NHTCU - We have handle on internet fraud

"The gaming community is on top of this problem," said Tony Neate, crime reduction coordinator and head of industry liaison at the NHTCU. "Much of the time when money was handed over to criminals it was actually on our advice. We did it so we could track where the money went."

In July SC reported one such successful campaign in which three Russian men were arrested. Neate was speaking at the Ecrime Wales Summit in Cardiff at which he stated companies were getting better at reporting internet crime.

"The NHTCU was set up to address the problem of where to report computer crime. Companies are getting the message that we can help them. We have a confidentiality charter and in my experience peoples understand the importance of reporting this sort of fraud."

Last year it was widely reported that bookmakers were extorted by gangs threatening distributed denial of service (ddos) attacks on their websites on the eve of important sporting or industry events. One Guardian newspaper report suggested the demands were somewhere in-between $10,000 (£5,452) and $50,000.

www.nhtcu.org