Cyber crime cases in Mumbai rise by more than 63% in 2022 compared to 2021: Police

Registration of cyber offences, including online frauds under the pretext of offering jobs, gifts etc and payment of electricity bills, rose by 63.7 per cent to 4,718 in 2022 compared to 2,883 cases in 2021, according to the Mumbai Crime Report. However, the detection of cases remains poor.

The cyber crime cases in 2022 rose by 112 per cent compared to 2,225 cases registered during the pre-COVID period in 2019. As far as detection is concerned for the 2019-2022 period, 1,292 cases were solved, including 346 in 2022, out of the 12,261 registered cases, the report said.

Post the COVID pandemic, crimes such as part-time job fraud, cheating in the name of cryptocurrency investment, insurance fraud, sextortion, and electricity bill fraud have risen, as per the report released on Tuesday.

In 2022, a total of 2,170 cheating cases, including frauds like customs, gift, purchase, job, insurance, etc, were registered. Of these cases, 92 crimes were solved. In 2021, 1,154 such cases were registered and 140 detected, it said. Cases like putting up fake social media profiles and morphing emails or SMSes rose to 400 in 2022 compared to 118 in 2021.

A total of 1,318 cases of credit and debit card fraud were reported in 2022 as against 1,075 in 2021. Other cyber crimes include phishing or spoofing of mail, electricity bill fraud, hacking, pornography, data theft, sextortion, communal posts etc.