Spurt in cybercrimes sees citizens lose ₹150 cr. in a month

Telangana State Cyber Security Bureau officials said 8,594 cases were related to financial frauds while 1,541 pertained to nonfinancial frauds; the State has so far been able to block close to ₹18 crore transactions

Citizens in Telangana lost ₹150 crore to cyber criminals in 10,135 cases in March alone, data shared by the officials at Telangana State Cyber Security Bureau (TSCSB) shows.

Officials said 8,594 cases were related to financial frauds while 1,541 pertained to nonfinancial frauds. The State has so far been able to block close to ₹18 crore.

Cyberabad and Hyderabad are the hotspots for cybercrime cases with 2,655 and 2,249 cases respectively, the official said.

IT professionals

“IT professionals constitute over 70% of the targets for fraudsters particularly for business and investment, part time jobs and stock trading frauds,” the official said.

Rachakonda followed the league with 1,604 cases. Warangal and Sangareddy registered 441 and 364 cases respectively.

‘Identity theft’ stood out as the top Modus Operandi (MO) in the past month, constituting 29.13% of the complaints (2,926). This was followed by ‘business and investment frauds’ in which citizens lost over ₹104 crore of which only ₹10.62 crore have been put on hold. 26.28% of the total complaints (2,640) filed pertained to such frauds in which fraudsters lured victims into making significant investments on fake trading apps.

“With the rise of digital trading platforms, there has been a corresponding increase in fraudulent activities targeting unsuspecting investors. Fraudsters manipulate fake applications to display falsified investment portfolios, luring victims into investing more funds to purportedly enhance their profits. When victims attempt to withdraw their supposed profits, fraudsters deny the withdrawal requests resulting in significant financial losses,” the official explained.

Impersonation or cheating, where fraudsters impersonate as popular business entities and higher officials or fake orders through call, stood as the third most popular MO in the cybercrimes category last month constituting 10.43% of the complaints (1,048). A whopping ₹11.90 crore was lost by citizens in this category and only ₹1.6 crore have been put on hold so far.

A significant 9.41% of complaints (945) were about advertisement portal frauds in which over ₹4 crore was lost. With a little over ₹43.53 lakh put on hold as of now, such crimes are common across ecommerce and social media platforms where users are offered tokens of money for promoting a particular service or product.

Big bet

Loan frauds are the next big bet of fraudsters. 9.40% of the total complaints in March pertain to such frauds. The bureau recently started its helpline number 1930 for reporting cybercrimes. In the month of March, the centre, manned by 32 constables, received 17,381 calls, of which 7,765 were financial and 1,135 were nonfinancial calls. About 8,500 were status calls for ongoing cases.