The Most Common Responses To Cyber-Crime In European Countries

With cyber-crime on the rise across Europe, many individuals are unsure of the best way to respond to these threats. To find out more about this, Prolifics Testing studied official data to determine which European countries are most likely to report which crimes and how.

With cyber-crime becoming an increasingly alarming phenomenon across Europe, many individuals are becoming fearful of the wide range of ways in which they can be manipulated online, yet most remain unsure of the best way to respond to these threats. 

Keen to uncover the most common responses by individuals across Europe when they become victim to these cyber-crimes, the technology experts at Prolifics Testing studied official data released by the European Commission to determine which European countries are most likely to report which crimes and how. 

Europeans Would Take The Following Actions If They Fall Victim To The Following Types of Cyber-Crime:

Online Banking Fraud

Interestingly, across each of the European countries, the most popular primary action taken in response to becoming victim to online banking fraud was to contact the police, with all nations rendering this to be their most popular option. 

In particular, the following European countries ranked as most likely to report this cyber-crime to the police, with the highest percentage of respondents saying that this would be their primary action:

  1. Sweden (82%) 
  2. Greece and Spain (79%)
  3. Cyprus (78%)
  4. Lithuania (76%)
  5. Finland (75%)
  6. Germany (74%)
  7. Poland and Portugal (69%)
  8. Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands (68%)
  9. France, Italy, Hungary, and Austria (66%)
  10. Bulgaria (62%)

Personal Data Theft

A similar trend was observed on the matter of personal data theft, since there appeared to be a general consensus across all European states that the most popular primary action to take in event of personal data theft would be contacting the police.

In particular, the following European countries ranked as most likely to report this cyber-crime to the police, with the highest percentage of respondents saying that this would be their primary action: 

  1. Sweden (92%)
  2. Netherlands (86%)
  3. Finland (83%)
  4. Denmark (81%)
  5. Spain (80%)
  6. Lithuania (78%)
  7. Greece, France and Cyprus (77%)
  8. Belgium and Luxembourg (75%)
  9. Poland (72%)
  10. Germany (71%)

Online Shopping Fraud

Unlike the previous two cyber-crimes, there were two main courses of action that were popular amongst European countries in response to online shopping fraud: contacting the police and contacting the website or vendor. 

Of the European countries that were most likely to contact the police as their primary action, the following countries boasted the highest percentage of respondents saying that this would be their primary action:

  1. Cyprus (60%)
  2. Germany (56%) 
  3. Poland (55%) 
  4. Italy (54%)
  5. Spain (51%)
  6. Greece (50%) 
  7. Hungary (49%)
  8. Portugal (48%) 
  9. Finland (43%) 
  10. Romania (42%) 

Comparatively, 12 European countries would take a different course of primary action and contact the website or vendor in the event that they fell victim to online shopping fraud, the following countries boasted the highest percentage of respondents saying that this would be their primary action:

  1. Netherlands (59%)
  2. Denmark and Sweden (56%)
  3. Belgium (52%)
  4. Luxembourg (50%)
  5. France (47%)
  6. United Kingdom (44%)
  7. Slovenia (43%)
  8. Ireland and Malta (38%)
  9. Estonia (33%) 
  10. Latvia (31%)

Cyber Blackmail

On the matter of Cyber Blackmail, all European countries ranked contacting the police as their primary action if they were to become a victim. 

However, some European nations deemed this course of action more popular than others, with the following countries boasting the highest percentage of respondents saying that this would be their primary action:

  1. Spain (76%) 
  2. Sweden (74%) 
  3. Greece (71%) 
  4. Cyprus (69%)
  5. Denmark (67%)
  6. Italy and Luxembourg (66%)
  7. Hungary, Poland and Finland (65%)
  8. Germany and the Netherlands (64%)
  9. Portugal (61%) 
  10. Austria (60%)

Prevent Access to Online Services

In the event of a cyber attack which prevents access to online services, European countries appear divided on what their primary action would be as a victim. 

Whilst the majority of countries say that their primary action would be to contact the police, other countries say that their primary action would be to contact the website or vendor, meanwhile, Finland is the only country to say that their primary action would be to contact the Internet Service Provider. 

