Bhubaneswar: Cybercriminals continue to tighten their grip across Odisha despite sustained government efforts to spread awareness, with thousands of people falling prey to online fraud and losing crores of rupees, according to official data presented in the Assembly on Monday.
Replying to a query, Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi informed the House that 4,238 cybercrime cases involving fraud worth more than ₹260.61 crore were registered in police stations across the state between June 1, 2024 and December 31, 2025.
The Chief Minister said financial fraud accounted for the largest share, with 2,482 cases, followed by 1,689 cases of social media fraud, 14 hacking incidents, and 53 cases involving other forms of cybercrime.
During the same period, 868 cyber fraudsters were arrested by the Odisha Police. Among them, 172 were held in financial fraud cases, 638 in social media fraud cases, one in a hacking-related case, and 57 in other types of cyber offences, he said.
However, the recovery of defrauded money has remained limited. Of the ₹260.61 crore swindled by cybercriminals, police have been able to recover and return only ₹61.36 lakh to victims, while ₹8.89 crore has been frozen in suspect accounts to prevent further transactions.
The Chief Minister also shared figures from the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal (NCRP), which recorded a much higher number of complaints from the state. As many as 27,368 complaints were received between June and December 2024, while 49,426 complaints were registered in 2025.
According to data available on the portal, cyber fraudsters allegedly cheated victims in Odisha of more than ₹711.99 crore between June 1, 2024 and December 31, 2025.
Providing a year-wise breakup, Majhi said that between June and December 2024, authorities managed to return ₹2.47 crore to victims, while ₹23.64 crore was put on hold in suspected bank accounts through coordinated action with financial institutions and payment intermediaries.
In 2025, enforcement efforts helped return ₹5.31 crore to complainants, while ₹68.71 crore was secured by freezing identified fraudulent accounts, preventing further diversion of funds.
The figures highlight the growing scale of cybercrime in the state, even as law enforcement agencies continue to intensify action against fraud networks and strengthen coordination with banks and digital payment platforms to curb online financial crimes.
