Online crime: millions in losses again in Lower Saxony in 2024

At the request of heise online, the State Criminal Police Office of Lower Saxony has extracted the first figures on online crime from the authority's incoming statistics for 2024. The number of crimes was apparently down in many areas, but there was still a multi-million loss in the state of Lower Saxony alone.

The incoming statistics are not the official Police Crime Statistics (PKS), which the State Criminal Police Offices (LKA) and the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) usually report on in the second quarter of the following year. Among other things, there are other classifications of criminal offenses. The BKA does not keep any incoming statistics and was therefore unable to provide any corresponding information.

Several sub-areas are declining

The Lower Saxony Criminal Police Office has recorded declining figures for several areas of online crime. However, the overall damage remains considerable. There have been changes in the area of ransomware, for example. While a low three-digit number of cases was recorded in 2022, with the focus on institutions, there was a shift towards private individuals as victims in 2023, while the level remained constant. Last year, a mid double-digit number of cases was reported, with only very few private individuals affected (“low single-digit range”). Reliable statements on financial losses cannot be made.

Attacks on online banking continue to be a major problem. Here, the LKA cites case numbers in the low four-digit range for the years 2022 to 2024. At least the figures for 2024 are down slightly. However, the amount of damage is in the “low double-digit million range”. Compared to 2020, however, the registered crimes are at a very high level, the officials add.

Another area of online crime is overload attacks on servers, known as DDoS attacks. In 2022 and 2023, low double-digit numbers of cases were registered, but in 2024 they fell significantly to around half, i.e., a mid-single-digit figure. However, it is not possible to record specific damage figures.

Changed approaches

In 2024, there were significant changes in the modus operandi and crime structures for online crimes in the areas of messenger fraud, online grandchildren scams and fake police officers. The LKA Lower Saxony is therefore adapting the evaluations to these developments. As a result, no figures are yet available. However, it is therefore not possible to make a general statement whether online crime has remained at a constant level overall.

Data on child and youth pornography is available in the police crime statistics. The figures on this from the initial statistics would give a highly distorted picture, which is why the LKA refers to the official figures from the PKS Lower Saxony, which are expected in March. According to the official PKS, there was a massive increase of almost 40 percent to more than 8,500 cases in 2023.

(dmk)