Through fake calls: In Kanpur, cybercriminals stole ₹41 crore from 802 victims in 2024
The victims were tricked using fraudulent digital tactics, with 90% of the fake numbers traced back to rural areas. The numbers used by the criminals have been flagged by the Indian cyber crime coordination centre (ICCCC), operating under the Union home ministry.
Kanpur has become a hotbed for cybercrime in 2024, with criminals swindling a staggering ₹40.80 crore from 802 victims. This represents a dramatic surge of 20 times the losses reported in 2022 and 2023, the police records revealed last week. The fraudsters used a total of 1,936 fake mobile numbers to orchestrate their scams, targeting unsuspecting individuals across the city, said two officials dealing with cybercrime.
In the past two years, cybercriminals in Kanpur ‘earned’ ₹2.58 crore in 2022 and ₹2.70 crore in 2023, but the scale of fraud in 2024 has been unprecedented.
The victims were tricked using fraudulent digital tactics, with 90% of the fake numbers traced back to rural areas. The numbers used by the criminals have been flagged by the Indian cyber crime coordination centre (ICCCC), operating under the Union home ministry.
Varun Shukla, a cybersecurity expert, commented on the alarming rise in cybercrime, saying, “The scale and audacity of these scams have left authorities struggling to keep pace as digital fraud continues to infiltrate the lives of unsuspecting citizens.”
The Kanpur police’s cybersecurity wing has been working tirelessly to combat the surge in digital fraud but has faced significant challenges. Despite ongoing efforts, only 10% of the stolen amount has been recovered so far. According to data, approximately ₹5 crore has been returned to victims, with ₹91 lakh coming from a single case.
One of the most significant cases involved the Kanpur electricity supply company (KESCo), where cybercriminals duped 1,900 consumers out of ₹1.68 crore by creating fake links for online electricity bill payments.
This year, cybercriminals employed an even more sophisticated version of the “digital arrest” scam. In one notable instance, a criminal posed as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor and held an NRI doctor from a posh Kakadeo area under “digital arrest” for five days, stealing ₹80 lakh.
Sunil Varma, in charge of the anti-cyber crime wing, confirmed that all 1,936 mobile numbers involved in the scams have been deactivated following the ICCCC’s report.
