In 2025, investment frauds made up over 75% of the total money lost by Indians to cybercrime, according to data from the Ministry of Home Affairs.
- Police officials attribute the rise to increasingly sophisticated technology and deployment of methods such as phishing and ransomware to digital arrest scams and identity theft.
| Phishing: A cyber fraud technique in which attackers impersonate legitimate entities through emails, messages, or websites to trick individuals into revealing sensitive information such as passwords, bank details, or OTPs.
Ransomware: A type of malicious software that encrypts a victim’s data or locks their system and demands a ransom payment in exchange for restoring access. |
Cybercrime in India (2025): Key Trends and Concerns
- Scale of Financial Loss: Indians lost ₹22,495 crore to cyber fraud in 2025 compared to ₹22,845 crore in 2024.
- Although the total financial loss declined marginally, the number of cybercrime cases increased significantly.
- Dominance of Investment Scams: Investment frauds accounted for 76% of the total money lost to cybercrime in 2025. These scams include Ponzi schemes, fake stock trading platforms, and cryptocurrency frauds.
- FIRs declined to 55,484 (2025) from 66,370 (2024) due to early fund-blocking interventions.
- Distribution of Major Cyber Frauds (2025): Digital arrest scams constituted 9% of the total financial loss, while sextortion accounted for 4%.
- In terms of the number of cases reported, investment fraud represented 35%, sextortion 19%, and digital arrest scams 6%.
About Cyber Crime
- Cybercrime Definition: Any unlawful act where a computer or communication device or computer network is used to commit or facilitate the commission of crime.
- For example, Hacking, identity theft, fraud, and Cyberstalking.
- Cybercrimes comes as a State subject as per the Seventh Schedule of the Indian Constitution.
Major Reasons for Increasing Cybercrime
- Financial Gain: Through stealing financial information, such as credit card numbers and bank accounts, or through demanding ransom in exchange for stolen data or resources.
- For example, Unified Payment Interface (UPI) frauds are the most prevalent online financial frauds reported between January 2020 and June 2023, according to Future Crime Research Foundation (FCRF) report by IIT-Kanpur.
Manifestations of Cyber Crimes in Real Life
- Cyber Bullying: A form of harassment or bullying inflicted through the use of electronic or communication devices such as computer, mobile phone, laptop, etc.
- Cyber Stalking: Use of electronic communication by a person to follow a person, or attempts to contact a person to foster personal interaction repeatedly despite a clear indication of disinterest by such person.
- Cyber Grooming: It is when a person builds an online relationship with a young person and tricks him/her into doing sexual act.
- Sexting: It is an act of sending sexually explicit digital images, videos, text messages, or emails, usually by cell phone.
- SIM Swap SCAM: Occurs when fraudsters manage to get a new SIM card issued against a registered mobile number fraudulently through the mobile service provider.
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- Espionage: Some cyber criminals engage in cyber crime to steal confidential or proprietary information for competitive advantage or to damage the reputation of an organization.
- Political or Ideological Motives: Some cyber criminals target organizations or individuals for political or ideological reasons, such as to promote a particular cause or to advance a particular agenda.
- For example, the Cambridge Analytica scandal (2018) under which Facebook database was leaked with data of 419 million users including the data of many Indian users.
- Personal Motives: Some cyber criminals engage in cyber crime to harass, defame or harm individuals or organizations.
- Opportunism: Some cyber criminals engage in cyber crime simply because they can, taking advantage of security vulnerabilities in technology or in people to steal information or resources.
- For Example: In June 2023, tech giant Microsoft experienced temporary disruptions to its Outlook and Azure computing services after an attack by a cyber crime group called Anonymous Sudan.
Challenges Associated with Cybercrime in India
- Rapid Technological Advancements: The rapid adoption of technology in India has led to an increased attack surface for cybercriminals. As new technologies such as IoT (Internet of Things), cloud computing, etc. become more prevalent, the attack vectors for cybercriminals also expand.
