Indians lost over Rs 1,750 cr to cyber fraud between Jan & April 2024

Indians lost over Rs 1,750 crore to cyber fraud in the first four months of the year, with an average of 7,000 cybercrime complaints being registered on every day in May 2024 so far, according to the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre, or I4C. While more than 7,40,000 complaints were registered between January and April 2024 on the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal of the ministry of home affairs, the alarming numbers mark a 113.7 per cent jump from where the figures stood between 2021 and 2023.

Nearly 85 per cent of online frauds that Indians fell prey to were financial in nature. Overall, OTP forwards, online investment, illegal lending apps, sextortion, gaming apps and algorithm manipulation were the most common methods used to commit frauds online, revealed the I4C, which is a body that provides an eco-system for Law Enforcement Agencies to deal with cybercrime in a comprehensive manner.

BIG JUMP IN NUMBERS

The magnitude of increase in cybercrime can be gauged from the steadily growing number of complaints registered between 2019 and 2024. While 2019 saw 26,049 complaints being registered, as many as 2,57,777 cybercrime cases were lodged in 2020. The number of complaints rose to 4,52,414 in 2021, 9,66,790 in 2022, 15,56,218 in 2023 and has hit 7,40,957 in just the first four months of 2024, according to the I4C.

Digital arrests accounted for 4,599 cases in the first four months of 2024, which saw Indians losing Rs 120 crore. As many as 20,043 cases of trading scam led to losses worth Rs 1,420 crore during this period. Investment scams saw 62,687 cases being lodged that accounted for Rs 222 crore being lost while dating apps led to Rs 13.23 crores worth of losses across 1,725 complaints, according to I4C data.

Among the steps that the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre has taken to curb the menace is overseeing and blocking cybercrime infrastructure such as SIM cards, SMS headers, Meta and Google advertisements, Skype accounts and bank accounts. The I4C is also constantly collaborating with various organisations such as banks including the Reserve Bank of India, the Department of Telecommunication, the Department of Financial Services, the Financial Intelligence Unit and the Digital Intelligence Unit besides fintech firms to track down mule accounts and cybercrime hubs.