Money vanished from bank accounts across India in 2025, as fraud networks drained thousands of crores and exposed gaps in digital safety systems.
Money continued to slip out of people’s accounts in large sums during 2025 as cheating and fraud cases rose across India, with five states alone accounting for losses of more than Rs. 10,000 crore. Data compiled by the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) under the Union Home Ministry has shown how financial crimes affected households, investors and online users throughout the year.
According to figures drawn from the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (via Indian Express), Indians lost about Rs. 19,812.96 crore to cheating-related offences in 2025 alone. The portal recorded more than 21.7 lakh complaints linked to cheating and fraud during the year. This marked a change from 2024, when losses stood at Rs. 22,849.49 crore from over 19 lakh complaints. In earlier years, reported losses were Rs. 7,463.2 crore in 2023, Rs. 2,290.23 crore in 2022, Rs. 551.65 crore in 2021 and Rs. 8.56 crore in 2020.
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States Most Affected by Cheating Cases
State-wise data shows Maharashtra recorded the highest losses in 2025. Victims in the state lost around Rs. 3,203 crore, with over 28 lakh complaints registered. Karnataka followed with losses of about Rs. 2,413 crore from more than 21 lakh complaints. Tamil Nadu reported losses of Rs. 1,897 crore, while Uttar Pradesh saw Rs. 1,443 crore siphoned off through cheating-related offences. Telangana completed the top five with losses of Rs. 1,372 crore. Together, these five states made up more than half of the total losses reported nationwide.
Other states also reported large sums lost to fraud. Gujarat recorded losses of Rs. 1,312.26 crore, Delhi reported Rs. 1,163 crore, and West Bengal lost Rs. 1,073.98 crore. At the other end of the scale, Manipur reported losses of Rs. 16.74 crore from about 1,800 complaints.
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Types of Fraud and Regional Links
Furthermore, the data shows that most of the money was lost through investment-related schemes, which accounted for 77 per cent of the total amount. Digital arrest cases made up 8 per cent of losses, followed by credit card fraud at 7 per cent, sextortion at 4 per cent, e-commerce fraud at 3 per cent and app or malware-based fraud at 1 per cent.
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Moreover, figures from the Citizen Financial Cyber Fraud Reporting and Management System suggest that around 21 crore cyber fraud complaints were received in 2025, with nearly 45 per cent traced to Southeast Asian countries, including Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos. Investment fraud, credit card fraud and sextortion formed the bulk of these complaints, which shows the growing scale of online cheating faced by Indian users.
The article originally appeared on Hindustan Times
