Cyber-crime has nearly doubled over the last year, according to new statistics published today.
Police recorded an estimated 14,130 cyber-crimes in 2020-21, a 95 per cent increase from the previous year’s total of 7,240 recorded cyber-crimes.
Those figures included a year-on-year rise of 149 per cent for online fraud, and a 152 per cent rise in digital threats and extortion.
The new annual statistics also reveal assaults on emergency workers are at record highs. Last year, 8,118 emergency worker assaults were recorded – a rise on the previous record of 7,519 assaults, set in 2019-20.
Scottish Conservative Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Justice, Jamie Greene MSP, said: “These annual figures make for shocking reading.
“Vulnerable people across Scotland are being ripped off and left devastated by fraudsters.
“That is exactly why we want criminals who commit such heartless acts to receive tougher sentences.
“For the second year in a row, assaults on emergency workers reached a new record level, yet Scottish Conservative proposals to double the maximum sentence for these criminals have fallen on deaf ears.
“The SNP Government’s soft-touch approach is letting down vulnerable people, which is why we are proposing a Victims Law to put victims of crime at the heart of the justice system.
Notes
Cyber-crimes nearly doubled in a single year. The number of ‘cyber-crimes’ recorded by Police Scotland is estimated to have increased from 7,240 in 2019-20 to 14,130 in 2020-21 – an increase of 95%. This statistic includes crimes under the Domestic Abuse Act 2018, crimes of threats and extortion, sexual crimes, crimes of fraud and crimes recorded under the Computer Misuse Act 1990. (Scottish Government, Recorded Crime in Scotland 2020-21, 28 September 2021, Table A9, link).
During the pandemic the number of assaults on emergency workers reached a record high. In 2020-21, 8,118 common assaults of an emergency worker were recorded. This is higher than any other year on record and just shy of 600 more than the number recorded in the year before, where 7,519 assaults took place. (Scottish Government, Recorded Crime in Scotland 2020-21, 28 September 2021, Table A8, link; Scottish Government, Recorded Crime in Scotland 2019-20, 29 September 2020, link).
Crimes of fraud increased by more than a quarter in a single year. In 2019-20, the number of fraud crimes recorded stood at 11,939. However, in just a single year in 2020-21, that number rose to 15,031 – an increase of 26%. (Scottish Government, Recorded Crime in Scotland 2020-21, 28 September 2021, Table 1, link).