In 4yrs, Ggm cyber fraud losses surge by 12 times

Surjeet Singh, 42, was at his home at Mohammadpur in Gurugram's Sector 36 on June 25 when he received a message from an unknown number on WhatsApp. The message said that he was being offered a parttime job at an e-commerce site, and claimed that they got Singh's number from his friend.

After Singh expressed his interest in joining up, he was sent a link and was told that he would have to purchase certain items for the firm, and would receive payment for this.

The 42-year-old ended up getting duped of 1.6 crore over a four-day period, Vipin Ahlawat, assistant commissioner of police (cyber crime) said.

Singh is not alone. According to Gurugram police, the amount of money that cybercriminals have defrauded from the residents of the Millennium City has seen a massive jump - from a reported 12 crore in 2019, to 147 crore in 2023.

Officials said that the number of cybercrime complaints lodged in 2023 crossed the 30,000-mark in 2023 nearly double the 18,717 complaints lodged in 2022, and far more than the 7,765 complaints in 2019.

Police attribute this massive spike in cybercrime cases to increased use of the internet, remote working and automation in banking services.

However, the rate of recovery remains woefully poor - investigators managed to recover only 22 crore in 2023 (around 15% of the total money duped).

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