Robert Go, JaKarta – Mr Fektur claims he earns 20 million rupiah (about S$3,900) a month – a sum that firmly puts him in Indonesia's middle class.

All that the 24-year-old needs is a computer hooked up to the Internet for three to four hours a day so that he can collect information from chatrooms.

Then there are visits to e-commerce sites and contacts with foreign cohorts. Orders for anything from laptops and cellular phones to scuba equipment and diamonds are placed with vendors.

Once the goods arrive, Mr Fektur – a Web alias – again uses the Internet to find buyers. His stocks usually are snapped up quickly as he offers steep discounts.

"I was surprised I could make money this way," he told The Straits Times.

If what Mr Fektur and an increasing number of Indonesians are doing isn't illegal, this would be a story about the revolutionising effects that the information age and the Internet have had on the lives of ordinary people.

But Mr Fektur is a "carder", someone who steals credit card information and uses the Internet for fraudulent transactions.

A briefing released by VeriSign, a United States-based company that monitors Internet activity, in January said that as more and more people around the globe go shopping online, the number of fraudulent transactions or transaction attempts has skyrocketed.

An increasing number of fraud attempts is being traced back to Indonesia. The country was the third-largest source, behind the US and Canada, of such criminal acts during the holiday season last year.

The VeriSign report also said that when researchers looked at the ratio of fraud attempts to total transactions from any single country, Indonesia topped the list.

Mr Heru Nugroho, secretary-general of Internet service provider association APJII, said: "For Indonesia, we're just getting a glimpse of the tip of the iceberg. Credit card fraud using the Web is a huge problem for this country."

It is now so bad, he said, that popular e-commerce sites like Amazon.com are beginning to apply special restrictions or even slap outright bans on purchase attempts from Indonesia. Mr Heru said: "This not only disadvantages Web shopping places and banks that issue credit cards but also honest people living in Indonesia who want to start making use of electronic shopping services. This also slows down the growth of Internet usage by Indonesians, something that could have long-term ramifications for the country."

One reason why this type of crime is growing, experts said, is the proliferation in recent years of loosely regulated warnets, the local version of cybercafes. Most Indonesians cannot afford home computers and many who need to use the Web frequent the thousands of warnets in urban centres.

Mr Donny Budi Utoyo, of the Information Communication Technology Watch group, said: "The warnets do not keep a register of users and what they're doing while online. These kiosks present the perfect shields for offenders."

A few years ago, a voluntary movement was started by independent warnet operators to keep tabs on users. But the attempt fizzled out because Net users voted with their feet to keep their privacy. Kiosks that did not require users to register became popular, those that did went out of business.

The criminals' growing sophistication adds to the problem. Many carders have formed syndicates with people living in other countries to better their chances of making money and avoid being traced.

Ms Judith MS of the warnet operators' association Awari said Indonesians are now in cahoots with people from the US, Japan and Korea to commit cyber crimes. She estimated there are 1,000 active carders in the country, but perhaps thousands more commit cyber fraud on a less regular basis.

"The numbers are getting bigger and there may be people who only do this on occasion and for personal interests rather than as a primary means of making money."

Yet another reason for the rise in credit-card fraud is the authorities' inability to efficiently tackle it. Mr Brata Mandala, a police computer expert, said police do not get "enough training and resources to take on cyber criminals".

Other experts suggested that officials at some government agencies, like the Customs authority, may be in cahoots with carders.

Mr Donny said: "It is impossible for this to go on without some sort of cooperation from people who work in the Customs office, for instance. Is it not their job to make sure shipments coming here are legal?"

Mr Fektur is not complaining. "It's just easy money. I love the Internet," he said.