Lok Sabha Question No. 2687 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2023-12-19
Subject: Cyber Frauds
Ministry: HOME AFFAIRS
Asked by: L.S. Tejasvi Surya

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF HOME AFFAIRS

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2687

TO BE ANSWERED ON THE 19 TH  DECEMBER, 2023/ AGRAHAYANA 28, 1945 (SAKA)

## CYBER FRAUDS

2687. SHRI L.S. TEJASVI SURYA:

Will the Minister of HOME AFFAIRS be pleased to state:

- (a)  the  number  of  cyber  complaints  received  on  the  1905  helpline  on  a monthly basis for the year 2023;
- (b) whether the number of cyber frauds are increasing day by day and if so, the comparison indicating the increase in cyber frauds over the last few years;
- (c)  the  measures taken by the Government to equip policemen to tackle cyber crimes effectively;
- (d) whether the convictions in cyber crimes are low in the country and if so, the details of such convictions during the last two years; and
- (e)  whether  there  is  a  need  to  amend  provisions  of  the  Information Technology  Act,  2000  to  help  policemen  get  more  convictions  for  cyber crimes  and  if  so,  the  measures  taken  by  the  Government  towards  the same?

## ANSWER

MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HOME AFFAIRS (SHRI AJAY KUMAR MISHRA)

(a)  :Ministry  of  Home  Affairs  has  operationalized  National  Cyber  Crime Reporting Portal (https://cybercrime.gov.in) on 30 th  August 2019 to provide a centralized mechanism to the citizens for online reporting of all types of cyber  crime  incidents,  with  a  special  focus  on  cyber  crimes  against

women  and  children.  Incidents  reported  on  this  portal,  their  conversion into FIRs and subsequent action thereon are handled by the State/UT Law Enforcement Agency (LEA) concerned as per the provisions of the law.

Citizen  Financial  Cyber  Frauds  Reporting  and  Management  System (CFCFRMS)  has  been  developed  as  a  part of 'National  Cybercrime Reporting Portal'. This module provides an integrated platform, where all stakeholders including LEAs of States/UTs, all major Banks and financial intermediaries, payment  wallets,  crypto  exchanges  and  e-commerce companies  work  in  tandem  to  ensure  that  quick,  decisive,  and  systembased effective action is taken to prevent the flow of money from victim's account  to  cyber  fraudster's  account.  The  money  thus  seized  is  then restored to the victim following due legal process. The platform enables identification  of  the  various  financial  channels  being  misused  by  the fraudsters  for  routing  the  fraud  proceeds.  A  toll-free  Helpline  number '1930' (not 1905, as mentioned in part a) has been operationalized to get assistance  in lodging online cyber  incidents.  More  than  10.10  lakh incidents  for  financial  fraud  have  been  registered  on  CFCFRMS  from 01.01.2023  to  30.11.2023.  Since  inception  (01.04.2021)of  CFCFRMS,  an amount of more than Rs. 1000 Crore have been saved in more than 4 lakh incidents.

(b): The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) compiles and publishes the statistical data on crimes in its publication 'Crime in India'. The latest published  report  is  for  the  year  2022.  As  per  the  data  published  by  the NCRB, year wise details of cases registered under fraud for cyber crimes (involving  communication  devices  as  medium/target)  during  the  period from 2020 to 2022 are as under:

| Fraud for Cyber   | Year   | Year   | Year   |
|-------------------|--------|--------|--------|
| Crimes            | 2020   | 2021   | 2022   |
| Cases registered  | 10,395 | 14,007 | 17,470 |

(c):  'Police'  and  'Public  Order'  are  State  subjects  as  per  the  Seventh Schedule  of  the  Constitution  of  India. The  States/UTs  are  primarily responsible for the prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of crimes including cyber crime through their LEAs. The Central Government supplements  the  initiatives  of  the  States/UTs  through  advisories  and financial assistance under various schemes for their capacity building of their LEAs. To strengthen the mechanism to deal with cyber crimes in a comprehensive  and  coordinated  manner,  the  Central  Government  has taken steps which, inter-alia, include the following:

- i. The  Ministry  of  Home  Affairs  has  set  up  the  'Indian  Cyber  Crime Coordination Centre' (I4C) to deal with all types of cyber crime in the country, in a coordinated and comprehensive manner.

