Cybercrime continues to skyrocket in Spain. Despite the strengthening of the network patrol sections by national and regional police forces in recent years, crimes on the internet continue to grow and constitute one of the most important headaches for the Ministry of the Interior. According to the 2023 crime report, made public yesterday by the department headed by Fernando Grande-Marlaska, criminal offenses committed in the digital space increased by 25.5% compared to last year. Conventional crime, on the other hand, increased by 2.1%.
Of all the crime registered on the internet during the past year, nine out of ten criminal offenses correspond to computer scams. And these data, according to police sources, are only a small tip of the iceberg, since the reporting of this type of crime is still very low. Despite the lack of awareness of the security forces and bodies, the data highlight the complexity – and magnitude – of the problem: in 2016, 70,178 computer scams were registered. In 2023 the number was already 426,744. In other words, in eight years they have grown by 508%. In this curve, the year of the coronavirus marked a turning point.
Criminal organizations are increasingly playing the game online. They are diversifying the crime, but always with a common good: the data with which they can later imprison the victims. Some of them, according to police sources specialized in the prevention and prosecution of cybercrimes, managers of not so small companies who do not dare to report for fear of admitting that they have been deceived from a relevant position. Computer scams, as the data reflect, far exceed thefts of all kinds – with violence, intimidation, in the street or homes – that took place throughout the national territory.
By region: Andalusia, the Valencian Community, Murcia and Euskadi are the territories where cybercrime is growing the most, compared to Asturias or Galicia, where it is increasing the least, or La Rioja and Ceuta, where it even decreased last year.
The balance sheet, which includes data from all the national, autonomous and local police, also shows a 15.1% increase in crimes against sexual freedom. In the Interior, they argue that this increase must be part of policies to raise awareness and reduce social and personal tolerance for this type of crime, which results in a greater readiness of victims to report them.
In the case of drug trafficking, which also increases to 9.5%, they say that it is related to the Security plans, such as the one deployed in Campo de Gibraltar, since in this criminal phenomenon “very few complaints”. “This is an indicator of police activity in the face of this type of crime”, they say.
