India launches online 'Suspect Registry' to combat cyber crime: 1.4 mn criminals identified

New Delhi: The online 'suspect registry' launched by Union home minister Amit Shah on Tuesday contains data of 1.4 million cyber criminals involved in cyber and online financial frauds, according to officials.

It can be accessed by the states, union territories, central investigation and intelligence agencies. The registry has been created by the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), in collaboration with banks and financial intermediaries for strengthening fraud risk management capabilities of the financial ecosystem, said officials.

The National Cybercrime Reporting Portal (NCRP) is receiving as many as 67,000 calls from citizens every day on average regarding cyber frauds, said Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre CEO Rajesh Kumar. Since 2021, the I4C has recovered Rs 2,800 crore of defrauded amount belonging to about 850,000 victims, he said.


According to the centre, about 4.78 million cyber complaints have been registered on the portal by 171.3 million cyber victims, including cases related to child sexual abuse material (CSAM), out of which 17,000 first information reports have been registered related to CSAM. The I4C has also provided 10,767 forensic services to states and union territories in the past, it said.

The I4C is a body established by the Union home ministry to provide a framework and ecosystem for law enforcement agencies to deal with cybercrime in a coordinated manner. The number of cybercrime cases surged between 2019 and 2024, with total 4.78 million complaints registered till August 31, up from about 1.56 million in 2023, 966,790 in 2022, 452,414 in 2021, 257,777 in 2020 and 26,049 complaints registered in 2019.

More than 85% of the complaints pertained to financial frauds. "A large number of victims were targeted using online investment fraud, gaming apps, algorithm manipulations, illegal lending apps, sextortion and OTP forwards," said an official, who did not wish to be identified.