CHENNAI: A study led by researchers from Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) has found that financial cybercrime victims in India are often highly educated professionals, challenging the perception that victims are primarily careless, financially unaware or greedy.

The study found that high digital literacy does not necessarily protect individuals from cyber fraud. Victims included IT professionals, bankers, doctors, management and finance professionals, public-sector officers and individuals with cybersecurity certifications.

India’s rapid digital transition near-universal mobile access, UPI, and the wider Digital India push has brought hundreds of millions of first-generation users into digital finance within a decade, opening an unusually wide attack surface for investment and stock-trading frauds, task and job scams, digital payment frauds, malware attacks, and the distinctly Indian “digital arrest” scam.

While official statistics from the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) record the transactional breach, they remain silent on the human trauma behind the numbers, prompting the research team to ask a human question rather than a technical one.

The researchers found that victims were often targeted during periods of stress or life disruption, including illness in the family, retirement, job searches, or workplace pressure. Fraudsters exploited fear, financial expectations, and reputational concerns to create an “engineered brain freeze," with victims describing a state of “mind arrest” that impaired their ability to think clearly. Financial losses ranged from a few thousand rupees to more than ₹1 crore, while victims also reported shame, insomnia, depression, and damaged family trust.

The study also found that institutional responses varied, with some banks and cybercrime cells responding quickly while others lacked the required technical capabilities and coordination.

The findings are based on semi-structured interviews with 33 victims — 22 men and 11 women, including 12 senior citizens—across Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, New Delhi and Mumbai. The interviews were conducted in English, Hindi and Tamil and analysed using the Gioia methodology.

The study was led by Prof. P. Kandaswamy, IPS (Retd), and Prof. Nandan Sudarsanam, from IIT Madras in collaboration with Prof. Akanksha Jaiswal, Associate Professor, The University of Western Australia, Chennai Campus and Prof. Ameeta Fernando from Loyola Institute of Business Administration, Chennai. The research received support from the Wadhwani School of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence at IIT Madras.

The findings were published in Humanities and Social Sciences Communications (https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-026-07906-5), a peer-reviewed, fully open-access journal published by Springer Nature (Nature Portfolio) covering research across the humanities, behavioural sciences and social sciences. It was formerly published as Palgrave Communications.

Elaborating on the findings, Prof. Nandan Sudarsanam, Wadhwani School of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, IIT Madras, said, “Our findings show that financial cybercrime is not simply a problem of inadequate digital literacy. Even highly educated and digitally experienced individuals can become vulnerable when fraudsters exploit fear, stress, and urgency. Understanding these factors is essential to designing more effective prevention strategies.”

Prof. P Kandaswamy IPS (Retd), Adjunct Faculty, Department of Data Science and Artificial intelligence, Department of Management Studies, IIT Madras said, “The response to cybercrime must move beyond blaming victims. Banks and law-enforcement agencies need stronger systems for early detection, rapid intervention, and coordinated response, along with better support for victims.”

The study challenges the perception that cybercrime victims either lack technological knowledge or are driven by greed. The interviews show that fear, family expectations, financial pressure, and lack of awareness that a crime is taking place can also make individuals vulnerable.

The research also highlights India-specific tactics, including threats involving Aadhaar, UPI-based money transfers, fake investment platforms claiming SEBI registration, and “digital arrest” scams.

The researchers recommend moving beyond generic “be careful online” messaging towards targeted awareness based on specific fraud tactics and vulnerable situations. The study also highlights the need for stronger cyber-forensic capabilities in police cyber cells, faster bank fraud detection, and closer coordination between banks, police and courts.

The researchers acknowledged that the study is qualitative and metropolitan in scope and largely represents victims who came forward to report their experiences.

The team plans to test the findings through a multilingual, large-scale survey and extend future research to tier-two and tier-three cities, the unorganized sector, and long-term victim recovery.