Late reporting of cyber crime hampers recovery of lost money, says Economic Offences DIGP

Krishna cited these numbers from the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) managed by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), while speaking at the Cyber Crimes Conclave held in the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) on Thursday.

Bengaluru: Only 12 per cent of the Rs 7,400 crore lost to cyber frauds during last year in the country was returned to victims, said C Vamsi Krishna, Deputy Inspector General of Police, Economic Offences.

He cited these numbers from the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) managed by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), while speaking at the Cyber Crimes Conclave held in the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) on Thursday.

However, he stressed that the money lost could be much higher as most of the cyber crimes in the country still go unreported to this day. Commenting on the low recovery rate, Krishna said that they face three major challenges in getting back the money — late reporting of the crime, mule accounts, and late response from the financial institutions.

Krishna said, “Victims usually report the crime late and in addition the average response time of banks is six days. The mule accounts create a layer to the crime and make it even harder to keep track of the money, hence we have such a low return rate.”

Speaking specifically about Karnataka, Krishna said that there has been a 183% rise in cyber crimes in the last two years. He said that post-pandemic things in the cybercrime sphere have gotten complicated.

He stressed that the period post-pandemic has witnessed the evolution of complicated fresh modus in cyber crimes, the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to commit crimes, malware getting complicated and surprisingly ransomware being offered as a service.

Karnataka Police Chief, Alok Mohan, underscored the efforts of Karnataka police to combat cybercrimes and said the department is constantly upgrading and adopting new technologies.

Mohan stressed that 42 per cent of the total software export from the country is done by Karnataka. Apart from Bengaluru, the districts like Belagavi, Hubballi, Dharwad, Mysuru, and Mangaluru are also growing exponentially and IT companies are being set up.