A Russian hacker living in New Zealand is trying to flog the login details of millions of Facebook users. Kiwi coppers from the country's National Cyber Crime Centre are investigating whether the hacker Kirllos is using New Zealand as a base to commit internet fraud.

Kirllos has appeared on an underground hacker forum offering the user names and passwords of 1.5 million Facebook users for between $35 and $62.70 per 1000 accounts. Buyers are told to contact Kirllos through the ICQ instant messaging service, which lists his address as New Zealand. So far one Kiwi has had his details listed on a hackers' forum in February when Kirllos put 100,000 accounts up for sale.

Detective Senior Sergeant John van den Heuvel, from the newly formed cyber crime unit, said they would be joining forces with overseas law enforcement agencies to try to trace the hacker. Kirllos says he is a 24-year-old who was born in Russia and speaks English, French and Russian. His business is booming, apparently he has managed to sell 700,000 details and earned about $25,000 from the scam.