In the first four months of 2024, 740,000 cybercrime complaints were registered across India - translating into four cybercrimes reported every minute, compared with three complaints per minute in 2023.

The growing menace of cybercrime fraud can also be gauged from the fact that Prime Minister Narendra Modi referred to “Digital Arrest” scams in his Mann ki Baat address on October 27.

“Beware of digital arrest frauds. There is no system like digital arrest under the law. No government agency will ever contact you via phone or video call for such an investigation,” the prime minister warned.

A Moneycontrol analysis shows that cybercrimes have kept pace with digital modes becoming more pervasive.

Cybercrime complaints have increased sevenfold in four years to 1.5 million in 2023 from 0.26 million in 2020, according to data furnished by the Ministry of Home Affairs.

The amount involved in card and digital frauds has increased much faster, with people losing Rs 1,457 crore in the previous fiscal compared with Rs 119 crore four years ago and Rs 71 crore in 2018-19.

One of the reasons for the growth in cyber fraud scams is the increased payout for fraudsters. While one could make just Rs 3.8 lakh per fraud in 2018-19, last fiscal year, the average payout per fraud case was over Rs 5 lakh in 2023-24.

Meanwhile, the government’s track record in prosecuting such cases has not been great. The rate of chargesheeting or chargesheets filed for 100 complaints was 29.6 percent in 2022, compared with 36 percent from cases under the Indian Penal Code, India’s earlier criminal law.

While pendency at the police stage was lower than in IPC cases and conviction rates at courts were higher, analysis shows that courts took a lot of time to decide on cases.

In 2022, 90 percent of cases filed were pending at various stages of trials in courts.

The situation was worse in metros, where the rate of cybercrimes was higher. The chargesheeting rates were lower at 28.8 percent for metro cities, while pendency was higher at 56 percent.

The financial capital of India had a chargesheeting rate of just 16.6 percent, while pendency was a high 84 percent.