Chennai, Sept 30:
Highly educated professionals, including IT experts, bankers, doctors and finance professionals, are increasingly falling victim to financial cybercrime, a study by IIT-Madras researchers has found.
The study said digital literacy does not necessarily protect people from cyber fraud. Victims included cybersecurity-certified professionals, public-sector officers and senior citizens, with losses ranging from a few thousand rupees to over Rs 1 crore.
Researchers found that fraudsters often targeted victims during stressful situations such as family illness, retirement, job searches and workplace pressure. Fear, urgency and financial expectations created an “engineered brain freeze”, leaving victims unable to think clearly. Many reported shame, insomnia, depression and strained family relationships.
The study was based on interviews with 33 victims, including 22 men and 11 women, across Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, New Delhi and Mumbai. The victims had encountered investment and trading frauds, job and task scams, digital payment fraud, malware attacks and “digital arrest” scams.
Led by Prof P Kandaswamy, IPS (Retd), and Prof Nandan Sudarsanam, the study recommended stronger cyber-forensic capabilities, faster bank fraud detection and better coordination between banks, police and courts.
Published in Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, the study said awareness campaigns should focus on specific fraud tactics and vulnerable situations rather than simply advising people to “be careful online.”