Rajasthan High Court Calls For Nationwide Public Awareness Campaign Against Digital Scams, Flags Misuse Of Social Media Data

While expressing pain over the rise in digital scams costing people their hard-earned money, Rajasthan High Court said that it is right time to launch a public campaign through print, electronic, social media, television and radio, to reach the general public and create awareness about remaining careful while doing any online transactions.

The bench of Justice Anoop Kumar Dhand further took note of data being sold by some of the social media companies which gets misused, and said that strict action must be taken against all the delinquents, including such companies.

The Court was hearing bail applications of two individuals against whom multiple cyber complaints were lodged, and a huge sum of money, running into crores, was transacted across different bank accounts of these individuals.

It was the case of the applicants that the kingpin of the syndicate was the main accused, while they were innocent whose bank accounts were misused. It was further submitted that there were no criminal antecedents against any of the applicants.

After hearing the contentions, the Court took into account the gravity of the allegations, involvement of huge amount, and the organized manner in which the offence appeared to be executed that involved a wider conspiracy to scam people off their hard-earned money, and rejected the bail applications.

In this background, the Court highlighted the noticeable rise in the cyber crimes and frauds globally, of which digital scams were stated to be the most insidious forms of cyber crimes.

The Court held that even though banks had implemented advances measures to secure their digital services, increasing sophistication of these cyber attacks made it more difficult to detect when such frauds were occurring.

“Digital scams pose a significant threat to our interconnected world, hence, there is a necessity for a multi-faceted approach to combat them effectively. Different countries have adopted legislation, public awareness campaigns, technological innovations and collaborative initiatives to mitigate the risk associated with these scams…Ultimately, empowering individuals with the knowledge and tools to resist such scams will be of paramount importance in this fight.”

The Court held that considering the dangerous situations, more steps were required to be taken by all the stakeholders.

While taking note of data being sold by some of the social media companies which in turn gets misused by the cyber attackers, the Court held that a strong mechanism had to be developed to save innocent persons, and strict action had to be taken against such companies.

It was held that it was right time to launch a campaign to create awareness amongst people to remain careful before doing any online transactions. Further, the process of registering cyber fraud complaints shall not be complicate so that the complaint could be lodged immediately.

The Court further observed that in case a report was made regarding unauthorized transaction in an account, the banks had to ensure that no further unauthorized transactions took place in the account.

Accordingly, the bail applications were disposed of with directions for the order copy to be sent to Ministry and Department of Finance; Ministry of Home Affairs; Director General of Police; RBI, for making necessary compliance and taking suitable measures.

Title: Vivek Yadav v State of Rajasthan & Anr.

Citation: 2026 LiveLaw (Raj) 43

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