In just the first eight months of 2024, the Bengaluru residents have lost a staggering ₹1,242.7 crore to cybercriminals, as per the data revealed by the cybercrime department.
Spike In Cyber Crimes
These numbers hold a great significance as this figure marks a sharp increase of ₹214.6 crore in comparison with the total losses over the last three years combined, noted a media report.
Not only that, the amount of money stolen by cybercriminals this year surpasses the total taken by cyber fraudsters in 2021, 2022, and 2023 combined.
Further, the center of countries’ high- tech industry, Bengaluru has recorded an alarming 12,356 cybercrimes this year (up to August 31).
This comes to an average of 1,544 cases per month.
Prior to this, this city reported 17,633 cybercrimes in 2023, with an average of 1,470 cases per month.
When we take a closer look at the amount of money stolen by cybercriminals this year, unfortunately it surpasses the total taken by cyber fraudsters in 2021, 2022, and 2023 collectively, as per the media report.
This news comes during a time when people are showing growing concerns over cybercriminals as they are targeting individuals through a variety of scams, such as investment fraud, Aadhaar-enabled payment frauds, and job-related cons.
All Is Not Lost
There is a silver lining in this case too as despite the rise in cases—12,356 reported until August 31—police have solved only 552 (4.4 per cent).
So far, they have recovered Rs 111.8 crore (8.9 per cent) of the stolen money.
While talking about the low recovery rate, DH, a senior CID officer attributed it to the cybercriminals as they are frequently updating their tactics hence making it harder to catch them.
It appears that several victims, especially new investors, fall prey to large-scale investment scams.
When it comes to the investigators, they preferably focus on cases involving larger sums of money.
But this approach mostly leaves those who lost smaller amounts without recourse.
This approach is unfair to smaller victims, according to the critics.
Besides this the shortage of cybercrime investigators and the reassignment of personnel to special cases have worsened the issue.
This has left many cases unsolved.
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