THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Amid proactive policing and awareness drives, cyber financial fraudsters still managed to swindle Rs 814 cr from the state in 2025, official statistics has revealed. That means on an average, `2 crore was siphoned off from the state each day.
Of the stolen amount, Rs 152 cr has been held by the banks acting on the directive of the cyber investigation division. During the year, as many as 42,504 incidents of cyber fraud were detected and 1,426 FIRs were registered. Around 680 people were arrested.
The most number of complaints in 2025 were filed in Malappuram (4,500 approx), followed by Ernakulam City (3,250 approx), Palakkad (3,200 approx), Ernakulam Rural (3,100 approx) and Thiruvananthapuram City (2,500 approx). In terms of monetary loss, Ernakulam endured the biggest hit. The district lost Rs 187 crore (Rs 120 crore in the city and Rs 67 crore in the rural), while Malappuram had a loss of Rs 57 crore. Palakkad registered a loss of Rs 52 crore, while Thiruvananthapuram City lost Rs 71 crore.
The collective loot from the state by cyber financial criminals since 2022 has now crossed Rs 1800 crore.
In 2024, Rs 763 crore was swindled from the state. While Keralites lost Rs 48 crore to cyber fraud in 2022, the amount rose to Rs 210 crore in 2023. Compared with 2024, there has been only a marginal increase in monetary losses in 2025. The biggest spike was noticed in 2024 when the loss quadrupled compared to 2023.
Cyber division sources said despite all their efforts, gullible individuals were still falling prey to scamsters, which is a matter of grave concern.
“Majority of the victims from the middle and high income groups were bowled over by trading scams, while job and gaming scams too had claimed numerous victims. Majority of the victims were employees of private companies, followed by pensioners, homemakers and businessmen,” the sources added.
As part of its crackdown on the racket involved in cyber financial crimes, the police have intensified identifying mule account holders, who rent their bank accounts to the scamsters for a fee. In 2025, 44,088 mule bank accounts, which were used to park and funnel swindled money, were identified. Of these, 34,781 were blocked. Approximately 14,000 mobile phones and 4,000 SIM cards, which were used to commit fraud, were also blocked during the period.
Top five scams
Trading scams (34.8 % of the offences)
Job scams (33 %)
Phishing/smishing (6.5%)
Investment scam (6.5%)
Loan app scam (6.2%)