The state-run financial watchdog said Tuesday that 2023 saw 13,751 citizen reports of damages caused by financial crimes, up 26 percent from 10,913 recorded the year before.

The overwhelming majority of the cases, 12,844, were related to illegal private loans, according to the Financial Supervisory Service. The figure also marked a 24.5 percent increase from 10,350 reported the year before.

Others included reports related to the illegal seizure of property of the debtor, which also jumped from 1,109 to 1,985 over the same period.

There were 49,532 cases in which citizens made inquiries related to financial crimes, which was slightly less than 49,593 recorded the year before. In total, there were 63,283 such inquiries made in 2023, up 4.6 percent compared to 60,506 in 2022.

The FSS took action in some cases, such as requesting related government agencies to discontinue 8,465 phone numbers thought to be promoting illegal private loans, and requesting the deletion of 20,153 online posts of the same nature.

It also asked police to launch an investigation into 503 cases.