Fraudulent transaction complaints registration with consumer helpline dip to 5,496

Fraudulent transaction complaints registered with the national consumer helpline has dipped by about 72 per cent to 5,496 in 2021-22, according to data shared with Parliament on Friday.

Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar in his written reply to Rajya Sabha informed that there were 19,998 grievances regarding fraudulent transactions registered with the national consumer helpline.

“The National Consumer Helpline is funded under a scheme of the Department of Consumer Affairs. Consumers across the country can register their grievances with the National Consumer Helpline,” the minister said.

The grievance count in 2019-20 was 35,294.

The minister, however, said that with the expansion of the internet and more and more Indians coming online, the number of Indians exposed to cyber frauds has also grown.

“The Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) under the Ministry of Home Affairs has been designated as the nodal point in the fight against cybercrime. A toll-free number 1930 has been made operational for citizens to get assistance in lodging online complaints in their own language,” Chandrasekhar said.

To spread awareness on cybercrime, the Ministry of Home Affairs has taken several steps that include dissemination of messages on cybercrime through the Twitter handle @cyberDost and radio campaigns, he said.

In a separate reply to a question on hacking of central ministries, departments and state government websites since 2020, the minister said as per information reported to and tracked by the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), a total of 59, 42 and 50 websites of central government ministries and departments and state governments were hacked during the years 2020, 2021 and 2022, respectively.

CERT-In has further informed it has detected and prevented 2,83,581 malicious scans in 2020, 4,32,057 in 2021 and 3,24,620 malicious scans in 2022.

“As per the information reported to and tracked by CERT-In, a total number of 6, 7 and 8 data breach incidents related to government organisations were observed during the years 2020, 2021 and 2022 respectively,” the minister said. PTI