2.2 million cybercrime victims in 2022

Girl losing heart in front of a computer.
© Hollandse Hoogte / Westend61 GmbH
In 2022, 15 percent of the Dutch population aged 15 and over indicated they had been victims of one or more forms of online crime. This corresponds to 2.2 million people. Most were victims of scams and fraud, followed by hacking and online threats and harassment. Twenty percent (officially) reported the incident to the police. Statistics Netherlands (CBS) reports this based on results of a new survey on cyber safety and cyber crime. The survey was conducted between August and October 2022 among more than 32 thousand people aged 15 and over.

In 2022 a share of 8 percent among the population aged 15 and over were victims of online scams and fraud, particularly purchase fraud (6 percent). Five percent experienced hacking while 4 percent encountered online threats and harassment.

Young people were the most frequent victims of the latter form. Among 15 to 24-year-olds, one in five said they had faced online threats, bullying, stalking or shamesexting, i.e. a form of sexually transgressive behaviour where nude photos or videos of the victim are distributed or threatened to be distributed.

30 percent feel less safe after encountering online crime

For 37 percent of cybercrime victims, the incident in 2022 led to less trust in other people; 30 percent felt or feel less safe as a result. Sleep problems, depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms and reliving the incident over and over again were each mentioned by 7 to 8 percent of victims.

Looking at specific forms of online crime, the latter complaints were reported by victims of online threats and harassment more than twice as often as victims of the other online crimes.

2 in 10 victims notify and report to the police

Over half of the cybercrime victims have reported it somewhere: to the police, professional social workers, family members, relatives or friends. A share of 21 percent reported what had happened to them to the police.

Almost all cybercrime reporting to the police resulted in an official police report (19 percent). The most frequently cited reason for not reporting the incident to the police (and filing a report) is that it did not occur to the victim or the victim did not think it important, followed by 'it doesn't help anyway'.

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