Indians became the most victims of fraud through technology this year

Indians account for the largest number of consumers worldwide who are victims of tech support scams. According to a report by Microsoft’s Global Tech Support Scam Research, the number of such cases in India was seen at a high rate of 69 percent in 2021. Such cases of fraud due to unwanted calls have increased. Nearly a third of Indians have lost their money as victims of fraud. 

Microsoft conducted this survey in 16 countries including India, Australia, Japan and Singapore. This included 16,254 adult Internet users (about 1,000 per country). The same survey has been done by the company in 2016 and 2018.

According to research, 69 percent of people were victims of tech support scams in 2021. These figures are almost equal to 70 percent of 2018. However, there has been a five-digit decline in such cases with 59 per cent globally in the same time period.

In India, 48 percent of surveyed consumers were defrauded, eight points above the 2018 figure and more than three times the global average. According to the report, 31 per cent or nearly a third of Indians lost more money in 2021 as compared to 14 per cent in 2018.

An average loss of Rs 15 hundred

In India, in 2021, such fraudsters lost money on an average of Rs 15,334. However, 88 percent of those who lost money somehow got their money back. Whose average is Rs 10,797. Those who lost money chose common payment methods. Of these, 43 percent paid by bank transfer, 38 percent by gift card, 32 percent by credit card and 25 percent by bitcoin. 

Unsolicited calls increase fraud

47 percent of survey respondents in India said they think it is very or somewhat likely that a company will contact them through fake calls, pop-ups, text messages, advertisements or emails.

Incidences of fraud through unsolicited calls have increased from 23 per cent to 31 per cent in the country between 2018 and 2021. Whereas globally, where the number of such calls was 27 percent in the year 2018, it is now 25 percent.

Indians are easy prey

Mary Jo Schradt, assistant general counsel for the Microsoft Digital Crimes Asia Unit, said that this global fraud targets people of all ages. Consumers are more likely to be targeted in India than in other countries of the world. These people rarely ignore fraudulent conversations, because of this they lose money.

The world receives 6,500 complaints every month

Microsoft said that every month, it receives about 6,500 complaints worldwide from people who have been victims of technology fraud, down from 13,000 reports in the average month of previous years. . However, the number of such news coming from India is less.