What a scam isThe main typesIndia in numbersThe world in numbersWhat you can do

Scams in India: types and how much India loses in 2026

Every day in 2025, Indians reported losing about Rs 62 crore to scams. Over the year that came to Rs 22,495 crore, from more than 24 lakh complaints, and 2026 is on the same path. This guide explains what a scam is, the main types, and what the numbers say about who loses, where, and how little comes back, with the world for comparison. It is the first part of a series.

Indians reported Rs 22,495 crore lost to cyber fraud in 2025, and another Rs 10,178 crore in the first six months of 2026.
Fake investment schemes took 76% of the money lost in 2025.
Older people lose the most per complaint: about Rs 3.9 lakh, four times the national average.
Of Rs 64,447 crore reported lost since 2021, victims have got back Rs 323 crore.
India is not alone. Americans reported $20.9 billion lost in 2025, and fraud is more common in Indian companies than the global average.

What a scam is

A scam is a trick that gets you to hand over money, data or access, or to let someone use your name. Most scams are one of three kinds:

You pay them. You are fooled into sending the money yourself, as with fake investment schemes, fake job offers and "digital arrest" calls.
They take it. The scammer gets your login, card details, one-time password (OTP) or mobile number and moves the money without your consent.
They use an identity. A real or fake identity, or a fake certificate, is used to open accounts, take loans or get hired. The victim is often a bank or an employer.

The main types

Cyber fraudScams run online or by phone: fake investment schemes, phishing links, fake customer care numbers, "digital arrest" calls.Who loses: individuals, especially older people
KYC fraudPassing a "know your customer" check with a forged, false or borrowed identity, or a fake "update your KYC" message.Who loses: banks, lenders, telecom operators, customers
Identity theftYour Aadhaar, PAN or mobile number is used to take a loan, a SIM card or an account in your name.Who loses: the person named, and the lender
Mule accountsAccounts opened with real KYC, then rented, sold or opened on false papers to receive scam money.Who loses: scam victims, and the bank
Fake degrees and certificatesForged marksheets or degrees, or a genuine certificate used by someone else.Who loses: employers, and honest candidates
Fake universitiesBodies with no legal power to award degrees, selling worthless "degrees".Who loses: students, and the employers who hire them
Fake job offersFake recruiters or "part-time tasks" that ask for fees or deposits, or collect ID documents.Who loses: job seekers
Fake job historiesForged experience letters, payslips or relieving letters.Who loses: employers

ADi WalletVerified records, shared with a yesPeople hold records fetched from the source, approve every request, see who holds what and can revoke access at any time.See ADi Wallet →

India in numbers

These figures come from complaints people make on the 1930 helpline and cybercrime.gov.in, run by the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre under the Ministry of Home Affairs. They are what victims report, so the true loss is higher.

Losses tripled in a year, and haven't come down

Amount reported lost to cyber fraud in India, by year

2023Rs 7,465 crore
2024Rs 22,845 crore
2025Rs 22,495 crore
2026, January to JuneRs 10,178 crore

Source: Lok Sabha reply via PTI (2023, 2024); Ministry of Home Affairs data via ThePrint (2025) and via Outlook Money (2026)

Reported losses jumped from Rs 7,465 crore in 2023 to Rs 22,845 crore in 2024 (PTI), and held at Rs 22,495 crore in 2025 (ThePrint). The 2025 figure came from 24,02,579 complaints, according to a KPMG and FICCI report citing the Home Ministry. In the first half of 2026 alone, people filed more than 12.7 lakh complaints worth over Rs 10,178 crore (Outlook Money, reporting Home Ministry data).

Three of every four rupees go to fake investment schemes

Fake investment schemes took 76% of the money lost in 2025

Fake investment and trading schemes76%
Digital arrest calls9%
All other types together15%

Source: Ministry of Home Affairs data via ThePrint

Fake trading apps, stock tips and crypto schemes made up about a third of cases but three-quarters of the money, so each case is far bigger than the average.

Older people lose the most per complaint

In 2025, 1,03,488 senior citizens reported Rs 4,005 crore lost, and 4,63,114 women reported Rs 3,765 crore, the Home Ministry told the Rajya Sabha (ANI). Divide the money by the complaints and the gap is stark:

A senior citizen's complaint averages four times the national figure

Senior citizensRs 3.87 lakh
All complaintsRs 93,600
WomenRs 81,300

Source: Worked out from Home Ministry figures for 2025: Rajya Sabha reply via ANI; KPMG and FICCI report

Senior citizens filed about 4% of complaints but reported about 18% of the money lost. For families, that makes older relatives the people to protect first.

Where it happens

Maharashtra reported the highest losses in January to June 2026

MaharashtraRs 1,638 crore
KarnatakaRs 1,097 crore
Tamil NaduRs 898 crore
Uttar PradeshRs 734 crore
GujaratRs 644 crore

Source: Home Ministry data via Outlook Money, July 2026

By number of complaints, Uttar Pradesh came first with about 1.85 lakh, followed by Maharashtra (1.58 lakh), Karnataka (1.21 lakh), Gujarat and Bihar. So the state with the most complaints is not the one losing the most money.

