Even as overall crime in India dipped in 2024, cybercrime moved sharply in the opposite direction.
According to the National Crime Records Bureau's latest data, total registered cases fell 6% — from 62.41 lakh in 2023 to 58.85 lakh in 2024. Cybercrime, however, surged nearly 18% in the same period, signalling a clear shift in how crime is evolving in the country.
The total number of registered cases stood at 1,01,928, while financial losses from digital frauds surged 206% to Rs 22,845 crore.
Among metropolitan cities, Bengaluru topped the list with 17,561 cybercrime cases, while Kolkata reported the lowest at just 21. However, these figures reflect only reported cases—and lower numbers don't necessarily mean lower incidence, since such offences are widely underreported.
Experts have told BOOM that the data compiled by the National Crime Records Bureau—which is based on FIRs—captures only a part of the picture and differs significantly from trends tracked by the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre. A large number of complaints never translate into formal cases.
For instance, despite the steady rise in cybercrime complaints, only 2.43% of cases reported on the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal were converted into FIRs in 2024, reflecting the gap between reported incidents and registered crimes.
Cybercrime Sees Sharp Rise, Driven Largely By Fraud
A total of 1,01,928 cybercrime cases were registered in 2024—a 17.9% jump from 86,420 cases in 2023. The crime rate rose from 6.2 to 7.3 cases per lakh population.
Fraud was the dominant motive, accounting for over 72% of all cases and spanning a range of online scams, particularly those involving impersonation and financial deception. Sexual exploitation (3.1%) and extortion (2.5%) followed at a significantly lower scale.
On the ground, these categories often blur into each other. Decode investigated the sextortion network operating out of Mewat, finding that scammers—many of them teenagers — lured victims over video calls by masking their screens with explicit images, recorded the victims, and then blackmailed them with threats of public exposure and false rape accusations.
Impersonation fraud, meanwhile, has taken an even more elaborate form in the "digital arrest" scam—where fraudsters pose as law enforcement officials over video calls, accuse victims of involvement in crimes, and extort money under threat of arrest. Decode has previously reported on how these scams rely on a carefully constructed psychological trap, where fear of law enforcement action and reputational damage work in tandem to coerce victims into transferring large sums.
This pattern of impersonation is not limited to fabricated identities but often involves the misuse of real ones.
Decode also reported on a UP police officer whose photos were repeatedly stolen by scammers to pose as cops on WhatsApp—and who now spends much of his day fielding calls from victims duped using his likeness.
Bengaluru Tops Cities In Cybercrime Cases
Bengaluru recorded 17,561 cybercrime cases in 2024, marginally lower than the 17,631 cases reported in 2023. Most cases were classified as computer offences (17,310), of which 16,657 involved cheating by personation using computer resources—punishable under Section 66D of the IT Act.
Mumbai recorded the second-highest number at 4,939, followed by Hyderabad (4,009) and Chennai (1,882).
Delhi tells a different story. The capital has seen a steady decline over three years—from 685 cases in 2022, to 407 in 2023, to 404 in 2024 — yet recorded a cybercrime rate of 21.6, with 77.8% of cases charge-sheeted. Kolkata, with just 21 cases and a rate of 0.1, had a notably high charge-sheeting rate of 95.6%.
Barring Bengaluru, Mumbai, and Chennai, most metropolitan cities saw a decline in registered cybercrime cases between 2022 and 2024.
Other key figures
The NCRB recorded 58.86 lakh cognisable crimes in 2024 — cases serious enough for police to register an FIR and make arrests without prior court approval — reflecting the overall 6% decline.
Some categories, however, rose. Offences against the state increased 6.6%, with over 84% of 5,194 cases registered under the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, followed by 12.5% under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
Crimes against marginalised communities showed a mixed trend. Cases involving Scheduled Castes fell 3.6% to 55,698, while those involving Scheduled Tribes dropped more sharply — down 23.1% to 9,966 cases from 12,960 the previous year.
The NCRB's Accidental Deaths & Suicides in India (ADSI) 2024 report recorded 1,70,746 suicides during the year, with a significant share among those in agriculture, the unemployed, and daily wage workers—pointing to persistent economic and social distress.
