There are 390 thousand Calabrian citizens who have suffered at least one scam on the web. Even one in three young people has been a victim of online shopping. This was revealed by Consumerismo No Profit, the association created to give a voice to consumers, according to which computer crimes in Calabria are on the worrying rise. «It is estimated that in Calabria – explains the association – one in 5 citizens (around 21% of residents) has suffered at least one online scam, and in the 25-34 age group even one in 3 young people (33%) has fallen into the traps of e-commerce. Scams in the web sales sector are a phenomenon that generates global losses estimated at over 48 billion dollars in 2023.”
But computer crimes are many and capable of affecting a very large audience of users: among the most widespread in Italy is the theft of personal data such as passwords, bank codes, credit card numbers, etc. which affects 17.8% of citizens, while approximately 14% have suffered identity theft (social media, email, etc.). «Offences that all have the same purpose: to directly or indirectly steal money from the victims. It is no coincidence that, according to the statistics of the Observatory on Credit Fraud and Identity Theft, in the first half of 2023 there were 17,100 cases of illicit use of the personal and financial data of others to steal money and purchase goods (+10.8% compared to 2022) with an estimated damage of over 83 million (+14.2%)”, adds Consumerismo.
«Precisely to combat computer crimes – continues the association – and guarantee greater security in the e-commerce sector, an amendment to the Cybersecurity Bill proposed by Letizia Giorgianni (Fdi) was approved which introduces the specific crime of “ online scam”. The law provides for aggravating circumstances for those who commit crimes through IT sites and platforms, such as the “mandatory confiscation” of the IT tools in the possession of the perpetrator of the scam (computers, mobile phones, tablets), and the seizure of assets owned by the scammers, to be be used to compensate victims of crime”.
«The current rules, in fact, provide for extremely mild penalties»
«The widespread diffusion of online scams, of which thousands of citizens are victims every year, depends not only on the ease with which they can be carried out, but also on the extreme weakness in the criminal repression of this form of crime – stated Giorgianni -. The current rules, in fact, provide extremely mild penalties for such crimes: they do not allow the application of precautionary measures or confiscations for sums equivalent to those involved in the scam. We want to remedy this situation by providing for a specific aggravating circumstance that increases the sentence that can be imposed, by ordering the seizure of the IT tools used to carry out the fraud, and finally by making it possible to seize the offender’s assets for an amount equal to the amount of the defrauded sums”.
