More online shopping fraud reports after two years of decline

After two years of decline, the number of online shopping fraud reports in the Netherlands is rising again AD reports based on figures from the police and sector organization Thuiswinkel.org. In the first four months of 2024, the police received a report of online shopping fraud every 10 minutes.

This type of fraud peaked during the coronavirus pandemic, with a record number of reports in 2021. After that, online shopping fraud declined for two years—until now. In the first four months of this year, the police received 33,000 reports of online shopping fraud, an increase of almost 14 percent compared to the same period last year. A police spokesperson told AD that just over half of the cases involved fraud on online stores or trading platforms like Marktplaats.

Thuiswinkel.org has noticed an increase in the number of rogue web shops, director Marlene ten Ham told the newspaper. “Especially websites with a .com address that abuse the logos and names of well-known webshops.” Victims are also losing more—an average of 350 euros per victim, Ten Ham said. “Over 20 percent more than last year.”

The most common form of online shopping fraud involves buying a product and never receiving it. According to AD, fraud with concert and football match tickets is also increasingly common. There were also many cases of people booking a holiday home that looked very different from the photo or didn’t exist at all.

Figures published by Statistics Netherlands last month showed that victims of online shopping fraud were less likely to report the crime to the police in 2023 than in 2021. Most said they didn’t go to the police because there was no point – they didn’t believe the police would be able to catch the suspect or get their money back.

But according to the police spokesperson who spoke to AD, that is changing. In recent years, the number of online shopping fraud cases in which the police identified a suspect has quadrupled – from less than 2 to almost 8 percent. That is still low compared to other crimes, but it is constantly improving.