Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on Wednesday directed officials to prepare an action plan to check cyber and financial crimes, with special focus on the “golden hour” fund recovery mechanism to protect victims from online fraud.

Reviewing the State’s cybercrime response and control systems at the Secretariat, Mr. Naidu instructed the police, banking and technology officials to strengthen coordination and adopt advanced tools to detect and prevent financial frauds, including misuse of mule bank accounts.

Mr. Naidu said the rapid rise in UPI-based digital transactions increased the need for faster intervention systems, capable of tracing and recovering money lost in cyber frauds during the crucial “golden hour” immediately after a complaint was lodged. “There is a need for technological innovation in fund recovery systems in this regard,” he said, suggesting that the officials study national and international best practices.

AI tools

The Chief Minister directed the banks to strengthen monitoring of high-value transactions, particularly during weekends, and suggested taking up regulatory changes with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). “Use AI-based tools such as the RBI-developed ‘Mule Account Hunter AI’ to identify suspicious and fake bank accounts linked to cybercrime networks,” he said.

Expressing concern over the growing number of investment frauds and shell companies operating without proper Aadhaar authentication or KYC verification, the Chief Minister asked officials to conduct a detailed study into such activities. He instructed the Police Department, bankers, AP Technology Services (APTS) and the Finance Department to jointly formulate standard operating procedures (SOPs) for handling online financial fraud, while ensuring protection of account holders’ interests.

The Chief Minister also stressed the importance of continuous public awareness campaigns on cyber and online financial scams.

Money lost

During the review, Director General of Police Harish Kumar Gupta informed that victims from Andhra Pradesh had lodged 9.29 lakh complaints to the national cybercrime helpline ‘1930’. Cyber and financial fraud victims in the State had collectively lost around ₹652 crore so far, he said. However, the CID Cyber Crime wing, in coordination with the banks, managed to prevent more than ₹116 crore from reaching cybercriminals through timely intervention, the DGP added.

Officials informed that phishing, vishing, credit and debit card frauds, online loan scams and “digital arrest” frauds were among the major cybercrimes affecting citizens. They said the State-level CID Cyber Crime Investigation Unit was actively functioning and cyber police stations had been established in Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam and Tirupati.

IT Department Secretary Katamneni Bhaskar informed the Chief Minister that the Andhra Pradesh Cyber Security Operation Centre was providing protection to government data and websites against cyber threats.

Ministers Payyavula Keshav (Finance) and Vangalapudi Anitha (Home), senior police officials, CID Chief Ravi Shankar Ayyanar, banking representatives and officials from various departments attended.