Facebook crime rises by '540pc in 3yrs in UK'

London, Dec 14 (ANI): Police chiefs have reported that crimes linked to Facebook have reached more than 100,000 across Britain in the last five years.

Police chiefs in 16 forces made the revelation, claiming that 7,545 calls from the public since January were concerned with the social networking site.

Callers have alerted officers to alleged acts of terrorism, sudden deaths, missing pets and even firearms offences.

Frauds, sexual offences and hate crimes were also reported to police, as well as a large number of malicious messages on the site.

The figures have been obtained via Freedom of Information Act requests to forces.

They compare to just 1,411 calls related to Facebook to police in the whole of 2005, when the network began to gain popularity.

The website has been used by criminals to make threats, intimidate, bully and harass.

Campaign groups claim sex offenders use websites such as Facebook and conceal their identity to snare children and women.

"While there is a correlation between Facebook's growing size and the number of calls, there is no evidence to suggest that the use of Facebook was the cause or carrier of a criminal act in any of the phone calls referenced," the Daily Mail quoted a spokesman for Facebook, as saying. (ANI)