A former cab driver who ran a £34 million pyramid-style scheme that preyed on the poor is facing prison.

Gambler Kevin Foster, 51, of Doddington, Kent (not the model on the right), was found guilty of dishonestly concealing a material fact and theft.

He took an average of £4,200 from people at glitzy events at sports and social clubs across the country.

The judge told him he will go to jail for a "substantial" amount of time. He will be sentenced later.

Foster's KF Concept scheme targeted people on low incomes, persuading many from small valley communities in South Wales.

Card fraud fell last year for the first time since 2006 thanks to the introduction of chip and PIN and better fraud detection tools. But instead fraudsters are raiding people's bank accounts online.

Criminals were less adept at skimming and cloning cards but managed to con people online or over the phone.

Losses from fraud on UK debit or credit cards dropped 28% last year to £440m, a decline of £170m, according to the UK Cards Association. Counterfeit card fraud - skimming and cloning – more than halved and cheque fraud was down 29%.

However, it's not time to start relaxing just yet.

Fans travelling to the South Africa 2010 World Cup are being targeted by a range of scams and cons. So if you're considering travelling to the tournament, what should you watch for?

Tickets
Auction and small-ads websites such as Gumtree are listing many tickets to World Cup 2010 games which are either fakes or invalid. If you want a valid ticket, you must buy it from Fifa at Fifa.com or as part of a travel package sold by a Fifa-approved travel company.

A scam claiming to give away free iPads is spreading through Facebook and Twitter.

Facebook groups appear with eye-catching names such as 'Free iPad'. The Facebook groups claim that they are giving away iPads to be tested.

When you join you are told to invite all your friends to join the group too. You then have to complete some sort of quiz and enter your date of birth and mobile phone number.

That's where they get you, because you are then signed up to a premium-rate phone service.

Feel safe online? Think you're taking all the right precautions? Then think again, because there's every chance your identity has already been hijacked.

A new report reveals that almost half of all Britons admit to reading a friend or partner's email or text messages, with one in six apparently logging onto someone else's email or Facebook account without permission.

But while this doesn't seem great news for the state of trust in our relationships, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Because it's not just your loved ones who have easy access to all your details. Any stranger could steal your identity with just two pieces of information.

So what are these key facts, and how can we protect ourselves?

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has issued a warning about a new share scam.

The warning follows a dramatic increase in overseas fraudsters selling shares using the names, registration numbers and addresses of FSA authorised firms and individuals.

The FSA has noticed a significant rise in this type of fraud, with crooks imitating genuine authorised firms to try and convince consumers of their legitimacy.

So what should consumers watch out for?

Mortgage fraud surged again last year, in particular identity fraud, reversing a steady decline in fraud cases in previous years.

Total frauds increased by nearly 10% in 2009 from 2008, according to CIFAS, the UK's fraud prevention service.

The housing slump deterred fraudsters during the recession - but now they are back as the market has started to recover.

There has been an alarming rise in the number of robberies and burglaries at local shops over the last twelve months, according to new crime statistics gathered by the Association of Convenience Stores.

Police figures show that the number of domestic burglaries rose last year for the first time in six years - and very often burglars turn violent when confronted by householders.

At the same time, experts at the University of Leicester have found that an influx of cheap electronic goods from China and the Far East has prompted some burglars to turn to robberies and muggings instead - to steal iPods and mobile phones.

How do you protect yourself in a mugging and how do you make your home burglar-proof?

It has taken a while to adjust to chip and PIN, but now we're there. On the rare occasions we are actually asked to sign for something it feels all wrong and uncomfortable - not to say time-consuming.

After all our initial concerns, it turned out the boffins were right. This new system is convenient, safe and secure.

Except it isn't. A new report by Cambridge University has claimed that the fraudsters are now able to beat the system. They can now use your card without having to know your PIN number, or sign your name.

The chip and PIN revolution, it seems, has done precisely the opposite of what it promised, and left us more helpless and vulnerable to criminals than when we started.

So what do these criminals do, and can we beat them?

The latest internet scam has caught out millions of people across the world. It works by hijacking your computer using a Trojan virus, downloading pornographic images of young children to your computer, and then threatening to continue unless you pay for a code to beat the virus.

The virus is known as ransomware, because you have to pay the ransom in order to stop the attack.

The ransom itself isn't massive. Some victims are being asked to pay just £20. However, the traumatic experience of being attacked, having these images downloaded, and then being blackmailed, has been terrible for the millions of victims.

The scam is growing. So far the criminals are thought to have made £150 million from it, but that is expected to double, or even triple.

So what can you do?