Cybercrime Is Increasing In Scotland
Online credit card fraud and other types of cyber-crime pose an increasing threat, new figures show. There were 8,628 incidents of fraud recorded in 2017/18, a 17.9% increase on the previous year, according to latest figures from Police Scotland.
The force said this reflects an increase in cyber-enabled fraud such as "phishing" and money transfer frauds. Police said there is also evidence of an increasing "cyber-enabled" element to sexual offending.
In total 2,515,574 calls were made to Police Scotland in 2017/18, resulting in 255,504 crimes being recorded. The most serious violent crimes - murders and serious assaults - are down on the previous year, police said. However, the new figures show there was a rise in reports of sexual crimes, which police said reflects increasing confidence among victims to report incidents.
Police said the number of detections for rape has increased on the previous year and both the three-year and five-year averages.
Interim Chief Constable Iain Livingstone said: "Our Policing 2026 strategy made it clear that the demands on policing are changing, with many crimes enabled by new technologies.
"Our priority is to keep people safe and we are adapting the way we work to enable us to better respond to the increase in online crime.
"We are investing in our cyber capabilities to ensure we are properly equipped to meet the modern challenges in keeping Scottish communities safe. We have dedicated cyber-crime units and work in partnership with national and international partners to tackle this growing threat.
"Levels of satisfaction and public confidence have remained very high and people will continue to see uniformed officers in their communities.
"We are moving officers from back office roles onto the frontline, but frontline policing has also moved into the virtual world where an increasing number of crimes are being committed."
Police said the figures, which cover the period from April 1, 2017 to March 31, 2018, show the number of deaths on the roads has fallen by 15.1% (from 172 to 146) while the number of children killed on roads is down 82% from 11 to two.
The number of serious organised crime groups has fallen with two major operations, Escalade and Monchina, resulting in the conviction of several members of serious organised crime groups in the past year, according to the Quarter 4 Management Information Report.
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