The Hon. Sunil Watagala, Attorney-at-Law - Deputy Minister of Public Security and Parliamentary Affairs
On behalf of the Minister of Public Security and Parliamentary Affairs, the Deputy Minister tabled a written answer providing complaint data on financial cybercrimes from 2023 to 2025. The data showed increases particularly in online banking fraud, phishing, investment scams, and other related offences, linked to wider use of social media, online payments, mobile banking, online businesses, and freelancing. The answer stated that no Northern Province-specific pattern had been identified, but islandwide methods include impersonation, social engineering, fake bank links, online marketplace fraud, romance scams, and use of third-party bank accounts. It also noted that there is no centralized mechanism to monitor and classify such crimes across districts or provinces, and that the data is not publicly accessible or shared with financial institutions.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 Hon. Speaker, on behalf of the Minister of Public Security and Parliamentary Affairs, I table the answer.
¶ 02 - Answer tabled:
¶ 03 (a) (i) Number of complaints by category:
¶ 04 Year | Credit card fraud | Online banking fraud | Phishing (fake emails/messages) | SIM swapping | Investment scams | Digital wallet fraud | Other related offenses 2023 | 2 | 101 | 15 | 1 | 27 | 24 | 161 2024 | 5 | 153 | 69 | 3 | 59 | 9 | 527 2025 | 3 | 199 | 95 | 3 | 161 | 22 | 806
¶ 05 (ii) Significant increases observed in: - Online banking fraud - Phishing - Investment scams - Other related offenses
¶ 06 (iii) Trends: With increased use of the internet and social media (WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, Telegram), and of mobile/internet banking, online payments, online businesses and freelancing, financial cyber fraud has risen, targeting persons engaged in those areas. No distinct patterns unique to the Northern Province have been identified; islandwide the following patterns are observed: - Impersonation using names/images/brand identities of popular/public figures, sending “urgent need” messages to solicit funds — often targeting professionals (teachers, beauticians, businesspersons). - Social engineering exploiting fear, sympathy, urgency. - Fake bank/payment communications (SMS/email/links) to harvest usernames/passwords, OTPs, and card data. - Online marketplace fraud via Facebook Marketplace, Instagram, Daraz: fake sales/purchases; goods not delivered after payment. - Romance/relationship scams initiated via WhatsApp/social media, often by persons posing as foreigners. - Use of other persons’ bank accounts to receive fraudulent funds, often exploiting financially vulnerable account-holders.
¶ 07 (iv) There is no centralized mechanism to monitor, track and classify financial cybercrimes across districts and provinces.
¶ 08 (v) The data is not publicly accessible and is not shared with financial institutions.
¶ 09 (b) Does not arise.
Provenance
- Source
- Hansard, Friday, 6 February 2026 ·No. 23270 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
- Page · column
- not yet extracted — page/column anchors are not in the current dataset; the source PDF is the citable location.
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Cite as: The Hon. Sunil Watagala, Attorney-at-Law - Deputy Minister of Public Security and Parliamentary Affairs. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 6 February 2026. No. 23270. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/4633