Banks report the frauds they detect to the Reserve Bank of India, which counts them. Asked in the Lok Sabha how much money those frauds involved and how much reached victims again, the Ministry of Finance gave the RBI’s figures for three years, by kind of fraud and by state.
The amount involved in frauds reported by banks rose from Rs 11,677.86 crore in 2023-24 to Rs 32,043.21 crore in 2024-25 and Rs 47,910.05 crore in 2025-26, 4.1 times as much in two years. Banks recovered 4.3% in 2023-24, 4.5% in 2024-25, 6.1% in 2025-26.
Loans drove the rise
Frauds in advances, that is in loans, account for most of the money: Rs 8,920.44 crore in 2023-24, Rs 29,267.42 crore in 2024-25 and Rs 40,739.74 crore in 2025-26, 85.0% of that year’s total. Banks recovered Rs 2,787.90 crore of it.
The card frauds that disappeared from the count
The number of frauds moved the other way. Banks reported 3,45,778 frauds in 2023-24 and 23,369 in 2025-26. Nearly all the fall is in card and internet frauds, down from 2,93,239 to 5,997, and deposit frauds, down from 43,134 to 3,887. The answer does not explain the fall. It does not say whether fewer such frauds occurred, whether they are now reported differently, or whether they are counted elsewhere, for example among cyber frauds reported by citizens to the government’s portal.
What happened to the victims’ money: not maintained
The question asked for the amounts frozen, recovered and refunded to victims. The answer: the RBI “has apprised that the details of amount frozen, recovered and refunded to the victims are not maintained by it.” The only recovery figure is what banks recovered in the fraud cases, which is not the same thing.
Two tables, two totals
The answer gives the same frauds twice, by kind and by state, but the two do not add up to the same totals. The largest gap is in 2024-25: Rs 480.64 crore and 35 frauds more in the table by kind than in the table by state. Neither table prints a total, and the answer does not explain the difference.
- 2023-24: by kind Rs 11,677.86 crore; by state Rs 11,659.63 crore.
- 2024-25: by kind Rs 32,043.21 crore; by state Rs 31,562.57 crore.
- 2025-26: by kind Rs 47,910.05 crore; by state Rs 47,873.21 crore.
By state
Maharashtra accounts for Rs 24,164.49 crore in 2025-26, 50.5% of the state-wise total. The table does not say how a fraud is assigned to a state.
| State / UT | 2023-24 (Rs cr) | 2024-25 (Rs cr) | 2025-26 (Rs cr) | 2025-26 recovered | 2025-26 frauds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maharashtra | 1,363.56 | 6,769.84 | 24,164.49 | 793.67 | 4,343 |
| West Bengal | 482.54 | 4,347.15 | 5,479.89 | 723.47 | 1,289 |
| NCT of Delhi | 2,125.33 | 8,855.91 | 5,415.37 | 705.83 | 1,175 |
| Telangana | 1,925.03 | 1,351.26 | 1,999.33 | 24.19 | 638 |
| Tamil Nadu | 1,190.56 | 1,000.22 | 1,995.45 | 242.26 | 1,330 |
| Karnataka | 380.39 | 1,048.47 | 1,487.09 | 20.89 | 1,851 |
| Chandigarh | 279.16 | 379.04 | 1,440.39 | 121.55 | 106 |
| Gujarat | 986.21 | 1,285.86 | 1,435.60 | 49.26 | 826 |
| Punjab | 239.30 | 1,129.01 | 885.61 | 55.08 | 600 |
| Uttar Pradesh | 952.50 | 991.88 | 755.28 | 27.13 | 1,478 |
| Haryana | 252.86 | 629.37 | 454.17 | 50.50 | 3,482 |
| Kerala | 238.09 | 224.77 | 445.08 | 11.01 | 698 |
| Madhya Pradesh | 250.42 | 1,368.13 | 412.84 | 10.00 | 890 |
| Andhra Pradesh | 174.08 | 915.68 | 371.96 | 8.43 | 522 |
| Rajasthan | 276.42 | 300.00 | 227.13 | 10.98 | 914 |
| Chhattisgarh | 125.23 | 65.19 | 215.23 | 10.78 | 207 |
| Jammu and Kashmir | 47.55 | 81.27 | 193.49 | 6.92 | 103 |
| Assam | 27.79 | 86.56 | 107.66 | 6.93 | 819 |
| Jharkhand | 61.96 | 62.27 | 97.00 | 0.67 | 252 |
| Uttarakhand | 37.34 | 59.67 | 71.55 | 3.41 | 193 |
| Bihar | 68.65 | 53.60 | 70.47 | 5.55 | 537 |
| Odisha | 83.20 | 479.82 | 67.74 | 5.72 | 815 |
| Himachal Pradesh | 46.99 | 54.81 | 25.43 | 9.32 | 43 |
| Tripura | 3.89 | 6.64 | 20.70 | 1.05 | 36 |
