World Wide Web creator Sir Tim Berners-Lee has admitted that he fell victim to online fraud.

Sir Tim Berners-Lee, who dreamt up the web 20 years ago, said he bought a Christmas present from an online shop which turned out not to be real. Sir Tim said coppers should put as much effort into fighting cyber crime as they do into conventional crime and new steps were needed to protect internet users from malicious software that circulates over the internet.

Sir Tim said that when he called the 0800 number for the crooked site it was number unobtainable, something he thinks he should have done before he made the purchase. He added that he was yet to get the money back.