Internet and card-based banking frauds quadrupled in FY24, according to the latest annual report from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
According to supervisory returns collected by the RBI, there were a staggering 29,082 instances of credit/debit card and internet-based fraud in the financial year 2023-2024—an alarming 334% rise from the previous fiscal year when there were 6,699 such instances.
The amount involved in the digital payment frauds jumped 5X to Rs 1,457 crore. It represented roughly 10% of the total fraud, which reached Rs 13,930 crore in FY24.
The proportion of total fraud attributed to these schemes has also grown significantly, from 1.1% in FY23 to 10.4% in FY24.
However, the report clarified that frauds reported in a year could have occurred several years before the year of reporting.
In fact, the analysis of frauds reported during 2022-23 and 2023-24 shows a significant delay between when the frauds happened and when they were detected. In 2022-23, 94% of the total value of reported frauds actually occurred in previous years. Similarly, in 2023-24, 89.2% of the total value of reported frauds took place earlier.
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The surge in fraud can be partly attributed to the increase in digital payments. In 2023-24, total digital payments grew by 44.3% in volume and 16.4% in value, the RBI report said.
A 2023 report by business consultancy firm Praxis Global Alliance revealed that more than half of the total reported digital payment frauds were UPI-related.
It noted that some commonly used methods to defraud account holders include phishing, malware, vishing, deceptive UPI handles, remote screen monitoring, money mule accounts, and SIM cloning.
Edited by Kanishk Singh
