Cyber fraud losses in India have surge nearly 10-fold in a decade: finance ministry

New Delhi: Losses due to cyber frauds have surged nearly 10-fold in a decade, Pankaj Chaudhary, minister of state in the Union finance ministry, said on Monday.

Responding to a question in the Lok Sabha, Chaudhary said losses due to cyber frauds increased to ₹177.05 crore in 2023-24 from ₹18.46 crore in 2014-15. In the first nine months of FY25 (April-December 2024), losses due to cyber frauds stood at ₹107.21 crore.

The number of cyber frauds involving ₹1 lakh or higher surged to 29,082 in FY24 from 815 in FY15, he added. In the first nine months of FY25, this number stood at 13,384.

“With increasing digital payment transactions in the country, incidences of fraudulent practices, including digital payment frauds, have also gone up in the last few years,” Chaudhary said.

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According to the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), which operates under the Union ministry of home affairs, Indians are likely to lose over ₹1.2 trillion over the next year due to cyber fraud.

To help victims of cybercrime, the Union home ministry has launched the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal and the National Cybercrime Helpline Number (1930), Chaudhary said.

Additionally, the department of telecommunications has introduced the Digital Intelligence Platform and the ‘Chakshu’ facility on the Sanchar Saathi website to enable citizens to report suspected fraudulent communications received via calls, SMS, or WhatsApp, such as messages related to KYC expiry or bank account updates, he added.

Chaudhary, however, placed the onus on states and union territories for the prevention, detection, investigation, and prosecution of crimes, including cybercrime.

“The Central government supplements the initiatives of the states/UTs through advisories and financial assistance under various schemes for capacity building of their LEAs (law enforcement agencies),” he said.

“The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) takes various measures for safe usage of digital technologies and prevent cyber frauds through the issuance of alerts and advisories, cybersecurity mock drills to enable assessment of cyber security posture and preparedness of organisations,” he added.