Cyber threats to be more deceptive, targeted and AI-driven; awareness is like vaccine

As 2026 begins, cyber crime continues to be the fastest-growing policing challenge, posing an escalating threat to citizens’ money, privacy, and digital security. Amid this surge, Pimpri-Chinchwad police have stood out as they logged the highest number of cybercrime arrests and the largest recovery of stolen funds in Maharashtra.

In an interview with Sushant Kulkarni, Commissioner of Pimpri-Chinchwad police Vinoy Kumar Choubey discusses evolving threats, key vulnerabilities to watch for, and how citizens can protect their money and privacy in the year ahead. Choubey, a 1995 batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer of Maharashtra cadre, holds BTech and MTech degrees from IIT Kanpur. He has closely monitored several successful probes by the cyber crime police station of Pimpri Chinchwad police.

Q: As cybercrime continues to be the fastest-growing policing challenge, what new patterns or trends are you expecting to emerge in 2026 and onwards?

A: Looking at the pace at which online crimes have evolved, the cybercrime in the coming days will be more deceptive, and far more targeted. Investigations show that fraudsters are now working in multilayered and geographically spread-out transnational rackets, as against small groups executing them from one location. They are also moving away from random mass scams to carefully profiling victims using leaked data, monitoring social media activity, and financial history. We have reasons to believe that cyber criminals will try to execute more targeted impersonation frauds, investment scams, loan frauds, and identity-based crimes. We will have to be ready to counter this challenge by way of awareness and advanced investigation techniques.

AI-driven scams and Deepfake impersonation frauds are on the rise in these social engineering scams, which prey on people’s vulnerabilities. This is one of the most serious emerging threats. Fraudsters are already using AI-generated voice clips and videos to impersonate senior officials, or corporate executives. These scams are emotionally manipulative and convincing. Citizens must adopt a ‘verify before trust’ approach and confirm any urgent request for money through an independent channel.

Q: A key to keeping people’s money and privacy safe is enforcement. The Pimpri-Chinchwad police have led the state in arrests and recovery but what are key challenges before probe agencies?

A: We have ensured speed and coordinated approach in the investigations and that has given good results. We focus on immediate response to complaints, real-time tracking, and rapid liaison with banks. Our dedicated teams from cyber crime police station prioritise early account freezing, which significantly improves recovery rates.

However, we feel that there is scope for improvement on the response time taken by the banks, financial entities and social media platforms for providing information to us. One of the key challenges for investigation resources is that only officers of police inspector and above rank can probe cybercrime cases registered under the Information Technology Act. It is time that this rule is amended and sub-inspectors and assistant inspectors be empowered to probe the cases.

At the same time, there is certainly a scope for more capacity building at our end — by way of better training of officers and staff and better technological tools at our disposal. These aspects are being addressed at both the state and the commissionerate-level.

Q: Mule accounts continue to be a major enabler of cybercrime. How is this threat evolving?

A: Mule accounts remain a central concern in cybercrimes, as they facilitate the movement of siphoned money. Our recent probes show that the mule accounts are being traded openly on social media and phone messenger groups. Current accounts which are opened in the name of business entities that exist only on paper, are increasingly used as mule accounts for their high daily transaction limits.

A key strategy to curtail this would be to control the availability of the mule accounts by creating awareness and institutional reforms. To tackle this threat, we rely on technology-driven financial analysis, real-time transaction monitoring, and coordinated action. Along with mule accounts, cryptocurrency transactions are used to funnel money to the international cyber criminals, making it difficult for us to trace and detect.

Q: What habits make citizens vulnerable to financial frauds?

A: The biggest risk comes from oversharing personal information — Aadhaar details, PAN, phone numbers, and OTPs — often without verifying the entity that is seeking information. Clicking unknown links, joining unverified investment platforms, trusting online profiles blindly, and assuming that small transactions are safe are common mistakes. Share trading frauds, digital arrest scams and remote access frauds continue to top the list with cybercriminals continuously changing strategies and using newer pretexts to execute these frauds. People will have to be more vigilant and cautious about their online presence. Cyber etiquettes and digital hygiene must be taught across all age groups.

Q: Awareness is the key to tackle these evolving challenges. How are you taking steps in that direction in the coming year?

A: Awareness is like a vaccine. Pimpri Chinchwad police have undertaken targeted efforts to create awareness among the vulnerable groups. Our teams are reaching out to school and college students, senior citizens’ groups and residential societies as well as corporate entities. While the government and police are taking concerted efforts to create awareness, the onus of sensitisation also lies on the financial institutions such as banks, social media platforms, educational institutions and corporate entities themselves.

There is also a need to create awareness about the data privacy settings on social media websites and how much we end up sharing with these platforms. Every piece of personal and financial information shared on an unverified platform is likely to be misused.