- ii. Seven Joint Cyber Coordination Teams (JCCTs) have been constituted for Mewat, Jamtara, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Chandigarh,  Vishakhapatnam  and  Guwahati  under  I4C  covering  the whole country based upon cyber crime hotspots/ areas having multi jurisdictional  issues  by  on  boarding  States/UTs  to  enhance  the coordination framework among the Law Enforcement Agencies of the States/UTs. Seven workshops were organized for JCCTs at Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Guwahati, Vishakhapatnam, Lucknow, Ranchi and Chandigarh in 2023.
- iii. The state of the art 'National Cyber Forensic Laboratory (Investigation)'  has  been  established,  as  a  part  of  the  I4C,  at  New Delhi to provide early stage cyber forensic assistance to Investigating Officers (IOs) of State/UT Police. So far, National Cyber Forensics  Laboratory  (Investigation)  have  provided  its  services  to State  LEAs  in  around  8,840  cyber  forensics  like  mobile  forensics, memory forensics, CDR Analysis, etc. to help them in investigation of cases pertaining to cyber crimes.
- iv. The Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) platform, namely 'CyTrain' portal has been developed under I4C, for capacity building of police officers/judicial officers through online course on critical aspects of cyber crime investigation, forensics, prosecution etc.

along  with  certification.  More  than  72,800  Police  Officers  from States/UTs are registered and more than 50,000 Certificates issued through the portal.

- v. The Ministry of Home Affairs has provided financial assistance to the tune of Rs. 122.24 crores under the 'Cyber Crime Prevention against Women and Children (CCPWC)' Scheme, to the States/UTs  for  their capacity  building  such  as  setting  up  of  cyber  forensic-cum-training laboratories, hiring of junior cyber consultants and training of LEAs' personnel,  public  prosecutors  and  judicial  officers.  So  far,  cyber forensic-cum-training  laboratories  have  been  commissioned  in  33 States/UTs. So far, more than 24,600 LEA personnel, judicial officers and prosecutors have been provided training on cyber crime awareness, investigation, forensics etc.
- vi. National  Cyber  Forensic  Laboratory  (Evidence)  has  been  set  up  at Hyderabad. Establishment of this laboratory provides the necessary forensic support  in  cases  of  evidence  related  to  cyber  crime, preserving the evidence and its analysis in line with the provisions of IT Act and Evidence Act; and reduced turnaround time.
3. (d): As per the data published by the NCRB, year wise details of persons convicted under cyber crimes (involving communication  devices as medium/target) during the period from 2021 to 2022 are as under:

| Details of persons    |   Year |   Year |
|-----------------------|--------|--------|
| convicted under cyber |   2021 |   2022 |
| crimes                |    736 |   1407 |

(e): Ministry  of  Electronics  and  Information  Technology  has  recently amended the provisions relating  to  punishment  for  contraventions  under the IT Act under the Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Act, 2023 (18 of 2023)' enacted on 11th August 2023.While one of the objectives of the Jan Vishwas Act was to decriminalise the imprisonment clauses wherever possible,  or  reduce  the  quantum  of  punishment  or/and  make  the  offence compoundable  for  advancing  Ease  of  Doing  business,  however,  the Ministry had retained the criminal punishment for more serious offences. In  doing  so,  the  punishment  across  similar  offences  under  sections  69B and 70B of the Information Technology Act, 2000 relating to enhancing the cyber  security  measures  and  cyber  incidents  response  mechanism  were aligned under these sections and to make the offences relating to cyber security more deterrent the corresponding fines were also enhanced up to Rs.  one  crore  from  the  earlier  fine  of  Rs.  one  lakh  only.  The  said amendments to the IT Act, 2000 are in force from 30th November, 2023.

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