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CRIME

Home working linked to lower number of break-ins in Denmark

The number of break-ins at private homes in Denmark fell by 12 percent in the first quarter of 2023 compared to last year, continuing a sharp downward trend that coincides with the Covid-19 pandemic.

Home working linked to lower number of break-ins in Denmark
The number of home break-ins in Denmark continues to fall. File photo: Sofie Mathiassen/Ritzau Scanpix

A total of 3,281 break-ins were reported to police in the first four months of this year, data from Statistics Denmark reveal.

The figure is 12 percent lower than it was in the same period of 2022 and significantly reduced compared to pre-pandemic levels.

“This might be because working from home has become more normal since corona. There are more people in individual neighbourhoods,” Britt Wendelboe, director of the Bo Trygt home safety initiative, told news wire Ritzau. Bo Trygt was created by organisations and companies including TrygFonden, a foundation owned by the Tryg insurance group.

The Danish Crime Prevention Council (Det Kriminalpræventive Råd), a police crime prevention council, is also part of the initiative.

Neighbourhood assistance is one of the most effective ways to prevent break-ins, according to Bo Trygt, which says that two in three thieves have experienced being interrupted by a neighbour during a break-in.

“We know that neighbourly help works because if there’s something that thieves fear, it’s being seen. Working from home functions in the same way,” Wendelboe said.

“There are more of us at home and maybe you take a lunchtime walk where you live – so there are more people in the area,” she said.

While the number of home break-ins is down, the reverse is true for shops.

Some 5,960 shops reported break-ins in the first quarter of the year, nine percent up compared to 2022.

“We suspect that many consumers have an incorrect perception that shops are creaming off the top following the price increases there have been on energy and food,” Thomas Gress, a senior economist with SMVDanmark, an interest organisation representing around 18,000 small and medium-sized Danish businesses, told news wire Ritzau.

The number of break-in is “disappointing” and could ultimately force shops to raise prices further, he said.

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CRIME

‘More Danes than ever’ victims of digital crime

Almost 190,000 people in Denmark were the victims of IT-related crime in 2023, according to new figures.

'More Danes than ever' victims of digital crime

The number, released by the Danish Crime Prevention Council (Det Kriminalpræventive Råd) represents a significant increase on the previous year’s figure of 150,000.

Denmark’s justice ministry, national police and the University of Copenhagen all work with the Crime Prevention Council in an annual study which tracks the figure through contact with victims.

It represents a trend which is unlikely to slow down in coming years, according to the Council’s director Erik Christensen.

“Technological advances mean that there are more and more doors through which the criminals can walk in relation to scamming us normal members of the public,” he told newswire Ritzau.

The emergence of AI could make it even more likely that people become subjected to digital fraud attempts, he said.

The study found that online payments and abuse of payment information were most common types of fraud defined as IT-related.

But “contact fraud”, in which scammers contact targets by email, telephone or online, is also on the rise.

The figure for that specific type of crime went from 13,000 in 2022 to 47,000 last year.

READ ALSO: Danish courts issue warning over SMS scam

“Our best advice is that if each of us takes good time when we get an email or SMS… and check whether it is [actually] from the Tax Agency, municipality or bank,” Christensen said.

He also advised asking a family member or trusted person for a second opinion before answering any email or SMS, if in doubt.

In the most common type of IT crime – online transactions – some 85,000 people in Denmark last year lost money to scams such as fake web shops or trades with private individuals.

Another form – which hit 64,000 people – involves purchase of a fake or counterfeit item.

Some 76,000 people were victims of having their bank card details stolen and misused, some 19,000 more than in 2022.

“We must move away from shaming people who get scammed because anyone can fall victim to it. Even when you look at these numbers, we know there are also unreported cases,” Christensen said.

The Council director stressed the importance of victims of online fraud not feeling shame over what had happened.

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