MUMBAI: The Maharashtra government on Friday said that cyber fraud and cheating cases in the state saw a 70% rise in 2022 over 2021. However, deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said there was no proposal to set up a Small Frauds Wing on the lines of the Economic Offences Wing to tackle such cases.

He was responding to questions raised by MLCs Vijay Girkar, Praveen Darekar, Ramesh Patil, Manisha Kayande, and Niranjan Davkhar in the Legislative Council.

“Last year till November, 4,286 cases of cyber cheating were reported. This is a 70% rise compared to the cases in the same period in 2021. In Mumbai, there were 1,294 cases of credit card and online cheating frauds but out of them only 37 cases have been detected. A total of 2,216 cases of online fraud related to gifting, shopping, jobs, insurance, college admissions, investments, crypto currency and loan have been registered. Out of these, 132 cases have been solved. Out of the 4,286 cases of cyber fraud registered, till November 2022, only 279 cases have been solved,” Fadnavis told the Legislative Council.

He said five cyber police stations have been set up at the regional level in Mumbai to keep a check on rising cases of cyber cheating and online fraud. To ensure cyber cases are detected faster, a cyber laboratory has been set up and advanced technology has been made available to police stations, he said.

Experts, however, said the official numbers may not even be a fair indicator of total crimes committed in cyberspace. The surge in 2022 is a result of more complaints being converted into FIRs. Job frauds, crypto investments, insurance swindles, sextortion and electricity bill cons are among leading categories of cyber offences that are on the rise.