Digital arrests, cybercrimes soar 3 times from 2022-24; defrauded amount increases 21-fold

The number of digital arrest scams and cybercrimes in India has tripled from 2022 to 2024, with the amount of money defrauded increasing 21 times during the same period, as reported in Rajya Sabha on Wednesday. 

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Minister of state  for Home Affairs, Bandi Sanjay Kumar shared data from the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal (NCRP). In 2022, there were 39,925 reported incidents with a total defrauded amount of Rs 91.14 crore. By 2024, the number of such cases rose to 1,23,672, and the total defrauded amount jumped to  Rs 19,35.51 crore.

Additionally, in the first two months of 2025, 17,718 new cases were reported, amounting to Rs 210.21 crore in fraud. Kumar explained that the state/UT law enforcement agencies are responsible for handling these cases, including converting them into FIRs and taking further action as per the law.

The minister also added that the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Center (I4C) has identified and blocked around 3962 Skype IDs and 83,668 WhatsApp accounts used for these scams.

Kumar also added that a toll-free helpline number-1930 has been set up for lodging cyber-crime related complaints.

In addition, the I4C and the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) have jointly launched a caller tune campaign for raising awareness about this menace. 

In response to another question, Kumar said the Central government and Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) have created a system to detect and block incoming international spoofed calls that show Indian mobile numbers, making it look like they are coming from within India.