An explosion at a coffee shop on Barrierweg or a fatal shooting on Heezerweg. These are often the criminal practices that catch the eye of Eindhoven residents. Yet another form of crime has also become indispensable in recent years: cybercrime. Something the police have also noticed. “About half of crime is committed online”.
Police figures show that in the Eindhoven region over the past five years more than 1,000 reports have been made by victims of cybercrime. The crimes involved are diverse. “For example, that your account is hacked and orders are made in your name at Bol.com”, Anouk Bonekamp, of the police’s cybercrime team, says.
“You see a lot of companies and elderly people becoming victims”, she continued. According to the police, the perpetrators are mostly young. They imagine themselves invisible on the Internet. However, their actions have serious consequences.
Almost lost everything
For example, Gerard, taking a tour of the city, narrowly avoided losing everything. “They were busy with the bank to transfer money. I called the bank right away and they blocked everything”. Vlad was less fortunate. “I got caught in an email once. They then stole €10 from me. A mistake, but I learned from it”.
Other Eindhoven residents took precautions not to become victims. “Phone numbers I don’t know I don’t answer. Familiars I save right away, then I know it’s okay”, Marjan said. “You shouldn’t leave too much of yourself on the Internet. Like e-mail addresses. Then it is harder to find you”, Annie adds.
Clever
Fortunately, you don’t have to be clever to make it harder for cybercriminals. “Make sure you have a difficult password and two-step verification, so they can’t just get in”, Paul van Nunen, of Brainport Development, gives as an example. “Don’t trust an e-mail with a link. Don’t leave your data everywhere. So there are quite a lot of measures you can take as a citizen”, Bonekamp of the police said.
Source: Studio040
Translated by: Bob
