Money stolen online moves through three or four accounts within hours. What you do in the first sixty minutes decides whether any of it comes back.
Minutes 0–10 — freeze
Call 1930 (or report at cybercrime.gov.in) with the amount, the UTR / transaction ID, the receiving account or UPI ID and the time. Call the bank's official number and block the card / UPI / net banking used. Do not delete anything.
Minutes 10–30 — preserve
Screenshot the messages, the payment screens, the caller's number and any links. Note the exact timeline in the incident log. If a device is compromised (screen-share app, APK installed), switch off its data and keep it — do not factory-reset yet.
Minutes 30–60 — contain and tell
Change passwords for e-mail and banking from a clean device; check for call forwarding (dial *#21#) and cancel it (##21#); tell the people who could be targeted next (family, accounts staff, the vendor whose name was used).
The same day
Written complaint to the bank (use the dispute-letter generator) and the police (police-complaint generator); e-mail the cybercrime.gov.in acknowledgement number to yourself; inform your insurer.
Checklist
- ☐1930 called / portal report filed, acknowledgement noted
- ☐Bank called, instruments blocked
- ☐Evidence screenshots saved to two places
- ☐Incident log started
- ☐Passwords changed from a clean device
- ☐Call forwarding checked
- ☐Written complaints sent to bank and police
Where to report
- • 1930 — national cyber-crime helpline (money lost: call within the first hour)
- • cybercrime.gov.in — National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal
- • chakshu.sancharsaathi.gov.in — report fraud numbers and SMS
- • sachet.rbi.org.in — RBI complaints about unregistered lenders / deposit schemes