Last year, the police received 23,100 reports of fraud, this is an increase of 20 per cent compared to the previous year. The large increase is mainly due to online fraud. – These are organized, financial criminals who are behind it. They are both from Norway and abroad. Among other things, they use automated digital tools to mass-deceive the population, says Økokrim leader Pål Kulø Lønseth. Large dark figures There are large dark figures when it comes to fraud. Several banks have contacted the police to report new forms of fraud. A particular increase has occurred in the categories “phishing” and “spoofing”. – We are very afraid of, and have warned over time, about the technological development that has made this possible, says Løseth. Creates new unit for digital crime The sharp increase in the number of cases, combined with the increase in professional actors, means that the police now want to step up their efforts to prevent and counter digital crime. – We are now creating our own fraud department within ökorim to work on these cases. We want to work preventively, but also to coordinate the information we have in order to prosecute perpetrators, says Løseth. Head of Økokrim Pål K. Lønseth. Photo: Hans-Olav Landsverk – The criminals are developing in line with the digitization of society. We see that crime for profit has moved to digital spaces. This is in line with what we have expected and warned about in previous threat assessments, he concludes. See examples of “spoofing”: The fraudster pretends to be the police. In the next few hours, he loses her account.
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