For $US100, the website provided Cioni, then living in northern Virginia, with the password to her boyfriend's AOL email account. For another $100, she got her boyfriend's wife's password. And then the password of another girlfriend and the boyfriend's children.

Federal US law prohibited hacking into email, but without further illegal activity it was only a misdemeanour, said Orin Kerr, a law professor at George Washington University.

All the services advertise that they will email a screenshot of the target's inbox or even send an email from the target's account as proof that they've cracked the password. The customer then sends payment. One service then responds with the script of a scene from a Shakespeare play, with the stolen password hidden in the copy.

Last year, 24% of all internet purchases there were made using stolen credit card details, according to security company The Third Man.

Durham Police say investigations are being hampered because people are told to report fraud to their banks first.

Shildon, in the DL area, is a former industrial town with a population of 10,000, and police believe that just one or two people may be responsible for the crime wave.

The hacker wrote 'I couldn't stop laughing' on seeing that the federal police's server was running Windows, which is known among hacker communities for being insecure.

The hacker wrote 'I couldn't stop laughing' on seeing that the federal police's server was running Windows, which is known among hacker communities for being insecure.

The hacker wrote 'I couldn't stop laughing' on seeing that the federal police's server was running Windows, which is known among hacker communities for being insecure.