NESTA Crime Online - University of Brighton Repository

egime, an acceptable IT infrastructure and a relatively weak state. China shares some
of these attributes but is also suspected of sponsoring not just tolerating cybercrime.
In addition, other, smaller and different groups prosper elsewhere. At least until
recently, Sri Lankan Tamil organised crime in the UK has been low key, even
subcontracting operations to Malaysia and Singapore to avoid developing a local
profile. 108 But it is also extremely competent, especially in the area of credit card
fraud. 109 The drug cartels in Asia and Latin America are much more traditional in terms
of organisation and focus but they are still massive operations in their own right and
new groups are constantly entering the field.
However, the onset of cybercrime would appear to have blurred the distinctions between
organised and opportunistic crime. In the BRIC countries and beyond, individual
entrepreneurial IT-gifted individuals have also moved into this lucrative domain without
apparently troubling organised crime groups. Traditionally, organised crime groups have
maintained a forceful monopoly over their assets and their terrain, insofar as they
dominated scarce and illegal commodities that would retail on the black market for
inflated sums. But in the world of cybercrime, there appears to be little need for such a
tight control over illegal markets. Whereas, at one time, oligopolistic or monopoly
control over scarce or illegal resources was a key factor in generating massive profit
margins, cybercriminals appear to see little reason to compete, protect and control as
they have traditionally done in cities across the world.
108 Interview with UK Home Office official, London, 26 th June 2008.
109 Sri Lankan Tamil organised crime groups have long been associated with credit card fraud, especially in and
around West London petrol stations. Whereas they used to concentrate upon credit card ‘skimming’ and
counterfeit chip and pin boards, they now simply sit in cars parked close to the petrol station and Bluetooth
the financial data that leaves the tills. The information is then sent to a number of ‘mules’ who upload the
information onto blank cards and use the cards immediately and for a limited amount of time. By the time the
fraud centre is alerted, the card has been discarded.
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