Cybercrime gangs operating from Southeast Asia are shifting bases to Africa and other parts of Asia, including Madagascar, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, as Indian agencies intensify coordinated action against cross-border fraud networks, Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre CEO Rajesh Kumar said at a workshop in Hyderabad.
Kumar was speaking at the fourth Joint Cyber Crime Coordination Team workshop, hosted by the Telangana Cyber Security Bureau in association with I4C at the Telangana Global Cyber Security Coordination Centre. The meeting brought together police officials from Telangana and 13 other states, along with representatives of central agencies, to improve cooperation against transnational cybercrime.
According to Kumar, sustained action against organised cybercrime compounds in Southeast Asia had pushed some networks to relocate. He also said that all states except one had notified their State Cyber Crime Coordination Centres, or S4Cs. Seven Joint Cyber Crime Coordination Teams are currently operational across the country, including one in Hyderabad, to support information-sharing and coordinated action between states.
The workshop was attended by 45 officers from other states and representatives of 11 central agencies, including CERT-In, the Reserve Bank of India, the Enforcement Directorate, the Central Bureau of Investigation, the Intelligence Bureau, the Department of Telecommunications and the National Forensic Sciences University. Officials from the four city commissionerates also participated.
Kumar described the Supreme Court hearing on digital arrests as an opportunity for states to place their concerns before the apex court. He also outlined proposed second-generation reforms intended to reduce the workload on investigating officers. These include a unified investigation platform, a standard operating procedure from the RBI to enable banks to stop suspicious transactions, and special nationwide operations targeting cybercrime infrastructure. He said these operations were expected to be launched soon.
Telangana Director General of Police CV Anand said cybercrime complaints had risen by 24% nationally in 2024-25, while Telangana recorded a 3% decline. Financial losses linked to cybercrime in the state fell by 20%, compared with a national average reduction of 4%, he said.
Anand said the response needed to move beyond recovering money after fraud had occurred. He called for greater emphasis on preventing crimes by denying criminals access to potential victims, communication channels, phone numbers and usable bank accounts.
TGCSB director Shikha Goel said the masterminds and financiers behind cybercrime operations continued to evade law enforcement because criminal networks functioned across jurisdictions, while police investigations remained largely bounded by state and local limits. She stressed the need for intelligence-led investigations, real-time information-sharing and coordinated operations involving multiple states.
Sessions at the workshop covered mule bank accounts, crimes against women and children, artificial intelligence regulation and the use of AI to detect cybercrime. Recommendations from the deliberations will be circulated to participants for follow-up action.
