These are only a handful of the myriad cyber scams that are snowballing in India, becoming progressively more sophisticated and more difficult to track. Data from the National Crime Records Bureau shows that in 2021, the last year for which national data is available, a cyber-crime was recorded every 10 minutes somewhere in India. The mushrooming of cyber scams is somewhat natural in a country where technology has been rapidly rolled out without any complementary rise in security and financial awareness levels. Cyber scams often don’t generate the kind of social pressure on policing that a rise in crimes such as rape and murder do; but this cannot be reason for laxity. Cyber scams, like most crimes, are linked to the political economy problems of unemployment, poor avenues of income, and few ways for local people to fulfil aspiration.

Source: Hindustan Times May 19, 2023 17:11 UTC