David Wall admits that he fell hook line and sinker for the vision of the future presented on Tomorrow's World.

In this technological utopia, robots took care of household chores, major operations were completed in minutes and our every want was
satisfied by a touch of a button. In short, the advances in computers would make the world a better place.

While some of the predictions did come to pass, with society's eye on faster and ever more efficient technology, an enterprising criminal element also saw an opportunityto diversify.

"Back when I was growing up, we were promised a world of hovercrafts, jet packs and cures for pretty much everything," says the professor of criminal justice at the University of Leeds. "It was inherently optimistic; new technology was either benign or in some way promoted the human cause.

"Sadly, when I began my academic research my youthful optimism was shattered; the chilling reality was quite different."

Cybercriminals may have initially operated in the pages of science fiction novels, but with the rise of home computers, online banking
and internet shopping, the public have been warned to be vigilant against a new type of thief.

Unsolicited emails from Nigerians looking for help in releasing money from the troubled country have popped up in in-boxes, fraudsters masquerading behind apparently legitimate financial companies have tried to persuade individuals to part with vital identity details and
just when it looked like the public had caught onto the scam, they moved on to some other con.

"People tend to learn very quickly about scams, but changes in technology mean the criminals can adapt just as quickly," says Prof Wall. "Most people have now heard of phishing, where the fraudsters ask individuals to update or confirm security details, but now you also get smishing which uses texts to the same end.

"The latest development is vishing where someone leaves a voice message on people's landlines claiming to be from a bank or credit card company asking them to ring a certain number because they've detected a problem with their accounts."

While raids likes the Great Train Robbery went down in history for the sheer audacity of the gangs who masterminded them, armed robbery is a high risk career and the vast majority are brought to justice before they can enjoy the rewards. However, the internet not only allows criminals to spread that risk, crucially it also provides the priceless luxury of time.

"There is absolutely no point carrying out a £40m bank robbery these days," says Prof Wall, who has spent a lot of time pondering the perfect online crime.

"Given the amount of people who need to be involved the cut is likely to be small and the chances are you will get caught. Money is not easy to launder at short notice and the best you can hope is that you have enough time to secret some of the cash away, but is a million pounds really worth 10 or 15 years in prison?

"However, if in a matter of seconds you could take just £1 from 40 million different accounts, then suddenly a life of crime starts to look a little more attractive. The internetalso has an advantage in
terms of covering tracks. Electronically transferring money from one place to another takes a fraction of the time to physically move
cash around and obviously there's no need for elaborate getaway plans."

While the remoteness of the internet provides a convenient cover for shady characters, the public's imagination has been left to fill in the gaps. However, just as murderers don't fit one easily identifiable profile, the image of computer hackers as socially dysfunctional geeks is far removed from reality.

"Films like War Games probably have a lot to answer for," says Prof Wall. "In the past, hackers wanted the world to know what they were capable off and they liked to think of themselves as the little guy taking on the establishment.

"Often they would send viruses which would print out their CV and ask for jobs, now the last thing they want is for anyone to be able to identify them.

"It's possible to write viruses which kill themselves off after a few hours or which lie dormant except for a 20 minute period when they let the hacker in through a virtual backdoor. Stealth is key to current criminal activity."

If the idea of faceless hackers disappearing into online shadows seems like the stuff of a Hollywood thriller, the scams themselves are often surprisingly simple, promising as most successful cons do that there is something such as a free lunch.

"One day you could launch the online equivalent of the traditional pyramid selling scheme," says Prof Wall, who wrote Cybercrime, an account of the phenomenon aimed at academics during his daily
train ride to Leeds from his home in York.

"Early on, it seems like a win win situation, but at some point the cash runs out and the only people to profit are those at the top of the pile. The next day you could move on to an auction site scam, building up a reputation for selling say gadgets at less than their market value. Once you've earned people's trust, you offer the people who missed out on a particular bid the chance to buy off line. The trick is to ask for a deposit up front, but of course the goods will never arrive.

"One relatively new development is the online dating scam where people strike up a relationship with someone. Flattery is a powerful thing and it is amazing how many people will hand over money for an air fare if they think they have found true love.

"When people realise they have fallen victim to a scam like that there is understandably a sense of embarrassment, so they don't contact police."

This reluctance means statistics linked to cybercrime are often viewed as just the tip of the iceberg and has fuelled the belief that no one is safe from the online fraudsters.

However, while figures as to the true cost of internet fraud are regularly bandied about, Prof Wall insists that not only are such calculations impossible, but that there is little evidence to support claims that it is a major funder of terrorist activities like al-Qaeda and the Tamil Tigers

"It's all hypothetical," he says. "There has been a lot of publicity recently about the BBC investigation which discovered a number of
websites selling identity details. The inference was that internet fraud was much greater than anyone realised, but it is still not clear whether these sites are actually attempting to scam the buyers with useless information rather than individuals.

"If cybercrime is used to fund large-scale terrorist activity, there is a much more complex relationship between the two than anyone has yet discovered. Yes, there is an element of organised crime, but it's not
like the Mafia with an
identifiable command and control, it's more that people come together to commit one particular scam and they go their separate ways."

Personal responsibility inevitably plays a part in defeating the cybercriminals, but as Prof Wall has discovered whatever Tomorrow's World might have promised, the world is always going to be a fallible place.

"Computer security systems are pretty robust, the big problem is the human element," he says. "It is possible to install software which acts as a filter stopping people receiving emails or accessing internet
sites which contain certain words or images. The idea is that it filters out anything undesirable, but we have to be very careful that we don't fall victim to some kind of Orwellian hysteria.

"When it comes to the internet, like many other things in life, people will always be the weakest link. Some will choose to exploit the technology, but what we don't want is for all users to be affected by the sins of the few."