Cybercrime Trends

Jamtara Police arrested three cyber fraudsters who posed as credit card helpdesks and sent fake PhonePe Rs 1,999 cashback messages to trick victims into installing a fake APK app. Police seized Rs 8.13 lakh in cash, eight mobile phones and six fake SIM cards. Two of the accused have earlier cyber fraud charge-sheets. A team led by DSP (Cyber) Amit Ravidas carried out raids at Borowa and Kashitand.

Microfinance lender Spandana Sphoorty Financial has disclosed that about Rs 7.80 crore was moved from one of its bank accounts to 82 beneficiary accounts on 1 November 2026. It shut down the affected production services, sought reversal and freezes, filed a complaint on 1930 and is claiming under its cyber fraud insurance. Here is what the case means for lenders relying on cyber cover.

Pimpri Chinchwad Cyber Police have arrested Sumant alias Nanu Ravindra Dasre, 26, of Pune, who allegedly ran cyber frauds from Dubai in partnership with Chinese cybercriminals. A Look Out Circular got him detained in Dubai through Interpol and deported, and he was arrested at Mumbai airport. Police say he used over 150 bank accounts supplied by two Pune associates and earned more than Rs 1 crore.

Lucknow Police have seized six illegal 32-port SIM boxes with 192 SIM slots, along with VPN gateways and smart switches, in raids at four locations under Operation Digital Kavach. Police say such boxes route internet calls through Indian SIMs so they look like local calls, helping digital arrest fraudsters pose as police or CBI officers and hide where the calls really come from.

An Instagram Reels ad promising "Part Time Typing Jobs In Netherlands, 9 Am to 5 PM!" sends users to earningtricks.in, where they get a two-question quiz, full-screen "Reward granted" adverts and filler articles with sponsored-search buttons. No employer, job or application ever appears. The site's code shows Google rewarded ad slots, Google related-search (RSOC) buttons and a Meta Pixel that counts ad views and clicks.

Delhi Police arrested 944 people and registered 596 new FIRs in Operation CyHawk 6.0 on 28 and 29 October 2026, working out 4,002 NCRP complaints involving about Rs 479 crore. 283 teams went to 17 States and 5 Union Territories, targeting mule-account suppliers, insider bankers, SIM agents, SIM boxes and illegal call centres.

The Enforcement Directorate searched premises in Bengaluru and Madhya Pradesh on 27 October 2026 under FEMA over unauthorised cross-border transfers using stablecoins worth more than Rs 5,000 crore. The probe covers RPFAS Technologies, which runs Mudrex and Saber.money (about Rs 4,600 crore), and DeFi platform Instadapp/Fluid (about USD 40 million), with shell entities in tax havens.

The Singapore Police Force has warned that Ledger cryptocurrency hardware wallets bought from some retail stores in Singapore contained malicious hardware components that could capture recovery phrases or private keys. At least two cases have been reported since 10 September 2026, with losses of about S$3.5 million. Ledger is reviewing the cases and investigations are ongoing.

India's I4C sent Google three takedown notices on 22, 23 and 26 October 2026, published on the Lumen Database as notices 100795192, 101418971 and 101418978. They list 158 entries covering 149 unique Firebase Realtime Database hosts of the kind used by Android malware to steal OTPs and SMS. Names include PM-KISAN, RTO, HDFC, ICICI and IPPB lures and admin "panels". Full IOC list included. The notices do not show takedown status.

A Facebook Page called "Blood Sugar & Blood Pressure" is running about 51 EU ads promising phone-based blood-sugar checks, with its lead ad reaching an estimated 28,658 accounts across France, Germany, Ireland and the Netherlands. The ads lead to five apps from five developer names in Hong Kong, Guangzhou and Pakistan whose own listings say they measure nothing. We trace the scheme step by step, with a checklist for spotting it.

About 210 active Meta ads urging users to "Monitor your blood sugar" lead to Beatly: Blood Pressure & Sugar, a Google Play app with more than 5 million installs whose own description says it "does not measure blood pressure, blood sugar, heart rate, or any medical data directly". One ad reached an estimated 293,126 EU accounts. The payer is a Hong Kong subsidiary of a Chinese advertising group. No phone camera can measure blood glucose.

Hackers who planted malware on an Indian NBFC's server drained about ₹3.93 crore from its loan-disbursal bank account in 149 transfers on 5 October 2026, Delhi Police said. The money moved through mule accounts and was converted to USDT. The IFSO unit has frozen about ₹1.80 crore and arrested seven people in Rajasthan who allegedly ran the cash-out network. Police have not named the NBFC or the malware.