Awareness is the key to safe digital future

India lost Rs. 11,333 crore to cyber fraud in the first nine months of 2024, according to the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Center (I4C), a unit of the Union Home Ministry. Stock trading scams caused ₹4,636 crore in losses, investment frauds Rs. 3,216 crore from 1,00,360 complaints, and "digital arrest" scams Rs. 1,616 crore from 63,481 complaints. To counter cybercrime, the the I4C, along with the Ministry of Telecommunications government have frozen 4.5 lakh bank accounts and blocked 17,000 WhatsApp accounts linked to Southeast Asian cybercriminals.
Criminals who engage in cyber-crimes think differently and stage their scams. It is sad news that even the young and educated people are getting caught in their net, especially targeting the elderly and losing huge sums of money. Analysis of Cyber Scams: Only cash stolen using cheques, central bank digital currency, fin-tech crypto, ATMs, merchant payments and e-wallets are mostly recovered by cybercrime police. No matter what steps are taken by the central government and the police, cybercrimes are not decreasing, rather the number is increasing. Actions aside, awareness is what is most needed.
RBI is also doing more awareness in this regard through media. Even Prime Minister Narendra Modi, recently during the 115th edition of his radio program 'Mann Ki Baat', warned citizens about "digital arrest" scams and created heightened awareness. He also emphasized the importance of awareness to combat such scams.
Cybercriminals who dominate India mostly operate from abroad. Since everyone has a smart phone in their hands, be it cities or villages, if you spread the net to 100 people, at least one person will succumb and get hurt according to the criminals’ ploy. Their accounts are outworked and our bank accounts are wiped out in crores. Awareness about cybercrime needs to be increased to put an end to all this. All family members should discuss this matter at home.
On the part of the government, awareness should be taken seriously about this cybercrime, similar to the one taken during the Corona period.