| Meghalaya | 1.96 | 2.61 | 12.93 | 0.00 | 69 |
| Goa | 24.09 | 5.53 | 12.09 | 0.69 | 30 |
| Sikkim | 1.13 | 1.29 | 4.24 | 0.32 | 7 |
| Puducherry | 1.96 | 1.86 | 2.76 | 0.02 | 27 |
| Arunachal Pradesh | 0.55 | 0.35 | 1.17 | 0.00 | 7 |
| Manipur | 3.05 | 3.50 | 0.76 | 0.19 | 35 |
| Nagaland | 1.45 | 0.08 | 0.26 | 0.03 | 7 |
| Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu | 1.04 | 0.42 | 0.04 | 0.04 | 6 |
| Mizoram | 4.92 | 0.28 | 0.01 | 0.01 | 7 |
| Andaman and Nicobar Islands | 0.36 | 0.05 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 1 |
| Ladakh | 0.07 | 0.03 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 8 |
| Lakshadweep | 0.00 | 0.15 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0 |
By kind of fraud
| Area of operation | 2023-24 frauds | 2023-24 (Rs cr) | 2024-25 frauds | 2024-25 (Rs cr) | 2025-26 frauds | 2025-26 (Rs cr) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Advances | 5,127 | 8,920.44 | 9,391 | 29,267.42 | 10,678 | 40,739.74 |
| Card / Internet | 2,93,239 | 2,060.75 | 1,44,855 | 821.88 | 5,997 | 35.85 |
| Cash | 3,388 | 84.70 | 1,980 | 42.23 | 442 | 35.14 |
| Cheques / DDs, etc. | 178 | 41.86 | 153 | 74.37 | 116 | 13.89 |
| Clearing Accounts | 20 | 1.96 | 11 | 1.81 | 5 | 10.56 |
| Deposits | 43,134 | 284.96 | 12,666 | 536.48 | 3,887 | 292.61 |
| Forex | 24 | 38.17 | 29 | 15.99 | 52 | 124.70 |
| Inter-Branch Accounts | 33 | 9.84 | 4 | 0.45 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Off-balance sheet | 10 | 199.06 | 15 | 269.81 | 8 | 520.58 |
| Others | 625 | 36.12 | 9,206 | 1,012.77 | 2,184 | 6,136.98 |
Got it right
The same answer sets out the route for a victim of online fraud. A report on the national cybercrime helpline, 1930, or at cybercrime.gov.in feeds a system that links the police with banks to trace the money trail; money frozen through it is returned through the portal’s Money Restoration Module. Oquilia’s fraud reporting guide has the steps.
How we did this
- Source: the Ministry of Finance’s answer to Lok Sabha Unstarred Question 2460, answered on 3 August 2026, Annex-1 (by area of operation) and Annex-2 (by state), source RBI.
- We found it by indexing every Lok Sabha answer of the current House and scanning those on frauds, recoveries and refunds for state-wise tables.
- One cell is printed with a stray space: West Bengal, FY 2025-26, number of frauds, printed “1,2 89”, read as 1,289. Neither annex prints a total, so the national figures here are sums of the rows, calculated twice; we report both annexes’ sums where they differ.
- Download the data: bank-frauds-fy2024-fy2026.csv. Our method and labels are on the Data Audit method page.
Questions
Which frauds are counted here?
Frauds reported to the RBI by scheduled commercial banks (excluding regional rural banks) and all-India financial institutions, by the area of the bank's operation where the fraud occurred: loans (advances), cards and internet banking, deposits, cash, cheques and others. Cyber frauds reported by citizens to the government's portal are counted separately.
Is money recovered the same as money refunded to victims?
No. The amount recovered is what banks recovered in these fraud cases. The RBI told Parliament that the amounts frozen, recovered and refunded to victims are not maintained by it.
Why does Maharashtra have the largest amount?
The table gives each state's reported frauds without explaining them, and the answer does not say how a fraud is assigned to a state. We do not read the state figures as where the money was lost.
Where does the data come from?
From the RBI, as given in the Ministry of Finance's answer to Lok Sabha Unstarred Question 2460, answered on 3 August 2026.
Corrections
No corrections so far. If any figure here is wrong, send the correcting document to editor@oquilia.com and we will correct it and record the change on this page.