1.2 million Dutch hit by cyber crime, but most don’t report it

Photo: DutchNews.nl

Some 1.2 million people in the Netherlands were affected by some sort of internet-related crime last year, the national statistics agency CBS said on Wednesday.

The CBS bases its claim on a survey of some 38,000 people over the age of 12. It found some 12% of the under-25s were the victims of cyber crime, compared to just 4% of the over-65s.

By far the biggest group – 4.6% of the total – said they had lost money via phishing or other scams. Some 1.8% they had been hacked, 1.4% were the victims of online stalking or bullying, 1% had to deal with identity fraud and 0.7% sex-related online crime.

The research also showed that the victims of cyber crime often don’t bother to report the incidents to the police.

Around a quarter of people whose identity was stolen or who were the victims of a buying scam said they had reported the incident, but just 3% of hacking victims had done so.

Cyber crime victims said they did not report the incidents because they did not consider them serious enough, or thought reporting would not do any good.

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