The UK government is failing victims of cyber-crimes, the Cyber Helpline, an advocacy group, claims in their new report.

In their analysis of critical gaps in the system to protect and defend cyber-victims, The Funnel of Justice delves into the shortfalls of the government’s system of addressing cyber-crime and its society fallout.

According to the group’s analysis, cyber-crime impacts over 5 million individuals across England and Wales each year.

Technology is involved in 58% of all crimes across each nation as well, the group found.

However, just 36% of cyber-crime victims report the offense they experienced to police – this is only around 1.7 million.

Those that do report are seven times less likely to see perpetrators charged or even summoned compared to offline crimes.

Cyber-crime victims often underreport as they are unclear on the process of reporting, or simply fear they will not be taken seriously.

The low rate of conviction is also a resource problem – law enforcement agencies face significant resource constraints, limiting their ability to effectively investigate these crimes despite their commonality.

Less than one per cent of police resources are dedicated to cyber-crime despite it accounting for 40% of crimes, the National Fraud Strategy from 2023 admitted.

All this factors into the fact that 98% of cyber-enabled crimes result in no further action.

Cyber-crimes range from Computer Misuse Act (CMA) offenses and fraud, to online stalking and harassment and intimate image abuse.

The Cyber Helpline reports that less than 1% of CMA and fraud crimes  – which amassed 3.46 million victims – result in a charge in summons, with only 1% of online stalking and harassment crimes leading to convictions, despite 1.4 million being victims.

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The stat only rises for intimate image abuse, often referred to revenge porn, which has a 4% rate of charge or summons despite the UK seeing 25,381 cases.

The lack of funding and understanding on the side of law enforcement is only putting more people in danger of suffering cyber-crimes, and letting more cyber-criminals continue to perpetrate their crimes without facing any consequences.

Further, in terms of stalking and harassment, unchecked online behaviour can escalate to dangerous off-line incidences.

Similarly, the report revealed a lack of standardisation in the approach to treating cyber-crime victims, which can lead to uneven attention given to each claim, and only adds to the anxiety of reporting.

The Cyber Helpline made several recommendations to aid cyber-crime victims, such as establishing a 24/7 helpline, the creation of curated guides and resources for individuals, and police, government, and community training programmes.