Cyber frauds involving Rs 5,574 crore reported till September: Parliament

Money lost: Cyber frauds of close to Rs 5,600 crore have been reported in the ongoing financial year ended September 2023, over twice of what was reported in 2022.

As per a Parliamentary panel report deriving statistics from the ‘National Cybercrime Reporting Portal’, Rs 2,296 crore was the reported cost of cyber frauds in 2022.

The Standing Committee on Communications and Information Technology (2023-24) also reflected a low recovery rate of 10.4 per cent, signalling a high volume and value of money lost in cyber frauds.
“According to the submissions made to the Committee, the recovery rate has been about 10.4 per cent of the transactions reported over the last three years -- 2020, 2021 and 2022. This scenario brings about a trust deficit in the digital payment system which needs to be attended to at the earliest,” it said.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY)’s 54th Report also recommends the need for a multi-pronged approach for tackling cases of cyber crime. 

The report is titled “Digital Payments and Online Security Measures for Data Protection”  The reported cyber frauds have also gone up 128 per cent in 2022 in comparison to 2021, according to the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre.

The Committee called upon various ministries involved for preventive measures to ensure cyber frauds are under check.

Other measures to check cyberfrauds include measures to strengthen the cybersecurity of Android Play Store, with the Cyber Crime Coordination Centre sending regular updates to Google on these apps. 

“More than 200 Android and banking malwares have been identified and shared with Google and Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs). Illegal and fraudulent lending apps are found on both Google Playstore and Apple App Store and these are being regularly sent to these entities for urgent action against such apps,” it said.

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has also started maintaining a repository of Android and banking malwares that target digital payment security.