Three police investigations are currently examining allegations of phone hacking, e-mail hacking and corrupt payments to police at the News of the World and other papers owned by News International, the UK arm of News Corp.
It involves scam artists - often masquerading as corrupt officials or sons and daughters of dead dictators - offering people via e-mail or faxes shares in hidden fortunes in exchange for simple administrative assistance.
Jonas Dischl-Luell of AWK Group, a Swiss firm, sells software that scans e-mail addresses to see if any employees are in contact, even indirectly, with officials in corrupt governments.