Mr. Justin Kelly:

That is not the sense we get. I know this was discussed at the previous meeting, but people are getting the smishing and the SMS texts all the time and they are not reporting them because they are just so common now. We all get them so people do not report around that. When people are compensated, as my colleague said earlier, there is the question of whether they want the hassle of getting involved in an investigation afterwards. Under-reporting is a multifactorial thing. It is not unusual to this jurisdiction. From talking to my colleagues abroad, under-reporting of economic crime is quite common not only across the EU but also internationally.

Deputy Doherty spoke about some of the investment frauds and the numbers around them. Some of the numbers are staggering. Again, with under-reporting in that area, it can be seen why businesses might not want the publicity around that to show how easily their systems were compromised.