Research & sources
The detailed work behind the plain-language guides: how we gather information, what we have published, and which public sources we rely on.
- Entries published
- —
- Typical loss per case
- —
- Content last reviewed
- 01 Aug 2026
How we research
Every entry passes through the same four steps before it is published, so you can see where the information comes from and judge it for yourself.
Collect from public sources
Advisories from RBI and NPCI, CERT-In notes, cyber-cell press briefings and reported complaint patterns.
Group into patterns
Similar cases are grouped by how the scam actually works — spoofed QR, collect-request abuse, KYC phishing, remote access.
Check the numbers
Loss ranges and frequency are compared across sources; anything we cannot corroborate is left out or clearly marked as indicative.
Rewrite in plain language
Each pattern is rewritten as how-it-works, an example, warning signs and safety steps a non-technical reader can act on.
Research library
Briefs, case studies and field notes from the ongoing research, newest first. Each entry lists its publication date and links to the original source where one exists.
No entries published yet in this category.
Short video explainers
One-minute explainers on new payment scams, reconstructed from public advisories for awareness.
No video explainers are published yet.
Sources & references
We only use publicly available material. Where a figure cannot be traced to a public source, it is either left out or clearly marked as indicative rather than measured.
- US Federal Trade Commission — consumer alerts and fraud data
- FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) — annual fraud reports
- Europol — payment fraud and cybercrime threat assessments
- UK Action Fraud & Take Five — national fraud awareness
- Reserve Bank of India — customer awareness booklets ('BE(A)WARE')
- NPCI — UPI safety advisories and product circulars
- National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal, India (MHA)
- CERT-In — public advisories on phishing and mobile malware
- ACCC Scamwatch (Australia) — scam statistics and alerts
- Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre — fraud typologies
Limitations we want to be honest about
- Reported fraud is only a fraction of actual fraud, so frequencies are indicative, not exact.
- Loss figures come from public advisories and reported ranges, not from any bank's internal data.
- Scam scripts change quickly; treat older entries as historical patterns rather than current alerts.
- This is an independent academic awareness project, not affiliated with RBI, NPCI or any provider.