New Delhi, March 27 -- The Bureau's India Fraud Report 2026 signals a clear shift in how fraud is evolving across the country's digital economy. What was once seen as isolated incidents is now taking the shape of coordinated, network-driven operations. With fraud losses in the banking sector reaching Rs.36,014 crore, as per the Reserve Bank of India Annual Report 2024-25, the scale of the problem is no longer incremental; it is systemic.

At the centre of this shift are mule networks. According to the report, 48% of enterprises now identify these networks as the most difficult fraud threat to detect and control, ranking them above phishing, synthetic identities, account takeovers, and social engineering. Unlike traditional fraud methods, ...