Fresh data from a key government body has painted a grim picture of the financial fraud landscape in India, revealing staggering losses suffered by citizens over a six-year period. According to the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), a wing of the Union Home Ministry, Indians have been cheated out of a colossal sum exceeding Rs 52,976 crore between 2020 and 2025.
A Disturbing Surge in Financial Crimes
The compiled statistics point to a worrying and rapid escalation in crimes involving cheating, investment traps, digital arrests, online scams, banking frauds, and cyber phishing. The data, sourced from the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal, shows that the problem has grown exponentially in both scale and sophistication.
In the year 2025 alone, the portal received a massive 21,77,524 complaints related to cheating and fraud, with associated financial losses amounting to approximately Rs 19,812.96 crore. This marks a significant concentration of losses in a single year, contributing heavily to the six-year total.
A year-by-year breakdown provided by a senior official highlights the alarming trend: losses jumped from just Rs 8.56 crore in 2020 to Rs 551.65 crore in 2021, then skyrocketed to Rs 2,290.23 crore in 2022. The figure nearly tripled to Rs 7,463.2 crore in 2023 before peaking at Rs 22,849.49 crore in 2024, and then slightly decreasing to the 2025 level.
State-Wise Breakdown: Maharashtra Bears the Brunt
An analysis of the 2025 data reveals a stark geographical concentration of these crimes. Maharashtra emerged as the worst-affected state, recording the highest monetary loss at Rs 3,203 crore from over 28 lakh complaints.
It was followed closely by Karnataka (Rs 2,413 crore), Tamil Nadu (Rs 1,897 crore), Uttar Pradesh (Rs 1,443 crore), and Telangana (Rs 1,372 crore). Together, these five states accounted for more than half of the national total losses, underscoring the severe impact on urban and digitally connected populations.
Other significant losses were noted in Gujarat (Rs 1,312.26 crore), Delhi (Rs 1,163 crore), and West Bengal (Rs 1,073.98 crore). At the other end of the spectrum, Manipur reported losses of Rs 16.74 crore from about 1,807 complaints.
How Citizens Are Being Targeted
The data provides crucial insights into the modus operandi of fraudsters. In 2025, a dominant 77% of the total Rs 19,812 crore lost was linked to fraudulent investment schemes. Other major categories included digital arrest scams (8%), credit card fraud (7%), sextortion (4%), e-commerce fraud (3%), and app or malware-based fraud (1%).
Further data from the Citizen Financial Cyber Fraud Reporting and Management System (CFCFRMS) indicated that a significant portion of cyber fraud complaints in 2025—around 45%—originated from Southeast Asian countries like Cambodia, Myanmar, and Laos, pointing to the transnational nature of these criminal networks.
Investigators attribute the sharp rise to several overlapping factors: rapid digitization, a massive increase in online transactions, and the growing technical sophistication of scam operations. While metropolitan areas remain prime targets, officials note that smaller cities and rural regions are also witnessing an uptick, particularly in scams involving fraudulent loan apps and investment schemes promising unrealistically high returns.
The relentless surge in financial cybercrime, as detailed by the I4C, serves as a critical warning for individuals, businesses, and policymakers alike to bolster vigilance and strengthen preventive measures across the digital ecosystem.
