The responsibility for closing down fraudulent or malicious websites rests with communication service providers, who act on a variety of information including that which may have been provided by SOCA. SOCA is only directly involved in the closure of the site in the event that the provider has failed to respond to a take down notice, or if data need to be preserved or acquired for a statutory purpose.
During 2008-09, there were more than 36 separate occasions where the e-Crime department was directly involved in the removal of such websites.