Very little comes back

Of Rs 64,447 crore reported lost, Rs 323 crore went back to victims

Reported lostRs 64,447 crore
Frozen in the receiving accountsRs 10,718 crore
Refunded to victimsRs 323 crore

Source: Home Ministry data via Outlook Money (2021 to May 2026)

From 2021 to May 2026, about Rs 17 of every Rs 100 reported was frozen, but just 50 paise reached victims. And from 2021 to 2025, just 3 in 100 complaints became an FIR: 1,95,760 out of 65.89 lakh (Ministry of Home Affairs). Speed matters: money can be frozen while it is still sitting in the receiving accounts, so report on 1930 as fast as you can.

UPI fraud: lakhs of small hits

UPI fraud runs at about Rs 1,000 crore a year

2021-22Rs 242 crore
2022-23Rs 573 crore
2023-24Rs 1,087 crore
2024-25Rs 981 crore
2025-26, to NovemberRs 805 crore

Source: Ministry of Finance in the Lok Sabha, via IANS (Free Press Journal, December 2025)

UPI fraud involved 13.42 lakh incidents in 2023-24 and 12.64 lakh in 2024-25 (Lok Sabha reply). Each one is small on average, under Rs 10,000, but the count is huge.

The identity side: SIMs, mule accounts and fake universities

88 lakh+fraudulent mobile connections disconnected
32.08 lakhmule accounts flagged by banks by June 2026
20,000mule accounts found a month by an RBI-backed system
32fake universities on UGC's list

Scams need fake or borrowed identities to work: a SIM to call from, a bank account to receive the money, a certificate to get hired. The Department of Telecommunications has disconnected over 88 lakh fraudulent mobile connections. Banks had flagged 32.08 lakh "Layer 1" mule accounts, the first accounts that receive victims' money, to the government's Suspect Registry by 30 June 2026 (Ministry of Home Affairs). An RBI-backed system now running in 26 banks finds about 20,000 mule accounts a month, according to the KPMG and FICCI report. And UGC lists 32 bodies that call themselves universities but have no right to award degrees (Rajya Sabha reply).

Companies are hit too

59% of Indian organisations faced financial or economic fraud in the past two years, against 41% worldwide, according to PwC's Global Economic Crime Survey 2024. Banks reported frauds worth Rs 48,021 crore in 2025-26, mostly in loans (RBI annual report).

The world in numbers

No one keeps an official world total, because each country counts what victims report, and many never do. The best figures:

$20.9 billionreported to the FBI in the US in 2025
£1.28 billionpayment fraud reported by UK banks in 2025
$88 to 114 billionUN estimate for East and Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand, 2025
About $442 billionsurvey estimate across 42 countries over one year

These come from the FBI, UK Finance, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime and the Global Anti-Scam Alliance, a non-profit, whose estimate is based on a survey of 46,000 adults. Reported figures are a small slice everywhere: Americans reported just over $12 billion lost to the Federal Trade Commission for 2024, but the FTC estimates the true cost could be as high as $195.9 billion.

Leaders are worried too. In the World Economic Forum's Global Cybersecurity Outlook 2026, chief executives ranked cyber-enabled fraud as their top cyber concern, and 73% of the 804 leaders surveyed said they or someone in their network was hit in 2025. Police are pushing back across borders: between January and April 2026, an INTERPOL operation in 97 countries led to 5,811 arrests, $293 million intercepted and 31,014 bank accounts blocked. And fraud from inside organisations is costly: in 2,402 cases studied by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, the median loss was $104,000, and just a third of the victim organisations had checked the fraudster's education before hiring them.

Fake investment schemes take a bigger share in India than in the US or UK

India76%
US, reported to the FTCAbout 50%
US, reported to the FBI41%
UK, authorised payment fraud38%

Source: Ministry of Home Affairs data via ThePrint; FTC; FBI IC3; UK Finance

The FTC share is $7.9 billion of $15.9 billion from its March 2026 testimony, and the UK share is from UK Finance's annual report.

What you can do

Never share an OTP, PIN or card number, whoever asks.
Report fraud on 1930 or cybercrime.gov.in at once. Quick reports had helped save more than Rs 11,158 crore by 30 June 2026.
For employers and banks: check identity, degrees and past jobs with the body that issued them, not by how the document looks.

TheRollNumber builds checks around the source. On Checkkbox, employers run identity, education, employment and court record checks with the candidate's consent. Universities and colleges issue certificates on Dygital.degree in the NAD standard format, and a QR check confirms each one against their own record. These checks stop forged and borrowed documents, though not a phishing call that tricks the person.

Next in this series: KYC fraud and identity theft, mule accounts, fake degrees and fake jobs, each with its own numbers. To see source checks in action, book a demo.

Scams in India: the main types, and the numbers behind Rs 62 crore lost every day