Congress Inflates Digital Fraud Figures: Fact Check

New Delhi, Jun 2 (PTI) The Congress party is maliciously inflating the digital banking fraud figures to create panic among the people, sources said.

Congress on Sunday put out a post on social media claimed people have lost Rs 6.36 lakh crore due to digital fraud in the last 11 years and as many as 1,25,828 fraud cases have been reported during the period.

However, sources said, the facts speak otherwise and as per the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) figures the amount defrauded through digital fraud is significantly less than what has been claimed by Congress.

As per the government's recent response to a Lok Sabha question, the total number of 'digital payment frauds' stood at 63,315 cases, as reported by commercial banks and All India Financial Institutions under the specific category 'Card / Internet and Digital Payments' (for amounts involving Rs 1 Lakh and above) between 2014-15 and December 2024.

The fact is that the total financial loss attributed specifically to 'digital payment frauds' during this entire period amounted to Rs 733.26 crore, as per the RBI data.

These official figures paint a very different picture compared to the Congress wrong narrative suggesting losses amounting to 'lakhs of crores' within the digital payments sphere, sources said.

Such large figures typically represent the cumulative losses across all categories of banking fraud over several years, not just the digital segment.

Congress is confusing people with the total banking fraud, sources said, adding, it is a comprehensive category encompassing various types of illicit activities, including issues related to advances, deposits, off-balance sheet items, foreign exchange transactions, cash handling, cheques, inter-branch accounts, etc.

The principal opposition party is maliciously inflating figures to create panic and this is pure fear-mongering and creating doubts about the strength of the banking sector, sources said.

"Congress is maliciously inflating figures to create panic. Their baseless claim that banking frauds involve lakhs of crores is blatantly untrue and deliberately misleading," sources said.

The Finance Ministry, along with the RBI and the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), has rolled out several measures to secure digital financial transactions and combat fraud.

The NPCI has implemented several security features to secure UPI transactions, including device binding between the customer's mobile number and the device, two-factor authentication through PIN, setting daily transaction limits, and imposing curbs on certain use cases.

The RBI has also launched an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based tool named 'MuleHunter' for the identification of money mule accounts, advising banks and financial institutions on its usage.

These measures have led to a significant decline in the amount involved in frauds in public sector banks (PSBs), from Rs 21,626 crore in FY 2019-20 to Rs 2,224 crore in FY 2023-24, and further to Rs 232 crore in FY 2024-25 (up to December 2024).

To curb such frauds, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) established the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) in January 2020, as the national agency for a coordinated response to all cybercrimes.