Bengaluru, Delhi Top List in Rs 1,500 Crore Scam Targeting 30,000 Indians

New Delhi: More than 30,000 people have become victims of investment scams in the last six months in major cities, causing financial losses of more than Rs 1,500 crore. This has been disclosed in the report of the Cyber ​​Wing of the Home Ministry. Most of the affected persons are in the age group of 30 to 60 years, while Bengaluru, Delhi-NCR and Hyderabad have recorded about 65 percent of the total cases.

In this report of the Indian Cyber ​​​​Crime Coordination Center (I4C), Bengaluru has been described as the city suffering the most financial loss, accounting for 26.38 percent of the total loss. These cities have become major hotspots for cybercriminals, who are targeting innocent investors.

People aged 30–60 account for over 76% of all victims

Analysis of the target groups revealed that most of the affected people are in the working age group. Individuals aged between 30 and 60 account for over 76 percent of total victims, indicating that fraudsters are taking advantage of the financial ambitions of people in their peak earning years. Senior citizens are also increasingly being targeted, with 8.62 percent, or about 2,829 people, being above 60 years of age.

Average loss per victim approximately Rs 51.38 lakh

These scams are not trivial incidents but involve huge sums of money. The average loss per victim is approximately Rs 51.38 lakh, indicating that these investment schemes are sophisticated and pose a serious threat to personal finances. The highest per capita loss was seen in Delhi in particular, where victims were defrauded of an average of Rs 8 lakh. Cybercriminals use various digital channels to carry out these scams, with messaging apps and social media platforms playing a key role.

Less use of professional networks like LinkedIn & Twitter in fraud

According to the report, messaging apps like Telegram and WhatsApp account for about 20 percent of the total cases. The encrypted nature of these platforms and the ease of forming groups make them attractive to fraudsters. However, the report found that formal professional networks such as LinkedIn and Twitter are used much less frequently, accounting for only 0.31 percent of incidents. Instead, criminals prefer informal and direct messaging channels.

Another important finding of the report is that the largest category of scam platforms is “Others,” which accounts for 41.87 percent of the total cases. This means that scams are happening on various platforms that have not been clearly identified.