Cyber frauds, cyber-crimes do not respect borders: PM

New Delhi, Oct 8: Asserting that technology achieves scale only when it gains trust, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said that cyber frauds and cyber-crimes do not respect borders and global framework is required to keep fraudsters at bay.
While addressing the India Mobile Congress 2026, PM Modi, called for a global framework to tackle cross-border cyber frauds and the growing threat of deepfakes.
PM Modi urged governments, technology companies, telecom operators and financial institutions to come together for a mechanism to prevent such frauds before they reach the people. “Technology achieves scale only when it gains trust. And you all know that cyber fraud and cyber crimes do not respect borders. They have already crossed boundaries,” he said.
He said India has gained considerable experience in tackling cyber frauds and is ready to share its learnings with the world.
Highlighting the cross-border nature of cyber crimes, he said a person sitting in one country, with the help of a fraudster in another country, can commit a crime in a third country.
PM Modi also flagged the growing challenge posed by deepfakes and said countries need to work together on a global framework to address such emerging threats.
“Therefore, it is necessary that we work on a global framework for this. Governments, technology companies, telecom operators, and financial institutions – all will need to connect with this framework. I urge the GSMA and telecom operators across the world: come, let us create a global mechanism that can stop such fraud before it reaches the people,” PM Modi said.
Industry body GSMA represents mobile network operators and companies across the global ecosystem.
PM Modi said strengthening the security framework around telecom and digital technologies was equally crucial for their rapid expansion, with phone and network security becoming priorities.
He said India has learnt a lot from its experiences in this direction, and is always ready to share its experiences with the world.
For an ordinary citizen, he said, trust means knowing who is calling, whether a message is genuine or fake, whether a payment is safe and whether personal data is secure.
Mobile phones had evolved beyond being a means of communication and had become an important tool for governance and delivery of public services, the PM noted, and emphasised the need to strengthen safeguards against cyber threats in a growing digital ecosystem.
PM Modi also highlighted India’s experience with digital governance and said Direct Benefit Transfer had enabled nearly Rs 50 lakh crore to be sent directly to beneficiaries’ mobile-linked bank accounts. He said nearly Rs 5 lakh crore had been saved from going into the “wrong hands”.
PM Modi asserted that he was determined to stop “wrong practices”.
“Now tell me, those whose ill-gotten income has stopped, will they love Modi? Did I do the right thing or not? Should it be done or not? Should all these wrong practices be stopped or not? No matter how much they shout or scream, I am determined to get it done,” he vowed.
He observed that had the old system prevailed, Rs 5 lakh crore of the government would have gone into leakages, filling the pockets of such people.
“Modi has stopped this,” he said adding that the money is now reaching rightful beneficiaries and being used for the right causes.
The prime Minister also said that India had moved from being a consumer to a creator in the telecom sector and was advancing towards designing products and owning technology and intellectual property in the country.
He said the India Mobile Congress had an important role to play in shaping the roadmap for the next decade of the mobile market, not just in India but globally. (KNO)