Number of fake websites and email addresses used for cyber crime rockets eight-fold

COPS are struggling to keep pace with cyber crooks running bogus websites and email addresses.

The number set up as a front for criminal activity has rocketed eight-fold in the past three years, figures reveal.

A record 32,813 dodgy domains were suspended last year — and all but 200 of them were rumbled by police.

But plans for industry stakeholders to fund the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit have fallen through and government funding runs out in June.

Shadow policing minister Louise Haigh said: “These figures demonstrate the growing threat from cybercrime and online fraud.

“With tens of thousands using dodgy UK domain names, the government needs to act and it’s simply not good enough that their plans to get industry to fund the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unite have fallen by the wayside.

“It’s about time ministers stopped short-changing the police and gave them the resources they need to keep people safe online.”