Indians have fallen victim to cyber criminals to the tune of over ₹1,750 crore in the first four months of 2024, with more than 7,40,000 cybercrime complaints lodged on the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal managed by the Ministry of Home Affairs during January to April.
The Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) reported an alarming trend, with an average of 7,000 cybercrime complaints registered daily in May 2024.
This marks a staggering 113.7% increase from 2021-2023 and a 60.9% rise from 2022-2023. Alarmingly, 85% of these complaints were related to financial online frauds.
Established by the MHA, the I4C serves as a platform for law enforcement agencies to combat cybercrime.
The surge in cases is evident from the statistics, with a steep rise from 26,049 complaints in 2019 to 7,40,957 complaints in the first four months of 2024.
Cyber criminals targeted victims through various means including online investment fraud, gaming apps, algorithm manipulations, illegal lending apps, sextortion, and OTP frauds. Notably, over 1 lakh investment scam cases were reported in 2023 alone.
Digital arrests accounted for a staggering ₹1.2 billion lost in 4,599 cases during the first four months of 2024. Trading scams, totaling 20,043 cases, resulted in a loss of ₹14.2 billion during the same period.
Additionally, investment scams led to a loss of ₹2.22 billion in 62,687 complaints, while dating apps caused a loss of ₹132.3 million in 1,725 complaints, according to I4C data. Overall, Indians lost a total of ₹17.6 billion to cyber criminals between January and April 2024.
The I4C is collaborating with regulatory bodies such as RBI, DFS, banks, FIU, DOT, DIU, and fintech companies to address issues related to mule accounts and misuse of telecom infrastructure by cyber criminals.
Additionally, it is actively monitoring and blocking cybercrime infrastructure including Skype accounts, Google and Meta advertisements, SMS headers, SIM cards, and bank accounts.
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