2nd December 2025: Pune is fast turning into a cyber crime hotspot, as financial losses due to online fraud continue to rise. In 2024 alone, Punekars lost more than ₹216 crore to cyber fraud, and in 2025, losses already cross ₹120 crore by September.
The scale of the problem became starkly clear on December 13, when victims in the city lost over ₹2.16 crore in just one day across eleven reported cyber fraud cases. These figures have raised serious concerns about Pune’s preparedness to tackle digital crime.
Retirement Hub: Pune attracts retired officials because of its climate, healthcare facilities, and quality of life.
Primary Targets: People aged 50–70 suffer the highest financial losses in cyber fraud cases.
Common Scams: Fraudsters use digital arrest threats, fake KYC calls, remote access apps, and insurance or pension-related scams.
Fear Tactics: Criminals create urgency and panic to force quick, unverified actions.
Low Digital Familiarity: Limited understanding of new fraud patterns increases vulnerability.
The threat is not limited to senior citizens. Young adults between 18 and 25 years are also increasingly becoming victims. Their constant exposure to gadgets, heavy social media usage, and curiosity as relatively new internet users make them easy targets for online scams and phishing attempts.
Despite Pune reportedly accounting for nearly 25 percent of the country’s cyber crime cases, the city’s cyber security infrastructure remains weak. At present, Pune has only one dedicated cyber police station.
Although the Maharashtra Assembly sanctioned five new cyber police stations in mid-2025, these are yet to become operational on the ground. The shortage of trained cyber crime personnel continues to give fraudsters an upper hand.
According to estimates by the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre, cyber crime losses across India could cross ₹1.2 lakh crore in 2025, underlining the national scale of the crisis.
While stronger laws and better enforcement are essential, authorities stress that individual awareness is equally critical. Citizens are advised to think carefully before clicking on unknown links and to never share OTPs, PINs, or passwords, not with strangers, not with callers claiming to be bank officials, and not even with those posing as police personnel.
If a cyber crime does occur, reporting it immediately can make a crucial difference. In today’s digital age, even a short delay can result in severe financial loss.