NEW DELHI: The Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Tuesday officially confirmed that Indian citizens have lost more than Rs 22,845.73 crore in cyber fraud cases in 2024, which is a whopping jump of nearly 206 percent in comparison to the previous year’s data.
Responding to a written question in Lok Sabha Minister of State (MoS) for Home Bandi Sanjay Kumar said that according to the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (NCRP) and Citizen Financial Cyber Fraud Reporting and Management System (CFCFRMS) operated by the I4C under the MHA, “total amount of losses incurred by citizens due to cyber frauds in the entire country” in 2024 was Rs 22,845.73 crore as compared to Rs 7,465.18 crore in the previous year.
Kumar said 36,37,288 incidents of online financial frauds were reported on NCRP and CFCFRMS in 2024 as compared to 24,42,978 in 2023.
According to the data shared by the MoS, 10,29,026 cyber crimes were reported on NCRP in 2022 with a 127.44 percent increase over the previous year, 15,96,493 incidents were reported in 2023 showing 55.15 percent increment, and 22,68,346 cases were reported in 2024, reflecting a 42.08 percent increase.
“The CFCFRMS, under I4C, was launched in 2021 for immediate reporting of financial frauds and to stop siphoning off funds by the fraudsters,” the Minister said, adding that however, wealth amounting to Rs 5,489 crore has been saved in more than 17.82 lakh complaints reported on it so far.
Cybercrime incidents reported on the NCRP and their conversion into FIRs, as well as subsequent action including the filing of charge sheets, arrests, and resolution of complaints, are handled by the concerned law enforcement agencies of the states/UTs, as per the provisions of the law, he said.
Providing details of the action taken by the government against cybercriminals, Kumar stated that so far, more than 9.42 lakh SIM cards and 2,63,348 IMEIs, as reported by police authorities, have been blocked by the Centre.
“Suspect Registry of identifiers of cyber criminals was launched by I4C on September 10, 2024, in collaboration with banks/financial institutions. So far, more than 11 lakh suspect identifier data received from banks and 24 lakh Layer 1 mule accounts have been shared with the participating entities of Suspect Registry and saved more than Rs.4631 crore,” the MoS said.
He said it has launched the ‘Pratibimb’ module, which maps locations of criminals and crime infrastructure on a map to give visibility to jurisdictional officers.
“The module also facilitates seeking and receiving techno-legal assistance by law enforcement agencies from I4C and other SMEs. It has lead to the arrest of 10,599 accused, 26,096 linkages and 63,019 cyber investigation assistance requests,” the MoS (Home) said.