Database of cyber criminals is being prepared, names of 14 lakh suspects in new online registry

Rahul Tripathi, New Delhi: To crack down on cyber criminals, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday launched an online ‘suspect registry’. This registry contains data of 14 lakh cyber criminals who are involved in cyber and online financial fraud. According to officials, this registry can be accessed by states, union territories, central investigation and intelligence agencies. Officials said that the Indian Cyber ​​Crime Coordination Center (I4C) has created this registry in collaboration with banks and financial intermediaries. Its main objective is to curb online financial fraud. Rajesh Kumar, CEO of the Indian Cyber ​​Crime Coordination Center, said that the National Cyber ​​Crime Reporting Portal (NCRP) receives an average of 67,000 calls daily regarding cyber fraud. he/she said that since 2021, I4C has recovered defrauded amounts of Rs 2,800 crore belonging to about 850,000 victims. According to the Center, about 4.78 million cyber complaints have been registered on behalf of 171.3 million cyber victims on the portal. These also include cases related to Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM), of which 17,000 First Information Reports related to CSAM have been filed. I4C has also provided 10,767 forensic services to states and union territories in the past.

What is the work of ‘Indian Cyber ​​Crime Coordination Center’?

The Union Home Ministry has formed a special organization called I4C to deal with cyber crime. Its purpose is that the police and investigative agencies work together against cyber crime. There has been a huge increase in cyber crime cases between 2019 and 2024. A total of 47.8 lakh complaints have been registered till August 31, 2024, while 15.6 lakh complaints were registered in 2023, 9,66,790 in 2022, 4,52,414 in 2021, 2,57,777 in 2020 and only 26,049 complaints were registered in 2019. Most of the complaints, about 85%, are related to online fraud. An official said that ‘many people have been cheated by online investment, gaming apps, manipulation of algorithms, illegal loan apps, blackmailing through obscene video calls and forwarding OTP.’