Digital dacoity: Uttarakhand loses over Rs 468 crore to cyber fraud in five years; cases jump 12-fold

DEHRADUN: The crime landscape in Uttarakhand has undergone a dramatic transformation. Since the state’s formation, traditional offenders involved in robbery, theft and dacoity have increasingly migrated to the digital space, unleashing a wave of cyber fraud that the Supreme Court has recently described as “sheer loot”.

Data from the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (NCRP) reveals a grim picture: between 2021 and 2025, cybercriminals swindled residents of Uttarakhand of more than Rs 468 crore. Nearly 90,000 people fell victim to cyber fraud during this period.