On July 22, Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Bandi Sanjay Kumar, in a written reply to Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi's unstarred question in Parliament, stated India suffered a staggering loss of Rs 22,845.73 crore due to cyber frauds in 2024, marking a 206% increase from Rs 7465.18 crore losses in 2023. Meanwhile, in the Maharashtra Budget session 2025, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis revealed that Pune witnessed a loss of Rs 6,007 crore to financial frauds in 2024. Data shows that in 2024, Pune accounted for 26% of financial cyber frauds in India.
5 major reasons behind rise in cyber fraud cases in India
Sandip Gadiya, cyber-crime investigator and forensic expert based in Pune, finds five major reasons behind rise in cyber fraud cases in India, and they are: greed, fear, improved standard of living in tier 2 cities, lack of cyber awareness, and carelessness among populations related to cyber-crimes.
Speaking to The Free Press Journal, Gadiya said, "Pune is gradually emerging as a hub of migrant population due to its vibrant culture and economic prowess in the form of IT industries and large-scale manufacturing sector. This group is non-homogeneous, varying from students, job seekers and manufacturers, and possesses a different set of cyber vulnerabilities which get exploited by cyber criminals in the form of financial fraud."
Cyber gangs lure victims in the form of higher return on investment
Ankush Tiwari, one of the founders of Pi Labs, an AI fraud detection startup based in Pune, argues that greed forms the major reason behind the financial losses suffered by individuals to cybercrime. Citing the digital arrest case of a city businessman losing Rs 2 crore to cyber criminals, Tiwari told FPJ, "Cyber gangs lure victims in the form of higher return on investment in the trading market, compelling them to gradually increase investment amount and increased gains getting reflected in fraudulent app created by the scamsters, which is nothing less than a scam."
Abhijeet Zilpelwar, co-founder of Pi Labs, remarks that the vulnerability is more in the case of the general public rather than celebrities or influencers, as they seem to be less aware of the sophisticated nature of cybercrime.
Nature of cybercrime has evolved over the years
"The nature of cybercrime has evolved over the years from lottery scam, social media scam, job scam to a more professional nature of cybercrime like digital arrest, fake trading and investment scam, mule account networks, mobile profile hacking and others," Gadiya said.
"Cyber criminals use different sources for fraud, for instance, looking for insiders in the financial institutions who can leak the data, or developing fake applications of banks or financial institutions or appearing as employees of the banks, or Enforcement Directorate officials in digital arrest," Gadiya added.
Authentify, a deepfake detection platform developed by Pi Labs to combat the rising threat from manipulated videos, audios, images and voice clones, is a step in the direction to prevent cyber frauds.
Pi Labs, founded by Ankush Tiwari, Abhijeet Zilpelwar and Dr Raghu Sesha Iyengar in 2023, aims to arrest the rising cases of cybercrimes via Authentify, an AI++-based software which can detect and verify the authenticity of the video, audio and image created or shared on the digital media.
How to address cyber fraud?
Tiwari says, "We need to be proactive rather than reactionary to emerging challenges of cybersecurity." Approximately USD 40 billion has been lost to cyber fraud and AI being at nascent stage has inherent ability to further enhances the nature of financial cyber-crimes. Abhijeet Zilpelwar told FPJ, "Reducing digital footprint, reporting the incident to law enforcement agencies at the earliest, and creating awareness by media remain key factors to address cyber fraud."
Tiwari says that reporting cyber crime incident to law enforcement agencies at gthe olden hour remains the key to retrieving the lost money. It is usually the first three to four hours of crime, if the money is not transferred to mule account networks, then banks or financial institutions can trace back the money to the owner, he added.
The transnational nature of crime channelised through cryptocurrency further complicates the work of law enforcement agencies to trace the criminals and retrieve the money. Gadiya said, "South Asian nations like Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos have emerged as the hub of crypto scams and host scam compounds targeting victims across the world. Similarly, Jamatara criminal gangs' proliferation in India has increased the rate of cyber crimes reported in India."
Transnational nature of cybercrime
Swapanali Shinde, Senior Police Inspector in charge of the Pune Cyber Police, told FPJ, "We are aware of the transnational nature of cybercrime, and it often derails the process of investigation. On our part, we are actively organising cyber awareness workshops and have launched dedicated contact points and portals like TAFCOP, M-Kavach 2 and a national helpline number 1930 to report cybercrime. People should avoid being greedy and should increase their cyber literacy." "Pune Police aims to be one step ahead of the cyber criminals, and eventually we will get to it," she added, when asked about the challenges Pune Police face in tracking criminals.
Gadiya opinionated that Public Private Partnership (PPP) between government and corporations can fill the knowledge gap that exists between the rising use of advanced tools used by cyber criminals and catching the trail of cybercrime.
Shinde adds, "Fraudsters may elope now, but they surely leave trails which can be used to nab them down."
