Lok Sabha Question No. 1647 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2025-03-10
Subject: Quantum of Loss to Public due to Cyber Frauds
Ministry: FINANCE
Asked by: Shri S Venkatesan

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF FINANCE

## DEPARTMENT OF FINANCIAL SERVICES

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO:1647

ANSWERED ON THE MONDAY, 10 MARCH, 2025/PHALGUNA 19, 1946 (SAKA)

## QUANTUM OF LOSS TO PUBLIC DUE TO CYBER FRAUDS

## 1647. SHRI S VENKATESAN:

Will the Minister of FINANCE be pleased to state:

- (a) the quantum of loss to the public due to Cyber frauds during the last ten years;
- (b) the number of cases which have been reported during the last five years;
- (c) the number of culprits which have been arrested along with the number of FIRs filed during the last five years;
- (d) whether all the complainants have been attended and the victims have been penalised; and
- (e) if so, the details thereof along with the steps taken by the Government to prevent such frauds?

## ANSWER

## THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF FINANCE

## (SHRI PANKAJ CHAUDHARY)

- (a) to (e):  With increasing digital payment transactions in the country, incidences of fraudulent practices including digital payment frauds have also gone up in the last few years.

The  Reserve  Bank  of  India  (RBI)    has  informed  that  they  do  not  maintain  such  information, however, the year-wise number of frauds, and extent of loss as reported by the Commercial Banks and all  India  Financial  Institutions  under  the  category  'Card  /  Internet  and  Digital  Payments' during the period FY 2014-15 to FY 2024-25 (till Dec'24) are as below:

| FY                    |   Number of Frauds (amount involved ₹1 Lakh and above) |   Extent of Loss (in ₹ Crore) |
|-----------------------|--------------------------------------------------------|-------------------------------|
| 2014-15               |                                                    845 |                         18.46 |
| 2015-16               |                                                   1191 |                         26.9  |
| 2016-17               |                                                   1372 |                         27.78 |
| 2017-18               |                                                   2058 |                         79.79 |
| 2018-19               |                                                   1866 |                         51.74 |
| 2019-20               |                                                   2677 |                         44.22 |
| 2020-21               |                                                   2545 |                         50.1  |
| 2021-22               |                                                   3596 |                         80.33 |
| 2022-23               |                                                   6699 |                         69.68 |
| 2023-24               |                                                  29082 |                        177.05 |
| 2024-25 (till Dec'24) |                                                  13384 |                        107.21 |

Source: RBI

'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 Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs). The Central Government supplements the initiatives of the States/UTs through advisories and financial assistance under various schemes for capacity building of their LEAs.

RBI  has  issued  Master  Directions  dated  July  15,  2024,  on  Fraud  Risk  Management  for  the Regulated Entities which provides for framework on Early Warning Signals (EWS) to monitor transactions / unusual activities in the non-KYC compliant and money mule accounts etc. Further, the  requirement  for  data  analytics  and  Market  Intelligence  Unit  have  been  mandated  for  the supervised  entities  for  monitoring  transactions,  specifically  the  transactions  through  digital platforms and applications.

To spread awareness against cyber-crimes, the Government has been taking various initiatives from time to time. These, inter alia, includes cyber safety tips through social media accounts, publishing  of  handbook  for  adolescents/students,  publishing  of  'Information  Security  Best Practices' for the benefit of government officials, organizing cyber safety and security awareness weeks in association with States/Union Territories etc. RBI and banks have also been taking up awareness  campaigns  through  short  SMS,  radio  campaign,  publicity  on  prevention  of  'cybercrime' etc.

The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) takes various measures for safe usage of digital technologies and prevent cyber frauds through issuance of alerts and advisories, Cybersecurity mock drills to enable assessment of cyber security posture and preparedness of organisations.

In order to facilitate the citizens to report any cyber incidents including financial frauds, Ministry of Home  Affairs (MHA)  has also launched a National Cybercrime Reporting Portal (www.cybercrime.gov.in) as well as a National Cybercrime Helpline Number '1930'. Similarly, Department  of  Telecommunications  has  launched  Digital  Intelligence  Platform  (DIP)  and 'Chakshu' facility on Sanchar Saathi portal (https://sancharsaathi.gov.in). 'Chakshu' facilitates citizens to report suspected fraud communication received over call, SMS or WhatsApp with the intention of defrauding like KYC expiry or update of bank account, etc.

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