crime ring without realising. Once their computer has been infiltrated by a piece of malicious software it will be turned into a “zombie” which allows it to be controlled by someone else. This means the crooks can send out rogue emails from the computer without the owners’ knowledge.

Criminals who want to try to entice customers to share their financial details online via emails or instant messaging can buy internet e-mail cookies for the bargain price of £1.55.

“Traditionally, most attacks were through e-mail, but increasingly hackers have been using instant messaging as a way to encourage people to click into their false websites, from where they can infiltrate the computer,” Mr Archdeacon said.

Phishing is one of the most popular tricks used by online fraudsters. The crooks set up a fake bank website and entice users to share their bank details on the site. They can then use these details to plunder the account.

Recent research from APACs showed that the number of phishing attacks in the UK increased eightfold last year leading to £33.5 million being stolen from unsuspecting bank customers.

Symantec says London hosts the third largest number of phishing websites in Europe after Karlsruhe in Germany and Paris. Sandra Quinn, of APACs, says: “Many sites may look like they are hosted in London but the reason they are so hard to track down is that they are actually based overseas.”