Organised criminal gangs are policing parts of the internet

Organised criminal gangs are policing parts of the internet to stop hackers interrupting lucrative global scams, it has been claimed.Hi-tech fraudsters are shutting down electronic troublemakers before they can hamper their illegal trade, the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) said.Sharon Lemon, who is deputy director responsible for e-crime, said the vast majority of criminals operating on the internet are motivated by money.A previous generation of "show-offs" who created programmes aimed at simply causing widespread damage to networks are dying out.
One of the best known examples was the "I Love You" worm, a type of self-replicating computer programme, which caused huge damage worldwide in 2000.Mrs Lemon said some cheats act as online enforcers in ways that mirror territorial criminal gangs.In an interview ahead of a London cyber-crime conference next week, she said: "Almost everything to do with online crime now is to do with money. Criminals, in a way, are policing the environment from the people who used to spread worms because they need the internet to be working."Mrs Lemon said there is anecdotal evidence that some criminals are paying for computer boffins to go through university to keep a step ahead of their competitors.She said her staff and colleagues in police forces worldwide are monitoring secretive online chatrooms where criminals meet to exchange information.Police specialists, government officials and businesses from 35 countries will meet in London next week to discuss the latest efforts to combat online crime.