Rs 1,000 crore saved from over 400,000 cyber crimes: MoS Finance

Over Rs 1,000 crore have been saved from more than 400,000 incidents of cyber crime through the Citizen Financial Cyber Fraud Reporting and Management System, the Lok Sabha was informed on Monday. 

“As per inputs received from the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Citizen Financial Cyber Fraud Reporting and Management System has been operationalised for immediate reporting of financial fraud and to stop siphoning off fund by the fraudsters. Up to December 4, amount aggregating to more than Rs 1,000 crore have been saved in more than four lakh incidents,” minister of state for finance Bhagwat Karad said. 

Responding to a question on inquiry by agencies into UCO Bank accounts, the minister further said that by December 7, UCO Bank has recovered Rs 705.31 crore out of the Rs 820 crore it had reported as being erroneously transferred. UCO Bank, which had fallen prey to a massive digital fraud, had also lodged an FIR with the Central Bureau of Investigation on November 11 regarding transfer and deposit of Rs 820 crore to different account from UCO Bank. 

The minister further said that a meeting was convened by the Department of Financial Services on November 28 to discuss issues related to cyber security in the financial services sector and increasing incidents of recent online financial frauds.  

“The meeting was attended by representatives of various ministries and departments, Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, Unique Identification Authority of India, Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre, National Payments Corporation of India, Banks, etc,” he said, adding that it took stock of the preparedness of the banks and other financial institutions in tackling the challenges arising from cyber security in the financial services sector, increasing trend of digital payment frauds, and deliberated on a focused approach to mitigate such cyber-attacks and frauds.