Cyber Fraud Losses Jump 10x in 3 Years Draining ₹22800 Crore
Cyber fraud A Representative Image
As cybercrime complaints touch millions, India’s rapidly expanding online world is doubling up as a high-speed highway for digital thieves.
By KUMAR VIKRAM
New Delhi, December 2, 2025 — India’s digital boom is coming with a chilling price tag: money vanishing from ordinary people’s bank accounts at a scale that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago. Fresh government data tabled in Parliament shows that the money lost to cyber fraud has shot up from about ₹2,290 crore in 2022 to nearly ₹22,846 crore in 2024, a jump of almost ten times in just three years.
A silent financial epidemic
As more Indians shift to UPI, net banking and digital wallets, cybercriminals are treating this vast digital landscape as an open hunting ground. The official figures reveal that reported losses due to cyber fraud were ₹2,290.24 crore in 2022, ₹7,465.18 crore in 2023, and a staggering ₹22,845.73 crore in 2024, with year-on-year spikes running into hundreds of percent. For many families, one fraudulent transaction is enough to wipe out years of savings.
What makes the trend even more alarming is that this surge in money lost is outpacing the growth in complaints. Cybercrime incidents reported on the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal jumped from about 10.29 lakh in 2022 to over 22.68 lakh in 2024, but the value of money stolen is multiplying even faster, indicating that scams are becoming more sophisticated, targeted and high-value.
A dangerous side of digital India
The same infrastructure that powers instant payments, online shopping and remote work is now being exploited by organised fraud networks. From fake loan apps and investment schemes to “digital arrest” threats and phishing links, scammers are weaponising phones and social media to impersonate banks, police and government agencies and pressure people into sharing OTPs and passwords.
Once a victim clicks or responds, funds can be drained across multiple mule accounts within minutes, often beyond the reach of local police.
The government has put in place systems like the Citizen Financial Cyber Fraud Reporting and Management System and claims to have helped save more than ₹7,130 crore by blocking suspicious transactions in time, but this is still only a fraction of what victims have already lost.
In effect, for every rupee stopped, several more are successfully stolen.
Citizens on the frontline
Behind these big numbers are small shopkeepers, pensioners, salaried employees and students, many of them first-generation users of smartphones and digital banking. A single tap on a malicious link can mean school fees gone, medical funds drained or a retirement corpus destroyed.
With police and cyber cells struggling to keep pace with the volume and complexity of cases, a significant portion of complaints remain under investigation for long periods, while criminals quickly shift to new numbers, devices and accounts.
The picture that emerges from the latest data is stark: as India races ahead in building a cashless, app-driven economy, its citizens are standing exposed in a rapidly expanding, poorly monitored digital maze.
Govt ‘Detachment’ Turns People into Esay Preys for Cyber Frauds
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