- For instance, Deep Fake and AI generated voice is a rising challenge as it has become easy to create and superimpose faces and voices.
What is Cyberterrorism?
- Cyberterrorism is often defined as any premeditated, politically motivated attack against information systems, programs and data that threatens violence or results in violence.
- The definition is sometimes expanded to include any cyber attack that intimidates or generates fear in the target population. Attackers often do this by damaging or disrupting critical infrastructure.
- For example, ISIS targets military websites, government websites for spreading hate and propaganda.
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- Sophisticated Cyber Attacks: Cybercriminals are becoming increasingly sophisticated, using advanced techniques such as ransomware, zero-day exploits, and social engineering to target individuals and organizations.
- A zero-day exploit is a cyberattack technique that takes advantage of an unknown security flaw in computer software, hardware or firmware.
- Cyber Warfare and State-sponsored Attacks: India faces the threat of cyber espionage and state-sponsored cyber attacks increasing vulnerability of critical infrastructure and sensitive government information.
- For instance, Malware (Dtrack) attack on Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KKNPP) in 2019. It is believed that this malware has been created by a group called Lazarus with links to North Korea.
- Lack of Cybersecurity Awareness: Many individuals and businesses in India may not be fully aware of the risks and preventive measures associated with cybersecurity which makes them more susceptible to falling victim to cybercrimes.
- Inadequate Legal Framework: Although India has made efforts in establishing legal frameworks to address cybercrimes, there may still be gaps and challenges in effectively enforcing these laws.
Global Conventions to Tackle Cybercrime
- Interpol Cybercrime Global Strategy 2022-2025: Reducing the global impact of cybercrime and protecting communities for a safer world. The strategy outlines INTERPOL’s plan to support its member countries in combating cybercrime.
- Potential UN Cybercrime Treaty: UN member states have been negotiating an international treaty on countering cybercrime. If adopted by the UN General Assembly, it would be the first binding UN instrument on a cyber issue.
- Budapest Convention: The treaty focused on harmonizing laws and increasing cooperation across borders so that a range of cybercrime could be prosecuted in the multiple countries affected. India decided not to participate in this convention.
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Government Measures Associated with Cybercrime in India
- National Cyber Forensic Laboratory (Investigation): It has been established at New Delhi to provide early stage cyber forensic assistance to Investigating Officers (IOs) of all State/UT Police both through online and offline modes.
- National Cyber Security Policy (NCSP): It aims to create a secure cyberspace environment and strengthen the country’s cybersecurity.
- Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C): The I4C serves as the nodal point for coordinating efforts to combat cybercrime in India with focus on enhancing the capabilities of law enforcement agencies to prevent and investigate cybercrimes.
- For Example: Banks have shared over 18.43 lakh suspect identifiers and 24.67 lakh mule accounts with the MHA, enabling authorities to block fraudulent transactions worth ₹8,031.56 crore since inception.
- Dedicated Cybercrime Police Stations: India has 459 dedicated cybercrime police stations, up from 169 in 2020, and Uttar Pradesh leads with 75 cybercrime police stations.
- Citizen Financial Cyber Fraud: A platform that enables real-time reporting of cyber frauds, helping block transactions and recover funds efficiently.
- For Example: It has saved over Rs. 7,130 crores, across 23.02 lakh complaints by enabling immediate reporting.
Way Forward
- Implement Advanced Cybersecurity Framework: Cybersecurity frameworks offer a range of best practices, policy processes, security protocols and other necessary tools to secure an organization’s business operations.
- Investing in advanced cybersecurity technologies can help to protect critical information systems and networks.
- Cyber Hygiene Practices: Encourage individuals and organizations to adopt good cyber hygiene practices, such as regular software updates, strong password management, and secure online behavior.
- International Cooperation: Strengthen collaboration with international organizations, law enforcement agencies, and other countries to share threat intelligence, best practices, and coordinate efforts in investigating and prosecuting cross-border cybercrimes.
23 Feb 2026
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