Fraudsters have allegedly stolen about Rs 300 crore (roughly $35 million) from small Indian non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), and investigators suspect Chinese-linked hacking platforms and AI models played a role. Around 150 complaints and FIRs have been registered, with about 30 in Mumbai, more than 25 in Delhi and 15 to 16 in Chennai. Reports say the attacks intensified over the past one and a half months and also hit targets in Japan and South Korea.
Investigators point to the Chinese hacking platforms CyberStrike and ARTEX, and to Chinese open-source models including DeepSeek, Qwen, Kimi and GLM. The precise role of each tool has not been established. Reports differ on the timeframe: some cite two months, others 18 months. An official said attackers may spend 10 to 12 days studying an institution, examining its payment processes, uploaded ID documents and code for weaknesses.
The targets are NBFCs with turnover below Rs 1,000 crore, a group within the roughly 8,500 lenders registered with the Reserve Bank of India. Officials say smaller firms often lack knowledge of proper cybersecurity arrangements and how often to run security audits. Experts quoted note the methods are not technically advanced, but AI tools have made them far easier to use.