Of those countries who would contact the police first, the following European countries were most likely to do so:

  1. Cyprus (69%)
  2. Greece and Poland (56%)
  3. Italy (54%) 
  4. Hungary (48%)
  5. Germany and Portugal (46%)
  6. Spain (44%)
  7. Romania (42%) 
  8. Czech Republic (40%)
  9. Bulgaria (37%) 
  10. Malta (35%)

Meanwhile, of those countries that would contact the website or vendor, the following countries boasted the highest percentage of respondents that deemed this to be their primary action: 

  1. Belgium and Sweden (36%) 
  2. France and Denmark (31%) 
  3. Luxembourg (30%) 
  4. Latvia (24%)

Email/Social Media Hacking

When it came down to the cyber-crime of email and social media hacking, we saw similar divides in attitude amongst European countries, with most again opting to contact the police as their primary action whilst some opted to contact the website or vendor and others said that contacting the Internet Service Provider would be their primary course of action. 

Of the countries that would contact the police as their primary action overall, the following countries were most likely to do so, since they boasted the highest percentage of respondents that rendered this to be their primary action: 

  1. Cyprus (60%)
  2. Spain (55%)
  3. Poland (52%) 
  4. Italy (49%) 
  5. Greece (46%) 
  6. Hungary (43%) 
  7. Portugal (42%) 
  8. Germany (41%) 
  9. Malta and Romania (37%) 

On the other hand, the following countries were most likely to contact the website or vendor as their primary action: 

  1. Sweden (43%) 
  2. Austria (35%) 
  3. United Kingdom (33%) 

Meanwhile, the following European countries deemed contacting the Internet Service Provider to be their main fix: 

  1. Netherlands (36%) 
  2. Ireland (34%) 
  3. Finland (27%)

Malicious Software

Based on Prolifics Testing’s survey results, it appeared that the cyber-crime that was most divisive of all in terms of how countries would approach it was where malicious software was applied to their device. Although some countries’ respondents said that they would contact the police, other countries’ respondents said that they would contact an Internet Service Provider. Additionally, other countries’ respondents said that they would contact the website or vendor as their primary action, and others were most likely to not take action at all. 

Of the countries that were most likely to contact the police as a victim of this cyber-crime, the following boasted the highest percentage of respondents that would do so:

  1. Cyprus (47%) 
  2. Portugal (40%)
  3. Italy (39%) 
  4. Poland (37%) 
  5. Hungary (34%) 
  6. Spain (30%) 
  7. Romania (29%) 
  8. Greece (27%) 
  9. Malta (24%) 
  10. Germany (21%)

Comparatively, of the countries that were most likely to contact the Internet Service Provider, the following boasted the highest percentage of respondents that would do so:

  1. Ireland (37%)
  2. Netherlands (34%) 
  3. Bulgaria and Croatia (27%) 
  4. Lithuania (24%) 
  5. Slovakia (23%) 
  6. Luxembourg and Finland (22%)
  7. The Czech Republic and Slovenia (21%)
  8. Slovenia (21%) 
  9. United Kingdom (20%) 
  10. Latvia (18%) 

Meanwhile, the following two countries said that their primary action would be to contact the website or vendor: 

  1. Belgium (28%) 
  2. Austria (17%)

Fraudulent Emails Requesting Personal Details

Finally, Prolifics Testing sought to determine what the chosen primary course of action is most likely to be in the event that they fell victim to fraudulent emails. Interestingly, all countries held their primary action to be calling the police.

The following countries most likely to given their high percentage of respondents citing this as their primary action: 

  1. Cyprus (62%) 
  2. Poland (53%) 
  3. Greece and Lithuania (52%) 
  4. Hungary (51%) 
  5. Italy (50%) 
  6. Bulgaria (47%) 
  7. Portugal (46%) 
  8. Spain (43%) 
  9. Germany and Romania (42%) 
  10. Slovenia (38%)

 

Methodology:

1) Interested in various cyber-crime, Prolifics Testing analysed the latest data from the European Commission to establish the primary action citizens from different European countries would take if they fell victim to a range of cyber-crimes.

2) For the research, Prolifics Testing looked at the following cyber-crimes: online banking fraud, personal data theft, online shopping fraud, cyber blackmail, cyber-attacks which restrict access to online services, email or social media account hacking, malicious software on devices and fraudulent emails requesting personal details.

3) For each of the cyber-crime categories, Prolifics Testing assessed what primary action citizens in each respect European country would take if they fell victim to a given cyber-crime.

4) The primary actions taken by respective citizens in response to being a potential victim to a range of cyber-crime scenarios included: contacting the police, contacting the website or vendor, and contacting the internet service provider.

5) The European countries analysed for the research were as follows: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, United Kingdom and Sweden.

Scroll to top