With the awareness levels improving in urban pockets, cyber criminals are increasingly targetting bank customers from non-metropolitan areas, the latest data from the National Crime Records Bureau show. Frauds related to credit/debit cards, OTP, online banking, and ATMs have all recorded a steady increase in the non-metropolitan areas in 2021, while among cities with over 2 million population, the case count has stagnated. This growing trend has to be watched closely given the increasing number of bank accounts and the subsequent proliferation of credit/debit cards and mobile wallets in rural areas following various financial inclusion policies undertaken by the government in recent years. Worryingly, about 25% of cyber fraud investigations carried out by the police are closed with the final report saying “cases true but insufficient evidence or untraced or no clue”. And even among those few cases which get chargesheeted and reach the court, less than 1% end in convictions. So, often in such cases, prevention is better than cure.
Moving away
The chart shows the number of registered cyber fraud cases which includes frauds involving credit/debit cards, OTP, online banking, ATMs and other similar products.
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True but no evidence
In 2021, between 17-31% of cyber fraud cases were closed by the police with the final report mentioning “cases true but insufficient evidence or untraced or no clue”, and only 4-10% ended up getting chargesheeted. An overwhelming share of cases continue to be in limbo pending investigation.
Physical crimes
In 2021, the share of cases closed by the police as “true but insufficient evidence or untraced or no clue” ranged between 3-13% in violent crimes. The average for all IPC crimes is 12%. This comparison brings out the fact that when it comes to cyber crimes, police have to deal with digital evidence and so find it harder to pursue than physical crimes.
Poor convictions
In 2021, the share of cyber fraud cases which resulted in convictions ranged between 0-0.8% and the share of cases completed ranged between 0.2 and 1.4%. An overwhelming share of cases remained pending at the end of the year.
Source: NCRB
