Greater Manchester Police has for the first time released information about the level of cyber-crime in the county.
From 1 April 2014 the Force started to record crimes that had a link to technology and in the 12 months there were 1,147 cyber-crimes recorded. Four main problems were highlighted including fraud, harassment, obscene publications and underage sexual activity.
Detective Superintendent Mark Smith said: “We are at the starting point of trying to quantify the extent of the problem in Greater Manchester and these reports really are the tip of the iceberg.
The main issues were Fraud,with online sales, hacked accounts and the sale of stolen goods.
Harassment, mainly involving email and social media including Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp
Obscene publications, producing, trading and downloading indecent images of children and Sexual activity , mainly related to indecent images sent or requested of children including grooming
Between 1 April 2014 and 31 March 2015, 1, 147 crimes were highlighted as being a cyber-crime with the highest reports during February when there were 270 crimes reported.
Superintendent Smith added
“We know people are now starting to come forward but there are many more who are unseen victims of cyber criminals. A cyber-crime support team was created six months ago to assist officers to deal with these crimes so we can expect to see an increase.”
