Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan was trolled on social media for giving voice in the caller tune to spread awareness about cyber crimes, but he has done this work without any fee only in public interest.
The Union Home Ministry gave this information in response to the Right to Information (RTI) application filed by the correspondent of “PTI-Bhasha”.
In response to the same application, the Department of Telecommunications said that on December 18, 2024, it had directed the telecom service providers to run awareness caller tune related to cyber crimes. According to the department, this tune has been discontinued from June 25, 2025.
According to a media report, the department had instructed service providers to play this tune eight to 10 times a day.
The caller tune contained a recorded message in Bachchan’s voice, in which he appealed to people to beware of cyber fraudsters and to be “two steps ahead” of them.
The recorded message in his voice said, “Do you know that every day more than six thousand people are losing crores of rupees at the hands of cyber criminals, see, some are in a hurry to double the money, while others immediately pick up the video calls coming from unknown numbers and there are many who even get scared of the video calls of fake police, CBI or judge. If you want to avoid the tricks of cyber criminals, then you will have to stay two steps ahead of them.
The seriousness of cyber crime in the country can be gauged from the information given by the Union Home Ministry in the Lok Sabha on July 22. The government had reported that people suffered a loss of more than Rs 22,845.73 crore due to cyber criminals in the year 2024, which is an increase of about 206 percent compared to the previous year.
Minister of State for Home Bundi Sanjay Kumar said in a written reply to a question in the House that according to the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (NCRP) and Citizen Financial Cyber Fraud Reporting and Management System (CFCFRMS) run by the ministry, the total amount of loss caused to citizens due to cyber fraud across the country in 2024 was Rs 22,845.73 crore as against Rs 7,465.18 crore in the previous year.
