Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, Shri G Kishan Reddy, in a written reply in Lok Sabha to a question regarding steps taken by the Government to prevent people from becoming victims of online fraud said that with the rapid increase in use of cyber space, number of cyber crimes including online frauds are also increasing. As per data maintained by National Crime Records Bureau, 3466 and 3353 cases of online frauds were registered in 2017 and 2018, respectively. Data pertaining to the year 2019 is not available. NCRB started to collect data separately about Online Banking Frauds since 2017. In order to prevent online frauds and protect users, Ministry of Home Affairs has taken several steps that inter-alia include the following initiatives:

i) An Inter-Ministerial Committee has been constituted on Phone Fraud (IMCPF) having members of stakeholder organizations, namely Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY), Department of Financial Services, Department of Telecommunication, Reserve Bank of India and Law Enforcement Agencies. FCORD-FICN Coordination Agency has been designated as Central Nodal Agency for this purpose and ADGP/IGP Crime in each State/UT is the State Nodal Officer.

ii) An advisory dated 12th February 2018 was issued on “steps to check phone frauds” to all State Governments/UT Administrations, which is available at www.mha.gov.in.

iii) Reserve Bank of India has issued several circulars/ guidelines related to security and risk mitigation measures for securing electronic / digital payment transactions.

iv) Steps have been taken to spread awareness about cyber crimes, issue of alerts/advisories, capacity building/training of law enforcement personnel/prosecutors/judicial officers, improving cyber
forensics facilities etc. in association with police departments in different States/UTs.

v) The Central Government has also launched the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal, www.cybercrime.gov.in to enable complainants to report complaints pertaining to all types of cyber crimes, including net and online frauds.

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VG/SNC/HS