The Nepal Weekly 
April 4, 2023– By MW
As common people have got more and more access to the mobile banking, internet banking, digital wallets and various other electrical payment systems, the incidents of fraud and theft have also increased in an alarming way. According to the data received from the Nepal Police, now most of frauds are committed through online.
The number of Nepalese people using digital wallets seems to have increased in the recent time mainly because it is user friendly. However, police and experts say that this is adding security challenges. Now -a- days there seems to be crowd of people complaining about this in the Cyber Bureau of Nepal Police.
Users of mobile wallets (e-money) provided by payment service providers (PSPs) seems to have increased recently. Users of various digital payment systems are increasing because of the lack of access to banks and its user-friendly features. According to Nepal Rashtra Bank, at present there are 1 crore 61 lahks 26 thousand 433 people using digital payment systems.
As of mid – March of the financial year 2079/080, 955 complaints relating to ‘digital financial crime’ have been filed in the Cyber Bureau, 794 complaints of online fraud have been filed in Kathmandu Valley Crime Investigation Office, and 33 complaints of online frauds have been filed in CIB.
Pashupati Kumar Rai, the spokesperson at the Cyber Bureau, informed that complains of online ‘financial crime’ have been received ranging from 70 rupees to crores of rupees. Those who get trapped under digital crime range from layman who just learnt how to use a mobile phone to lawyers and engineers.
Similarly, Crime Division Spokesperson SP Somendra Singh Rathore said the highest number of online fraud complaints have been registered in their office. And due to the users of bank accounts and wallets created based on fake documents, police investigations have become very difficult.
“There are many people who submit fake documents for fraud and cheating. And the other problem is that such people are staying outside Nepal while operating from here. Because of that, it has become difficult to track them. “
According to Rathore, such incidents have increased to 32 to 40 per cent in the recent time. Although the police have been successful to some extent in tracking the frauds committed by Nepalis and if the money lies here, it will be almost impossible after they go abroad, according to the police.
Police statistics show that online frauds occur especially on Friday evenings. The reason for this is that banks do not operate on Saturdays and they won’t open until 10:00 am Sunday.
According to the police records, money ranging from Rs, 5,000 to Rs 3.5 Million has gone from the e-banking and wallet of a single person under digital fraud.
