A sum exceeding Rs 10,300 crore has been fraudulently withdrawn from the country by cybercriminals since April 1, 2021. In a positive development, the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) announced on Wednesday that authorities successfully prevented approximately Rs 1,127 crore from leaving the country.
I4C is a body established by the Ministry of Home Affairs to provide a framework and eco-system for law-enforcement agencies to deal with Cybercrime in a coordinated and comprehensive manner.
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I4C CEO Rajesh Kumar said that more than 5,000 complaints of cyber crime are being reported on the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal (NCRP) of which 40-50 per cent are based on frauds committed by gangs operating from China and “pockets of Cambodia and Myanmar”.
He said he did not mean “nation-states” are running the scams but “gangs” operating from these countries are behind the cyber crimes.
“We have pockets of Cambodia and Myanmar. We are seeing Chinese apps. Who is denying?” news agency PTI quoted Kumar as saying in response to a question.
Kumar said, “Rs 10,319 crore has been reportedly lost in India from April 1, 2021 to December 31, 2023… We have managed to block Rs 1127 crore, of which 9-10 per cent has been restored in the accounts of the victims.”
He said aggrieved persons can approach 1930 call centre to register their complaints and banks can block the money if the call is made within an hour of the fraud.
Around 263 banks and financial institutions including the National Payments Corporation of India that has developed the UPI system are linked to the helpline.
Over 4.52 lakh cyber crime cases were reported on the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal (NCRP) in 2021, which rose by 113.7 per cent in 2022, with 9.66 lakh cases being reported on the portal, Rajesh Kumar told reporters.
Kumar said over 15.56 lakh cases were reported on NCRP in 2023, translating into 129 cyber crime cases reported per lakh population, which shows a “deceleration” of growth rate to 60.9 per cent as compared to 2022.
Citing difficulties in restoring amounts to the accounts of victims, Kumar said the government is framing new Standard Operating Procedures, which are likely to be released soon, to make it easier for victims to claim their money.
Right now, a victim has to get a court order to get their money back with states like Gujarat and Karnataka leading the way where people are approaching Lok Adalats and magistrates to get their money.
Highlighting trends of cyber criminals, Kumar said regions near Delhi are using Sextortion, online booking, and OLX-related crimes to trick the victims.
Gangs operating from Jharkhand, etc, are using KYC expiry, Anrdroid banking Malware-type online scams to siphon off money from gullible individuals.
He said other major cyber crimes include duping people of their money using investment applications and websites offering part-time jobs and Ponzi schemes, illegal lending applications and customer care centres.
There were also cases of Android malware fraud by seeking OTPs to take control of victims’ systems, impersonation by taking over social media accounts and sextortion, he said.
Listing recent successes against cyber criminals, Kumar said the Indian agency managed to thwart a major cyber attack targeting the G-20 website.
Every minute 66 lakh hits were made using bots through a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack to disable it by flooding it with hits.
Another success was when Indian agencies managed to bring back citizens from Myanmar, where they were taken in the lure of employment opportunities and held back against their will to commit cyber frauds across the globe, they said.
Recently, a new software, ‘Pratibimb’, has been made accessible to state police forces on a project level that will enable them to locate cybercriminals operating in their area.
The use of this software, coupled with quick reaction, has ensured a massive reduction in cyber criminals operating from Jharkhand’s Deoghar and Jamtara areas.
“The software gives the location of origin of the call, jurisdictional police officer takes action on that along with this information about the point of sale of SIM.
“Police officers in Jamtara and Deoghar are taking action on such information, which has resulted in 454 arrests last month,” Kumar said.
He said over 2.95 lakh SIM cards, 2,810 websites, 595 mobile applications, and 46,229 IMEI numbers have been blocked based on complaints received.
Kumar said most of the SIMs used by cyber criminals were issued from Assam, West Bengal and Odisha which have emerged as hotspots for procuring SIMs for such activities.
(With PTI inputs)
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