WAJAHAT SHABIR
SRINAGAR: Over the last five years, Jammu and Kashmir have reported a cumulative loss of ₹1.04 crore due to cyber financial frauds, highlighting the ongoing challenge posed by digital financial crimes.
According to official data provided by the Ministry of Finance, losses fluctuated significantly during this period, reflecting both the severity of the issue and the efforts to control it.
In FY 2019-20, the losses were ₹0.17 crore, which marked a steep rise from the previous year. The trend continued into FY 2020-21, with losses peaking at ₹0.36 crore, the highest recorded in the last five years. This sharp increase underscored the growing sophistication of cyber criminals and vulnerabilities in the financial system.
However, FY 2021-22 saw a notable decline of 61%, bringing the loss down to ₹0.14 crore. While this decline was encouraging, the figures rebounded again in FY 2022-23, rising to ₹0.22 crore, reflecting a 57% increase compared to the previous year. In FY 2023-24, the losses dipped slightly to ₹0.15 crore, suggesting that some progress has been made in combating cyber fraud.
In order to prevent payment-related fraud, various initiatives have been taken by the Government and RBI. These, inter alia, includes Master Directions on Digital Payment Security Controls issued by RBI in February, 2021 to combat web and mobile app threats.
These guidelines mandate the banks to implement a common minimum standards of security controls for various payment channels like internet, mobile banking, card payment etc. RBI and banks have also been taking up awareness campaigns through short SMS, radio campaign, publicity on prevention of ‘cybercrime’ etc, the minister informed.
Where the loss is due to the customer’s negligence, the customer has to bear the entire loss until the customer reports the unauthorized transaction to the bank; and where the fault lies neither with the customer nor with the bank and lies elsewhere in the system and the customer reports between four to seven working days of the unauthorized transaction, the maximum liability of the customer ranges from ₹5,000 to ₹25,000, depending on the type of account/ instrument, the minister informed.
