Online shopping fraud on the rise; other cybercrime decreases

The number of people who fell victim to online shopping fraud in the Netherlands showed a significant increase in 2014. Other forms of cybercrime, such as hacking and identity theft, decreased.

This is according to figure released by Statistics Netherlands on Wednesday.

Last year 3.3 percent of the population above the age of 15 years fell victim to online shopping fraud, compared to 2.7 percent in 2012. That is an increase of about 90 thousand victims. According Statistics Netherlands, this increase cannot be completely attributed to the rising popularity of online shopping, as people who have been using the internet for online shopping for some time fell victim to online shopping fraud slightly more often.

Compared to 2012, however, fewer people were the victims of hacking and identity theft. The victims of both of these cyber crimes dropped with about 100 thousand people between 2012 and last year. The reduction in identity theft can almost completely be attributed to the decrease of skimming thanks to banks replacing the magnetic strips on debit cards with a chip.

Highly educated people are more often the victim of cybercrime than people with a lower education. According to Statistics Netherlands, this is because people with a higher education are more likely to do their shopping online than people with a lower education.