That there were 31 lakh complaints of cyberfraud – the bad guys made ₹10,300 crore out of them – between 2021 and 2023 is obviously worrying. The good news is that more people seem to be reporting such crimes.
Overseas origins | About half the financial cyber scams were traced to players outside India. For 2023, illegal loan apps made up 23% of fraud that originated overseas. It’s no surprise the bulk of these were traced to China, Myanmar and Cambodia. India banned 600 Chinese-origin loan apps last January. Uttarakhand police busted a ₹300 crore scam at the time, in which 15 fake Chinese apps offered small low-interest loans.
ID thefts | Many scams used identity theft. Of 15.6 lakh complaints registered in 2023, domestic fraud numbered almost 8 lakh. Close to 90,000, or 11%, stole by cloning biometrics and from Aadhaarenabled payment systems (AEPS).
Up awareness | Much needs to be done to increase awareness across classes and age-groups. Fraud loan apps exploit financial distress apart from being easy money for teens, young adults. But blackmail that follows has tragically pushed people, in a couple of cases families, to suicide.
Bin the shame | The fear of losing savings, and face, in a cybercrime stops many from reporting. Instead of feeling shame at being duped, the cheated must report cybercrime, blackmail to sextortion. Sometimes it’s just a moment’s carelessness that opens the door to crime. And too many, especially elders, are digitally naive.
Financial cybercrime directly impacts trust in online banking. This is a setback. A national campaign on managing online financial lives is much required. This is a country that effortlessly took to digital payments but that is also ever-clicking WhatsApp, selfies, and doomscrolling.
This piece appeared as an editorial opinion in the print edition of The Times of India.
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