Just one in 10 cases of online crime leads to the identification of a suspect, a report by the Dutch government’s data research bureau WODC has found.

Police are hampered by a shortage of trained experts and a general lack of awareness of the severity of online crime. Victims are also less likely to come forward than those affected by other forms of crime.

Cybercrime, such as hacking or using ransomware, accounted for just 1% of a sample of 300,000 reported offences, while digital crime, which covers the use of online technology in more general offences such as fraud and making threats, made up 4%.

WODC said police needed to improve the training of officers who handle criminal complaints so that they are more aware of the different types of online crime.

Many crimes were not investigated because victims were wrongly told that their case did not meet the threshold for filing a criminal complaint.

The report also recommended creating centralised teams to screen online crimes to improve the detection rate, and training detectives to remove their prejudices about the complexity of online crime.