A Study on Rising Cybercrime in India with Technical and Legal Perspectives

Abstract

The expansion of India's digital economy has transformed lives, yet it has also made the country more vulnerable to cybercrime. The amount of money people are losing to online scams has more than doubled within a year. Why is this happening? Well, it's a mix of a few things. Our digital systems have weaknesses, and our laws just can't keep up with new
threats like scams powered by AI and realistic deepfakes. What I want to say is, while the government has done a great
job with programs that stop fraud and help people get their money back, there's a big missing piece. We're not doing a good enough job of catching and punishing the criminals. It's like we're fixing the leak after the flood, but we're not getting the people who broke the dam in the first place. What this paper argues is that to truly fix this, we need a two- pronged strategy. First, we need a legal makeover. This means creating a special court system with judges who actually understand technology. They cant just be experts in old laws; they need to get the complexities of things like bitcoin and online hacking. This would make it easier to prosecute and convict cybercriminals. Second, we need to focus on education. We need to make sure every single person in India knows how to protect themselves online. It's about empowering people so they don't fall for these scams in the first place.