Hyderabad: Investment and stock-market scams caused nearly 60% of Telangana’s cyber fraud losses, senior police officer Shikha Goel said. She also said police recovered ₹455 crore lost to cyber frauds in the past two years.
Goel spoke at a cyber safety symposium at Hotel Avasa in Madhapur on September 30. She is Principal Secretary to Government, Home Department, Telangana. She also heads the Telangana Cyber Security Bureau and Telangana Forensic Science Laboratories.
More than 200 people attended the event. Symposium, a Hyderabad premium knowledge forum, held it with Telangana State Police, Telangana Cyber Security Bureau and Cyberabad Police. The session was titled “Conversation on Cybersecurity: When Trust Becomes the Weapon – The New Battle for the Human Mind”. Goel was one of three panelists.
She said stock and business investment scams had become one of the costliest forms of cybercrime in Telangana. According to her, these scams now made up nearly 60% of cyber fraud losses. Goel said fraudsters studied people, won their trust and then pushed them to send money. Therefore, she said fear, greed and poor awareness often helped the gangs.
She said many fraud networks worked from outside India, including Vietnam, Myanmar and Cambodia. They used many layers, locations and time zones. As a result, police often found it hard to reach the people running the networks.
Goel said some gangs ran call centres with workers from several countries. The callers spoke the language of their targets and changed their approach for each victim. She said such tactics added to rising cyber fraud losses.
“Cybercrime is one of the most organized crimes. At the same time, it is also one of the most preventable crimes. People get trapped because of their fear, greed and ignorance,” she said.
Cyber fraud losses linked to trust
Goel asked people not to assume that innocence would protect them. Instead, she urged them to pause, think and check before acting. “Innocence doesn’t work. If you don’t want to fall prey to cyber fraud, you have to be intelligent. Trust your intelligence. Pause, think and verify before you act,” she said.
Air Vice Marshal (Dr) Devesh Vatsa, VSM, moderated the panel. He is Cyber Security and Critical Technologies Advisor at DSCI and a former Indian Air Force officer. Vatsa used a Ramayana example and called the Lakshman Rekha the original firewall. He said the line served as a boundary against a threat.
“Cybercrime is nothing but greed, lust and fear,” he said. Further, he said criminals often used basic human emotions against people. “We are entering an era where the weaponizing of trust is becoming a strategy,” Vatsa said.
He also noted that October marks Cybersecurity Awareness Month each year. Therefore, he called for steady public awareness, not one-time drives.
AI dependence draws warning over cyber fraud losses
Supreme Court advocate and cyber-law expert Pavan Duggal warned against heavy dependence on AI. He said people had to keep their own ability to think, question and decide.
“God has given you the ability to discern and join the dots. Use that ability. Don’t let that skill die. Don’t use AI for recommendations for every small thing. Keep AI at arm’s length,” Duggal said.
He said people were relying on AI for daily choices. However, he warned that blind trust in AI could cause harm. “People are blindly going gaga over AI. They consider it a life coach, but it can become a suicidal coach,” he said.
Duggal also said giving all work to AI could slowly weaken the human mind. Therefore, he asked people to treat AI answers with care. He said governments needed clear laws for AI and deepfakes. He pointed to legal moves in China, South Korea, Japan, Hungary and El Salvador.
He also said AI systems needed clear accountability. Further, he warned people not to treat AI-made content as absolute truth.
Cyber fraud losses raise AI law concerns
Duggal also referred to India’s courts. He said the Supreme Court had drafted rules for AI use in courts and legal work.
He said the Supreme Court’s AI Committee prepared the draft Regulations for Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Courts, 2026. The draft sought responsible AI use while keeping human and judicial control.
Duggal said ease of use should not weaken human judgement. “We have become cognitive slaves to AI. Respect the cognitive minds of people,” he said. He also called for rules that fixed responsibility for harm linked to AI. Further, he said anyone could become a cybercrime victim.
He linked cyber fraud losses to weak judgement and blind trust in digital tools. Therefore, he said people needed strong awareness and independent thinking.
Mobile numbers need protection from fraud
Cybersecurity expert Jiten Jain, CEO of Indian Infosec Consortium, asked people to guard their mobile numbers. He said phone numbers should be treated as sensitive personal data.
Jain asked people not to share their numbers as a routine step while shopping or paying bills. He said numbers could help criminals carry out social engineering and identity fraud. “Your mobile number should be extremely personal,” he said.
In addition, he asked people to question why a business wanted their number. He also urged them to ask how that data might later be used. According to Jain, careful handling of personal data could lower the risk of scams. He said better data habits could also reduce cyber fraud losses.
Cyber fraud losses show human risk
Young cyber safety enthusiast and ethical hacker Shubhank Singhai said trust was often a criminal’s most valuable target. He said the target was not always a server, bank account or government database.
“We spend billions building stronger encryption, better firewalls and smarter detection systems. Yet some of the biggest attacks today don’t begin with malicious code. They begin with a phone call, a message, a familiar face or a voice that sounds just like someone we love,” he said.
Singhai also pointed to social engineering, fake identities, cloned voices and AI-made content. Therefore, he said trust itself had become a key attack point. Speakers said cyber safety could no longer be seen only as an IT issue. Instead, they said the fight also involved trust, behaviour and judgement. They said cutting cyber fraud losses required stronger tools as well as better public judgement.
Awareness drive targets cyber fraud losses
The event also unveiled public-interest videos and awareness material made with the Telangana Cyber Security Bureau. Organisers said the effort reached nearly 2.95 lakh pensioners and more than 3 lakh serving employees across Telangana.
The videos gave simple tips to help people avoid cybercrime. Further, organisers planned to share the material through gazetted officers linked to Symposium’s work. They said the material aimed to help cut cyber fraud losses by teaching people how to spot scams. It also gave practical steps for safer online use.
Organisers also presented Goel with a paper on discussions and ideas from the previous edition of the symposium. Symposium Managing Trustee Shruti Mallpani said the real battle was not technology but human judgement. She said the forum aimed to help citizens understand new threats and make safer digital choices.
Across the event, speakers linked cyber fraud losses to the misuse of trust, fear, greed, AI and fake identities. They said criminals were no longer only stealing money but were also trying to control human trust and behaviour.