Less than 1% of illegal money gets recovered by agencies: Interpol

On a global level, the most significant rise was seen in organised crime which was prevalent in both, the digital as well as the physical world

Speaking on the eve of the 90th Interpol General Assembly in Delhi, Interpol Secretary-General Jurgen Stock said that less than 1 per cent of illegal global money gets recovered by enforcement agencies, as reported by Businessline (BL). He said that the global cost of cybercrime is expected to reach $10.5 trillion by 2025. 

"Organised crime networks are making billions of dollars, and the fact that less than one per cent of global illicit financial flows are intercepted and recovered, or rather, nearly 99 per cent of stolen assets remain in criminal hands, should be of greater concern to everyone," Stock said.

Interpol will release the Interpol Global Crime Trend Report during the event. 

On a global level, the most significant rise was seen in organised crime. It was prevalent in both, the digital as well as the physical world. Stock emphasised the increasing incidents of ransomware. 

"Interpol has developed its global stop-payment mechanism, the Anti-Money Laundering Rapid Response Protocol, which in the past 10 months alone has helped member countries recover more than 60 million dollars in criminal proceeds from cyber-enabled fraud," he said. 

Another major online crime that has increased massively is child sexual abuse. The cases are "significantly" underreported as the victims are ashamed and embarrassed, he added. 

"We know that cybercrime and online child abuse are significantly underreported, often because victims are ashamed or, in cases of fraud, embarrassed, which means that the figures we see are just the tip of the iceberg. This is why we have many resolutions at this General Assembly encouraging greater action by member countries to use Interpol resources in combating these crimes," he said, according to BL.