Mumbai tops in online cheating, ranks second in cyber stalking and bullying of women: NCRB Report 2023

The city also came second when it came to using the internet for sexual exploitation, with 179 cases, second only to Bangalore, which had 374 cases.

When it came to cheating online, Mumbai topped the list of metropolitan cities in the country, with 2,396 cases, and 45 cases involving the forgery of online documents.

Mumbai topped the list of cities in terms of the pendency of cybercrime cases, with 10,369 cybercrime cases pending at the beginning of 2023, compared to previous years. During the year, the Mumbai police registered 4,131 cases.

An official said Mumbai has a greater digital penetration and people have been forthcoming to give complaints that have been duly registered. “Of late, there has been a greater emphasis on dealing with cyber offences and the pendency rates would have come down,” the official said.

He added that cybercrime is constantly evolving, and they have been taking various initiatives to ensure cyber fraudsters do not trap people.

Cybercrime in India saw a sharp surge of 31.2 per cent in 2023, with fraud, extortion and sexual exploitation accounting for the majority of cases, according to the latest NCRB report.

According to the report, ‘Crime in India’, the number of cases registered under the cybercrimes category rose to 86,420 in 2023 from 65,893 cases recorded in 2022. The crime rate under this category increased from 4.8 per cent in 2022 to 6.2 per cent in 2023.