The number of reported cybercrimes rose to a record in the first half of 2017, the National Police Agency said Thursday, warning of a new scam in which virtual currency accounts are hacked for illicit money transfers.

The police say they received 69,977 reports in the January to June period, up 4.9 percent from a year earlier and the highest since 2001 when comparable data became available.

The leading category of reports, which account for 36,729 cases, involved fraud and other malicious businesses practices to swindle customers of online shopping sites, the police data showed.