India’s digital landscape is facing a severe crisis as cybercriminals and fraudsters stole nearly ₹23,000 crore from unsuspecting citizens in 2024, a sharp threefold rise from the previous year, according to a report by DataLEADS, a Delhi-based media and technology firm.
Titled ‘Contours of Cybercrime: Persistent and Emerging Risk of Online Financial Frauds and Deepfakes in India’, the study underlines an alarming growth in digital financial crimes, pointing to both scale and sophistication in how these operations are being executed.
The Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C), a nodal body under the Ministry of Home Affairs, has projected that total losses from cyber fraud in 2025 may exceed ₹1.2 lakh crore if the trend continues unchecked.
This exponential spike follows a trajectory of ₹7,465 crore reported in 2023 and ₹2,306 crore in 2022. Over 20 lakh cybercrime complaints were lodged last year, a near 30 per cent rise from 2023, and a tenfold increase since 2019.
Digital fraud has evolved into a multi-sectoral threat, targeting banking, healthcare, insurance, retail, and now even public investment schemes. The use of deepfake videos and artificial intelligence to impersonate trusted personalities or institutions has complicated detection and enforcement efforts.
Federal data shows over 190 crore Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions were recorded in June 2025 alone, amounting to ₹24.03 lakh crore. India today accounts for nearly half of the world’s digital transactions.
The digital push, especially post-pandemic, increased financial accessibility, particularly in rural belts. But it also expanded the playground for cybercriminals. The report suggests that with 290 lakh unemployed individuals in the country, many are getting drawn into cybercrime networks due to financial desperation.
Also read: Digital Arrest: Retired army colonel, wife duped of ₹49 lakh
Private sector banks accounted for 60 per cent of all bank-related frauds, according to the Reserve Bank of India. Public sector bank customers, however, bore the brunt, losing a total of ₹25,667 crore.
The RBI also reported a nearly eightfold surge in fraud value, from ₹2,623 crore in early FY2024-25 to ₹21,367 crore in the corresponding period of FY2025-26.
Insurance fraud is another area seeing rapid proliferation. Criminals are exploiting digital insurance services to impersonate agents from companies like HDFC, Royal Sundaram, or Shriram Insurance, using logos and branding to build trust before scamming unsuspecting customers via WhatsApp and Telegram.
Investment fraud is on the rise too. Highly educated individuals are falling prey to fake investment schemes that promise astronomical returns. “There are many stories of men and women, often highly educated, being fooled by smooth-talking fraudsters,” the report noted.
Phishing scams, fake payment confirmation links, and fraudulent e-commerce listings have become common tools in the arsenal of cybercriminals.
I4C data showed that WhatsApp alone accounted for over 15,000 finance-related cybercrime complaints in January 2024. Similar volumes were recorded in February and March, flagging the messaging platform as a major hub of criminal activity.
Telegram, Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook also featured prominently as platforms misused for fraud. Yet, tech companies continue to distance themselves by claiming to be ‘platforms’ rather than ‘publishers’, allowing them to evade liability for user-generated content.
The report warns that content moderation has declined and that legislation, while evolving, remains inadequate in compelling platform accountability. Stronger enforcement, transparency norms, and cyber hygiene awareness campaigns are urgently needed.
The government has passed rules requiring greater responsibility from tech companies but experts argue a more robust policy and enforcement ecosystem is critical to halting this cybercrime epidemic.
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