Recently, Haryana has intensified its cybercrime crackdown, doubling the recovery rate to 27% in 2024. However, cybercriminals continue to evolve, making enforcement efforts challenging.

Addressing Cybercrime in India

• Police Priorities: Cybercrime is a key focus area, alongside violent crimes, women’s safety, drug trafficking, and law enforcement.
• Rising Cases: In Haryana (2023), a total of 1,15,000 cases were reported, resulting in a fraud amount of Rs 602 crore. Despite efforts, the recovery rate remained low, with only 12% of the stolen money successfully retrieved.
• Haryana’s Response: Haryana is strengthening its response to cybercrime by deploying additional manpower and enhancing collaboration with banks. 
  • To improve fraud detection and recovery, nodal officers have been stationed at the 1930 Helpline, ensuring swift action against cyber fraud.
• Improved Outcomes: Haryana has made significant progress in cybercrime action, with the recovery rate doubling to 27% in 2024. 
  • The number of cybercriminal arrests has risen sharply from 1,078 in 2022 to 1,909 in 2023 and 5,156 in 2024, with 571 arrests in January 2025 alone, compared to 138 in January 2024. 
  • As a result, Haryana has climbed from 23rd place to the top in national cybercrime action rankings.

Challenges to stop Cyber Crime

• Adapting to New Methods: Despite increased arrests and recoveries, cybercriminals continue to evolve, making enforcement efforts insufficient to fully deter them.
• Recovery Rate Challenges: While the initial increase from 10% to 25% was relatively easier, further improvement from 35% to 50% is proving to be significantly more difficult.
• Delay in Reporting: Many victims realize the fraud too late, by which time the stolen money has already been transferred offshore or withdrawn, making recovery challenging.
• Approach: Law enforcement & banks follow a complaint-centric approach. Recovery efforts begin only after victims report fraud.
• Limited success: Haryana’s recovery rate is around 30%, which is not enough to deter criminals.
• Mule Accounts: Fraudsters use mule accounts to launder stolen money. Mule accounts exhibit low balances & quick in-out transactions. Funds are shuffled across multiple accounts before being siphoned off.

Way Forward

• Proactive Approach: Shift from reactive to proactive fraud detection.
• Monitoring: Monitor transactions in real-time to detect fraud before victims notice.
• Real Time Monitoring: Real-time monitoring helps detect suspicious transfers to mule accounts, trigger instant alerts, and block transactions before withdrawal, effectively preventing financial losses.
• Unique ID System: A unique ID for each transaction across banks can help track funds movement. Enables seamless tracking of money across multiple accounts.
• Mulehunter by RBI:New software to identify mule accounts. Banks are adopting this system for fraud detection.
• Verified Accounts List: The Verified Accounts List includes business accounts, salary accounts, and savings accounts with significant balances.
  • Once funds flow into a verified account, monitoring can be stopped, optimizing resource allocation.
• Actionable Steps: When a transaction hits a suspected mule account, an alert is sent. If funds are moved further through multiple mule accounts, the 1930 Helpline is notified. 
  • Investigators contact the victim immediately to verify fraud & block funds.
• Role of Artificial Intelligence (AI): AI can analyze banking transactions in real-time to detect suspicious activity. Machine learning models can identify mule accounts based on transaction patterns.
• Implementation: National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), under RBI, has access to all bank databases. It is ideally placed to develop & implement an AI-driven fraud detection system.
  • A centralized fraud monitoring system can ensure real-time alerts & transaction blocking.

Conclusion

If India succeeds in preventing cyber fraud through AI-powered monitoring. Other countries & multinational banks may adopt the system. It boosts India’s reputation in cybersecurity & financial technology.

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