Despite a 67% decline in digital arrest scams, Indian authorities warn that fraudsters are increasingly exploiting AI and evolving tactics, with investment scams now posing a sharper threat amid calls for shared cybersecurity efforts.
India’s cybercrime threat is shifting rather than shrinking. At Global Fintech Fest in Mumbai, Brijesh Singh, principal secretary in Maharashtra’s Directorate of Information and Public Relations, said so-called digital arrest scams have fallen by 67% after sustained awareness campaigns, including references by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Mann Ki Baat. But, he warned, fraudsters are moving into new territory, with investment scams becoming a sharper concern.
Singh said the lesson from the decline in digital arrest cases is not that the problem has been solved, but that criminals are adapting faster than many defences. He argued that awareness alone is not enough because online fraud keeps changing shape and becoming more complex, particularly as artificial intelligence gives offenders new tools to automate attacks and adjust them in real time.
He also said cybersecurity should no longer be treated as the responsibility of each bank, telecom operator or platform acting alone. Instead, he described it as shared digital infrastructure, with fraud networks moving across apps, banking systems, telecom links and social media. Singh pointed to the Reserve Bank Innovation Hub’s planned Digital Payments Intelligence Platform as an example of the shift towards continuous, risk-based monitoring, especially since accounts can later become mule accounts even if they passed know-your-customer checks at onboarding. Separate reporting has shown the scale of the challenge in Maharashtra, where officials said 10,505 cyber financial fraud cases were registered between January 2025 and May 2026, with losses of Rs 37.76 crore.
The discussion also highlighted the growing danger from generative AI. Singh said real-time deepfakes are now easy enough to use in video calls, while artificial provenance problems could make it harder to prove what is genuine and what is machine-made. Rajesh Thapar, chief information security officer at NSE India, said cyber defence must operate at machine speed and rest on anticipation, prevention, resilience and adaptation, while keeping AI under human control. Mithilesh Singh of Protiviti added that trust and transparency will be essential as financial firms expand their use of AI.
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