Hook, tempt, dupe — Investment fraud on the rise in Telangana as cybercrooks feed off your psyche

Cyber fraudsters spend time understanding psychological vulnerabilities of their targets, such as fear, greed or curiosity, says TGCSB Director Shikha Goel

Hyderabad: The lure is simple — real big returns on investment. This happens to be the preferred bait used by the cyber fraudsters to hook and reel in gullible victims.

Crime data for 2024 shows that investment fraud has emerged as one of the top five modus operandi adopted by cyber fraudsters. The victims, tempted by glib talk of the fraudsters and the promises of huge returns, end up transferring hard-earned money. Realisation of having been duped comes soon and then repentance is what they are left with in several cases.

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While investment fraud has made its way into the top five MOs of last year, the other four were trading fraud, OTP fraud, digital arrest and debit/credit card frauds.

In Hyderabad city alone, 926 cases of investment fraud were registered last year, of which 563 pertained to trading fraud loss. Shikha Goel, Director of the Telangana Cyber Security Bureau (TGCSB), said cyber fraudsters spend time understanding the psychological vulnerabilities of their targets, such as fear, greed or curiosity.

“Depending on their understanding, they exploit these vulnerabilities to elicit specific responses or actions from their victims,” she said.

The victims in the State suffered losses amounting to Rs 1,866 crore due to cyber fraud in 2024. This translates to an average daily loss of nearly Rs 5 crore. A huge amount was lost by the victims in investment and trading fraud, which account for 10 per cent of the total cases.

Goel said cybercrime is up by 18 per cent compared to last year. It is because of the adept usage of internet by people and new modus operandi adopted by fraudsters to cheat them. “There are over 150 modus operandi currently adopted by cyber fraudsters across the globe,” she said.

During the year, across the State, 24,643 cases pertaining to different cybercrimes were registered and investigation followed up. Goel said the TGCSB is maintaining zero tolerance against cyber criminals. A total of 1,057 cyber criminals involved in 19,653 cases in Telangana and altogether 1,16,421 cases in the country were arrested.