‘Telangana citizens lost ₹127.88 crore to cyber criminals during election month’

 

Amid the peak election season, Telangana citizens lost a whopping ₹127.88 crore across 8,668 cybercrime cases reported in April 2024.

In the month that also marked the beginning of the new financial year, FY25, Cyberabad, with a significant tech population, topped the list with 1,829 cases in which citizens lost ₹44.71 crore, data shared by officials from the Telangana State Cyber Security Bureau (TSCSB) revealed. This was followed by Hyderabad City which reported 1,503 cases where citizens lost ₹38.25 crore.

Rachakonda stood third in the list with 1,085 cases in which citizens ended up losing ₹18.96 crore. Sangareddy with 233 cases and Warangal with 228 cases together reported losses worth ₹4.14 crore.

As per the data shared with The Hindu, while ₹17.70 crore was put on hold by officials, ₹36.84 crore was refunded back to the victims across the State. A total of 48 cyber criminals have been arrested in April alone, of which 15 were from Telangana while 33 were operating from different parts of the country and targeting citizens here.

The financial year is off to a scary start with business and investment frauds of which trading and part time job frauds were among the top five Modus operandi (MO) this month. Identity theft through KYC updates, fake customer care, credit card limit enhancement and redeeming reward points is another one that claimed the highest number of victims.

Courier or parcel frauds made it to the list for the fourth consecutive time after also topping the list in the last quarter of the previous year. Besides, advertisement frauds across social media platforms and loan frauds were common in the month that passed.

Males continued to be on the radar of cyber criminals for April too. Of the 8,668 cases reported, majority of victims (7,062) were men and 1,606 were women.

Interestingly, not just professional status but even educational qualifications turned out to be a prominent factor in determining the victims to the top four Modus Operandi (MO). Graduates (57%) were the most prone to fall prey to cyber criminals in this month followed by undergraduates (17%), postgraduates (12%), senior secondary certificate level (9%) and below SSC (3%). Only 1% of the victims had done their post-doctoral studies, while 1% were uneducated.

Following the previous month’s trends, private employees topped the list of victims at 48% while 7% were in the software domain. Cyber criminals also targeted businessmen and startup owners and/or self-employed who comprised 10% and 9% of the total victims respectively. Meanwhile, 9% of the victims were also students and 3% were farmers.