Ballari Lost Over ₹70 Crore to Cybercrime Last Year: Police

Quick Summary

• Over ₹70 crore was lost to cyber fraud in Ballari district in 2024, with actual figures likely higher due to underreporting, according to Deputy Superintendent of Police (Cyber Police Station), Santosh Chowan.
• Most victims were educated professionals, including doctors, software engineers, professors, and teachers.
• Mr. Chowan warned about scams involving fake social media accounts and AI misuse for fraudulent advertisements using names of celebrities or public figures.
• He urged citizens to use the 1930 cybercrime helpline if filing complaints physically is not possible.
• Participants of the “Knockout Digital Fraud” awareness program were informed about common scams like OTP frauds, phishing, impersonation on social websites/apps, loan frauds and pension frauds.
• The event was organized by Bajaj Finance Ltd.,as part of its 100-city campaign to educate people about preventing cybercrimes.
• RBI’s guidelines for NBFCs on fraud risk management stress early detection and public engagement as key elements moving forward into 2024.

Indian Opinion analysis

Cybercrime remains a growing challenge for India’s society and economy as digital penetration increases rapidly across urban and rural areas alike. The rising sophistication of scams-targeting even well-informed professionals-reveals vulnerabilities that span individual behavior patterns and also systemic gaps such as underreporting due to stigma around victimhood.Multi-stakeholder initiatives like Bajaj Finance Ltd.’s campaign help create awareness but need broader scale cooperation between private entities like businesses/financial firms alongside Public institutes cooperatively from accelerating tech safeguards-designed state implementations=logging legal rigor managerial frameworks tightening gaps refinements ensured