Cyber fraudsters have swept through Delhi’s digital landscape this year, siphoning off nearly Rs 1,000 crore from unsuspecting residents — a staggering figure that lays bare how deep and organised the city’s online scam networks have become.
Official Delhi Police data shows that while cyber fraud losses — at nearly Rs 1,000 crore — are about Rs 100 crore lower than last year, the scale and sophistication of these crimes continue to test the city’s digital defences.
Police say they have made significant progress in tracing the money trail, working with banks to freeze close to 20% of the defrauded funds — almost double the 10% recovered in 2024.
Investment scams, digital arrests, and ‘boss scams’ were the most prevalent and high-value cybercrimes in 2025, the police report stated. These three types of fraud dominated the city’s cyber financial crime landscape this year.
Funds successfully frozen within the banking system can be refunded to victims following a court order.
Such incidents, police say, tend to spike around the festive season.
Eight networks dismantled
The Crime Branch has dismantled eight cybercrime networks and apprehended 12 individuals across four states during a week-long operation. The suspects had defrauded victims of over Rs 2.6 crore through offences including digital arrests, romance scams, and online investment frauds.
Special Commissioner of Police (Crime) Devesh Srivastava directed the cyber unit to track down those responsible for various online scams reported on the national cybercrime portal.
A team led by Assistant Commissioner of Police Anil Sharma analysed financial trails in multiple cases and conducted both technical and human surveillance on suspects. The teams then simultaneously raided several networks. “The operations also led to the arrest of individuals facilitating mule bank accounts,” Srivastava said.
A mule account refers to a bank account used by organised gangs to hold illicit funds in exchange for a commission.
Police have secured multiple liens and recovery measures to initiate refunds to victims through court orders. The raids were carried out by Inspectors Sandeep Singh, Ashok Kumar, Shivram, and Subhash. Law enforcement can request liens to monitor or act on bank accounts suspected of criminal activity.
Arrests and recoveries
In one case, police traced a digital arrest scam to Pali, Rajasthan, where an elderly victim was defrauded of Rs 42.49 lakh.
Three suspects — Mahendra Kumar Vaishnav, Vishal Kumar, and Shyam Das — were arrested, with Rs 7.08 lakh secured and refunded to the victim.
In another instance, an online romance and investment scam in Agra led to a loss of Rs 40.27 lakh. Devender Kumar and Shivam alias Ashu were arrested, and Rs 2.49 lakh was refunded. The cyber unit also dismantled a facilitation network in Jalandhar, Punjab, arresting Anil for providing mule bank accounts to cybercrime syndicates.
In Una, Himachal Pradesh, Naman Puri was arrested for a digital arrest scam that siphoned Rs 30 lakh from a victim, with a lien of Rs 11 lakh secured. The suspect admitted to providing his account under coercion.
Mohammad Parvez was arrested in Meerut for an alleged online investment fraud involving Rs 33.9 lakh.
In Saharanpur, Deepak Saini and Mudit Arora were detained for a stock market investment fraud that cheated victims out of Rs 29.7 lakh. “The suspects lured the complainant via Instagram and WhatsApp, posing as a SEBI-registered advisor and a Morgan Stanley official promoting an AI-enabled trading platform. They coerced victims into multiple fund transfers under the guise of capital gains tax. Eleven primary bank accounts were used to divert funds,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Aditya Gautam.
Mehvish Akhtar was arrested in Kanpur for a share market investment scam that allegedly stole Rs 31 lakh. In Mahoba, Uttar Pradesh, Neelesh Kumar was detained for a fraudulent stock market investment scheme that siphoned Rs 26.95 lakh, with a lien of Rs 1.2 lakh secured. A total of 87 complaints were lodged on the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal.
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Cyber policing levels
Joint Commissioner of Police (IFSO) Rajneesh Gupta clarified that cyber fraud cases exceeding Rs 50 lakh fall under the IFSO unit’s jurisdiction. “Cases involving amounts between Rs 25 lakh and Rs 50 lakh are handled by the Crime Branch, while cases below Rs 25 lakh are addressed at the 15 Cyber Police Stations established across all districts,” he said.
Gupta stressed that victims must gather four key details before filing a complaint: their bank account number from which the money was debited, the Unique Transaction Reference (UTR) number, the exact amount transferred, and the date and time of each transaction.
He added that victims do not need to mention suspect accounts or chat records when reporting fraud. Instead, they should provide their own bank details, UTR number (12 digits for UPI, 16 for RTGS, 22 for NEFT), the amount, date, and time of each transaction.
For credit card cases, the registered mobile number should also be shared. Multiple transactions must be listed individually in chronological order.
Gupta further explained that complaints can be registered either through the 24/7 helpline 1930 or by visiting one of the 15 Cyber Police Stations. Regular police stations can also register such complaints, as all are linked to the 1930 portal.
Complaints via the 1930 helpline generate a 14-digit Series 3 acknowledgement number starting with ‘3’, while reports on the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal are logged as Series 2. Series 2 complaints are immediately visible to police in real time on the 1930 portal. After verification, these are forwarded to banks for lien marking on the defrauded amount. Series 3 complaints, on the other hand, are automatically sent to banks.
“As they are entered by a police official, they carry a legal mandate, allowing banks to act immediately,” Gupta said.
A national crisis
The threat extends beyond Delhi. According to data presented by the Ministry of Finance in the Rajya Sabha, digital financial frauds across India surged to Rs 4,245 crore across 2.4 million incidents during the first ten months (April–January) of 2024–25. This marks a 67% increase from Rs 2,537 crore involving two million cases in 2022–23.
In 2023–24, frauds totalled Rs 4,403 crore across 2.8 million incidents. As cyber scams become more sophisticated, law enforcement authorities continue to urge the public: stay vigilant, report promptly, and never share financial information online without verification.
