Man falls victim to digital arrest scam, loses ` 9 lakh
A few days ago, Prime Minister Narendra Modi alerted the nation's citizens about digital arrest scams.
According to the data available on the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal, between January and April 2024, over 740,000 complaints were lodged related to cybercriminal activities leading to monetary losses worth over Rs 1,750 crore.
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 per cent compared to the period between 2021 and 2023, and a 60.9 per cent increase from 2022 to 2023.
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Additionally, 85 per cent of these complaints pertained to financial online fraud.
The significant escalation in reported cases is evident from 2019 to 2024, with 26,049 complaints recorded in 2019; as many as 257,777 (in 2020); 452,414 (2021); 966,790 (2022); 1,556,218 (in 2023) and 740,957 in the first four months of 2024 alone.
Further, the data from I4C said that the 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 total financial toll inflicted by cybercriminals on Indians from January to April 2024 reached Rs 176 crore.
It is to be highlighted that the report said that most victims fell prey to online investment fraud, gaming apps, algorithm manipulations, illegal lending apps, sextortion, and OTP scams.
In 2023, the I4C reported over 100,000 investment fraud incidents. Digital arrests resulted in a loss of Rs 120 crore across 4,599 cases in the initial four months of 2024.
Trading scams accounted for 20,043 cases, leading to a loss of Rs 1,420 crore to cybercriminals during the same period
The I4C, established by the Ministry of Home Affairs, serves as a framework for law enforcement agencies to combat cybercrime.
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