MarkMonitor's Spring 2008 BrandJacking Index revealed that the black market for airline parts remains healthy with the internet presenting a lucrative channel for unscrupulous traders.

In the main vendors from the US and China are responsible for selling the uncertified aircraft parts.

The findings come in the wake of last week's prosecution in the US of a budget airline for endangering the safety of passengers after allowing a 757 jet to fly "illegally" to America with faulty gauges.

Norman Baker, the Liberal Democrat spokesman for transport, said that safety standards must be maintained despite the soaring price of oil.

"The consequence of that is we all have to be very vigilant that safety cuts are not made in order to keep accounts in the black," said Baker.

Counterfeit components have in the past turned up on US military and NATO aircrafts, NASA space shuttles and even Air Force One, the plane used to fly the US president.

The report, which looks at how leading brands are attacked online, also found that there is a proliferation of online auction sites that sell unusable airline vouchers to cheat consumers out of their money while infecting their computers with spyware.

Irfan Salim, chief executive officer of MarkMonitor, said that scammers are taking full advantage of the fact that the internet is often the first port of call for many consumers.

"Unfortunately, online criminals and scam artists find the internet full of opportunities to line their pockets at the expense of leading brands and customer trust," Salim said.

Other key findings in the report revealed that 'cybersquatting', the practice of registering domain names containing a brand, had increased 40 per cent to 402,882 cases a week.

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