Social media is the biggest platform for FinTech frauds

Hari Kishore Kusumakar  
ADG & IGP Cyber Crime, West Bengal Police

“The government has introduced the 1930 National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal as a solution for cybercrimes. The advantage of this system is that it consolidates all complaints in one place. If a single mobile number is used to make thousands of calls across the country, the system flags it, enabling the authorities to take action. However, criminals are becoming more sophisticated, using multiple states and methods to avoid detection. They might buy a SIM card in one state, reside in another, target victims in a third, and use mule accounts in a fourth state. This complicates the jurisdictional issues, as state police are often limited to their respective states.


Our primary focus is to block fraudulent transactions within the banking system. Unfortunately, in about 90-95% of cases, victims report the fraud only after a substantial delay, by which time the money has already been withdrawn. About 90% of the money is withdrawn through ATMs, often from locations far from where the victim resides.


We are actively working with banks to freeze accounts and block transactions to prevent further losses. Earlier, our success rate in blocking funds was about 3.3%. Now, after establishing the cybercrime unit in February, we have increased this rate to 13.3%, aiming to reach 20% in the near future. The idea is to make the process less lucrative for criminals by reducing their financial gain.


In terms of the types of fraud reported through the NCIP portal, we encounter various forms of financial fraud, including internet banking fraud, credit card fraud, UPI fraud, and more. In some cases, people use highly sophisticated technology to carry out these crimes. Since February, we have been working on managing the 1930 helpline in West Bengal, expanding from one line to ten to ensure we record 100% of the complaints. Even if we cannot recover the money, the data helps us identify patterns and prevent further crimes.”