India’s cybercrime reporting systems logged 36 lakh fraud cases in 2024; Rs 22,845 crore lost, over 10,000 arrested | India News

NEW DELHI: Citizens reported losses of over Rs 22,845 crore to cyber financial frauds last year, which marks a 206% surge from the Rs 7,465 crore losses reported in 2023, the ministry of home affairs (MHA) informed the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.Replying to a question, junior home minister Bandi Sanjay Kumar said 36.4 lakh financial frauds were reported via the national cybercrime reporting portal (NCRP) and the citizen financial cyber fraud reporting and management system (CFCFRMS) operated by Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), which comes under purview of MHA. As compared to this, 24.4 lakh incidents of financial fraud were reported in 2023.The total cyber crimes reported on NCRP alone witnessed a 42% increase to 22.7 lakh in 2024 as compared to 15.9 lakh in 2023, said Kumar.While NCRP was launched by I4C in 2019, CFCFRMS was started in 2021 for immediate reporting of financial frauds and to stop siphoning off funds by the fraudsters.The minister told the Lok Sabha that CFCFRMS had so far saved more than Rs 5,489 crore in more than 17.8 lakh complaints.Giving details of the action taken by the government against cyber criminals, the minister said so far, more than 9.42 lakh SIM cards and 2,63,348 IMEIs, as reported by police authorities, have been blocked by the Centre.A suspect registry of identifiers of cyber criminals was launched by I4C on September 10, 2024, in collaboration with banks and financial institutions. So far, more than 11 lakh suspect identifier data received from banks and 24 lakh Layer 1 mule accounts have been shared with the participating entities of suspect registry and saved over Rs 4631 crore, said Kumar.According to him, the ‘Pratibimb’ module, which maps locations of criminals and crime infrastructure to give visibility to jurisdictional officers, has, by offering techno-legal assistance to law enforcement agencies, led to the arrest of 10,599 accused, 26,096 linkages and 63,019 cyber investigation assistance requests.