KATHMANDU, AUGUST 14
Nepal Police registered 20,526 cybercrime-related complaints in fiscal year 2082/83 (mid-July 2025 to mid-July 2026), while only 161 cases were filed and 155 people arrested during the same period, according to the Central Police Newsroom.
The figure marks an increase from the previous two fiscal years; 18,926 complaints were registered in FY 2081/82 and 19,730 in FY 2080/81.
Among the complaints registered, misuse of Facebook and Messenger accounted for the largest share at 7,123, followed by TikTok at 6,776, WhatsApp at 3,105, Telegram at 1,031 and Instagram at 628. Email-related complaints numbered 114, alongside smaller numbers involving Viber (21), Imo (38), YouTube (64), WeChat (14), Twitter (11) and Google (11). Complaints linked to eSewa, Khalti, bank accounts and SMS totalled 744, while institution-related complaints numbered 846.
Cyber Bureau spokesperson, Police Senior Superintendent Dilip Kumar Giri, said misuse of social media has grown alongside its use. He said complaint patterns over the past two fiscal years show a rise in scams involving fraudsters posing as bank or wallet company representatives to access victims' accounts, as well as fraud through fake gift, lottery and parcel offers, romance scams, false promises of foreign employment, fake online job offers circulated via Telegram, WhatsApp and Instagram, and fraud disguised as online shopping.
Police said the changing nature of technology misuse has made criminal investigation increasingly challenging. The Cyber Bureau was established by a Government of Nepal decision on June 8, 2018, to prevent and investigate technology-related crime. Police said the bureau has since been strengthened with additional technological capacity, alongside programmes to build police personnel's cyber-crime and security expertise and to raise public awareness of cyber security.
Those involved in cybercrime are prosecuted under the Electronic Transactions Act, 2063 BS.