In a recent revelation, the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) stated that in May 2024, an average of 7,000 cybercrime complaints were recorded daily.
This marked a significant surge of 113.7%, compared to the period between 2021 and 2023, and a 60.9% increase from 2022 to 2023.
Further, reported through over 740,000 complaints lodged on the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal, between January and April 2024, Indian citizens suffered losses exceeding Rs 1,750 crore due to cybercriminal activities.
85% complaints pertain to financial online fraud
It is noteworthy that 85% of these complaints pertained to financial online fraud.
The report has highlighted that most of the victims fell prey to online investment fraud, gaming apps, algorithm manipulations, illegal lending apps, sextortion, and OTP scams.
The I4C reported over 100,000 investment fraud incidents in 2023.
In the initial four months of 2024, the digital arrests resulted in a loss of Rs 120 crore.
Trading scams accounted for 20,043 cases, leading to a loss of Rs 1,420 crore to cybercriminals during the same period.
Investment scams resulted in a loss of Rs 222 crore across 62,687 complaints, while dating apps caused losses amounting to Rs 13.23 crore in 1,725 complaints, the data from I4C said.
The total financial toll inflicted by cybercriminals on Indians from January to April 2024 reached Rs 176 crore.
Government’s vigilance amid the spike in cases
In the recent past, the government has released multiple guidelines and directions to aware the citizens of the cyber frauds.
The government highlighted how fraudsters are making international spoofed calls displaying Indian mobile numbers to Indian citizens and committing cyber-crime and financial frauds.
Taking cognisance, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) have devised a system to identify and block such incoming international spoofed calls from reaching any Indian telecom subscriber.
It has also provided with Chakshu facility on Sanchar Saathi portal to report such suspected fraud communications.
The government has highlighted that the vigilant citizens are playing an indispensable role in preventing cybercrimes.
“Through their proactive reporting of suspected fraud communications via the Chakshu-Report Suspected Fraud Communications facility on the Sanchar Saathi portal, these alert citizens are contributing significantly to a safer digital environment,” Ministry of Communications had stated.
In the latest cases, people were being duped by fraudulent communication in the name of fake LIC officials and Insurance company representatives and SMSs for redemption of SBI Rewards.
Further, the DoT has identified approximately 6.80 lakh mobile connections suspected to have been obtained using invalid, non-existent, or fake/forged Proof of Identity (PoI) and Proof of Address (PoA) KYC documents.
