Cyber Fraud: Residents Lose Over ₹15 Crore In 7 Months In Bhopal

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Residents lost over Rs 15 crore to cyber fraudsters in last seven months in the city, with 265 cyber fraud FIRs registered at local police stations. Cyber police cell officers admitted that cyber crime had emerged as a major menace with complaints rising steadily and fraudsters targeting citizens across all age groups.

Official data show that Bhopal Police received 279 e-Zero FIRs from the state cyber crime headquarters. Of them, around 265 e-Zero FIRs have been converted into regular FIRs at city police stations involving a fraud amount of over Rs 15 crore.

The e-Zero FIR system was formally launched last year. Initially, it covered cyber financial frauds involving amounts exceeding Rs 1 lakh. Police officials said the system has brought significant relief to victims as they no longer had to make repeated visits to police stations to get FIRs registered. Complaints can now be lodged through the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal or the 1930 cyber helpline, enabling FIRs to be initiated digitally.

Cyber police officials said that almost every second person using a smartphone, the internet or social media is being targeted by fraudsters, with senior citizens being the most vulnerable. Fraudsters usually target them on the pretext of updating pension accounts, electricity disconnections, fake investment schemes or digital arrest scams. Other scams involve job frauds, online sextortion, KYC update scams, APK malware, social media account hacking, OTP fraud and QR code scams.

Police Commissioner Sanjay Kumar said regular cyber awareness programmes were being conducted while ensuring that cyber crime investigations remained a priority. The victims can also directly approach the local police station, where an FIR is registered in such cases.

e-Zero FIR

The victim registers a complaint through 1930 helpline or the NCRP portal. In cases involving fraud of more than Rs 25,000, the data is directly transmitted to the State Cyber Crime Headquarters.

Through the CCTNS server, the complaint is automatically converted into an e-Zero FIR, and the victim is immediately provided with an e-Zero FIR number. The case is reviewed by the State Cyber Police Station and forwarded to the concerned police station.

Published on: Friday, August 07, 2026, 09:19 AM IST