The Ministry of Home Affairs has set up a dedicated platform for reporting cyber-crimes from anywhere across the country. Though it caters to all types of cyber-crimes, it puts special emphasis on cyber-crimes against women and children. Once a complaint is filed on this portal, it is forward to the relevant law enforcement agency nearest to the complainant. Ministry of Home Affairs has also started a helpline at 1930 which functions from 09:00 AM to 06:00 PM.
(A) UTILISING NATIONAL CYBER CRIME PORTAL
If you are unable to reach 1930 (As it could be busy), you can complain on the portal https://www.cybercrime.gov.in/ or alternatively reach the nearest cyber-crime police station or reach any of your nearest local police station.
Just in case if the issue is with loss of money online, it is highly recommended that you reach 1930 with priority.
RAISING A COMPLAIN ON THE PORTAL
- (a) Register at https://www.cybercrime.gov.in/ (You will be required to use register via OTP from a valid Indian number)
- (b) Choose the Category and Sub-Category of Complaint
- (i) Report Crime related to Women or Children – (1) Child Pornography (2) Child Sexual Abuse Material (3) Sexually Explicit Content
- (ii) Report Other Cyber Crimes – (1) Mobile crimes (2) Social Media crimes (3) Online financial frauds (4) Cyber trafficking (5) Ransomware (6) Hacking
POSSIBLE CYBER CRIME SCENARIOS
- Online Defamation – Publishing defamatory statements against an individual/organisation.
- Cyberbullying – Is a form of bullying that takes places using electronic technology.
- Obscene – Taking obscene pictures and videos of any woman engaged in private activities with the use of mobile phone or camera.
- Cyber Stalking – Use of electronic means to stalk or harass an individual or a company
- Pornography Content – Showing obscene / explicit pictures and videos through digital and online platforms.
- Cyber Theft – Stealing, data, financial information’s of an individual or organisation.
- Sextortion – Employs non-physical forms of coercion to extort sexual favours from the victim by blackmailing etc.
- Cyber Fraud (Phishing) – Is a fraudulent attempt to obtain sensitive information or data and make loss of money or reputation.
- Hacking – Hacking is an process of exploitation of a computer system or a private network inside a computer.
- Cyber Terrorism – Unlawful attack against computer, network and obtain the information about sovereignty and integrity of the nation.
(B) Most IMPORTANT – LOST MONEY ONLINE – CALL 1930 – CFCFRMS
The Citizen Financial Cyber Fraud Reporting and Management System has been developed in-house by I4C to integrate Law Enforcement Agencies and Banks and Financial Intermediaries. It is currently being utilised along with 1930 operational in almost in every state and union territories of India.
The facility empowers both the banks and the police, by leveraging new-age technologies for sharing online fraud-related information and taking action in almost real-time. The loss of defrauded money in online cheating cases can be stopped by chasing the money trail and stopping its further flow before it is taken out of the digital ecosystem by the fraudster.
The facility empowers both the banks and the police, sharing online fraud-related information and taking action in almost real-time.
KEEP THE BELOW DOCUMENTS READY BEFORE CALLING 1930
- Mobile Number of the complainant
- Name of Bank/Waller/Merchant from which the amount has been debited.
- Account Number/Wallet ID/Merchant ID/ UPI ID from which the amount has been debited.
- Bank Statement from which the amount has been debited.
- Transaction ID
- Transaction Date
- Debit Card / Credit Card Number in case of fraud made by using credentials of Debit / Credit Card
- Screen Shot of the Transaction
- Screen Shot of the Culprit SMS/WhatsApp Messages
STEP BY STEP PROCESS @ CFCFRMS
- Victims can call on Helpline no. 1930, which is manned and operated by the respective State Police officers.
- The Cyber Police notes down the fraud transaction details (Account Number, Wallet, UPI, Transaction ID, Date, Debit/Credit Card Numbers Etc) and other basic personal information of the caller and submits a Ticket on the portal
- The Ticket gets escalated to the concerned Banks, Wallets, Merchants, and so on, depending on whether they are the victim’s bank or the bank/wallet in which the defrauded money has gone.
- An SMS is also sent to the victim with an acknowledgment number of the complaint with directions to submit complete details of the fraud on the portal within 24 hours, using the acknowledgment number.
- In pursuance of the online complaint lodged in the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal (NCRP), the money of Victims of Cyber Crime of Telangana State will be been frozen in the account of accused, through the mechanism in force from the NCRP portal.
- The Investigation Officer, shall seek information regarding the bank account statement, status of account (Freeze/Lien/Debit Freeze/Active) of the accused by sending notice to the concerned banks. The concerned Bank Manager, shall duly issue a Certificate mentioning all the details concerning the fraud transactions accordingly.
- After collecting the information of the accused as mentioned above, the victim is called personally and after collecting the necessary documents (Identify Card / Copy of Bank Passbook in which fraud transaction is found), then victim shall file an application before the concerned Court.
- Then opinion from the concerned police station shall be sought on the application submitted by the applicant to the Honourable Court. The concerned police station shall submit the opinion to the concerned court and also the copy of communication received from the bank in which it is proved that account is frozen and put on hold. Thereafter, all the documents relating to the aforementioned communication and the opinion of the Investigation Officer shall be submitted to the concerned Court.
- In the next stage, the concerned Court shall issue the order regarding refund of amount frozen through the complaint registered on the Citizen Financial Cyber Frauds Reporting and Management System (CFCFRMS) Portal.
- As per the conditions mentioned in the Court Order, Investigation Officer shall take a bond from the applicant (victim) for surety for complying the conditions required to be followed by the applicant.
- Investigation Officer shall send a covering/forwarding letter to the concerned bank, to implement the Court Order.
- As per the discretion of the Court, such number of Lok Adalat hearings regarding release of money from the suspect accounts back into the victims account may be facilitated, if required in virtual mode also.
SPECIAL NOTE – FOR MONEY ON HOLD
- All money that is on hold at the fraudster (1st Layer only) shall be refunded to the victim after the due diligence by police authorities.
- For the money that is on hold at the (2nd, 3rd Layers and so on). Police authorities will communicate with all of them and do the due diligence and if they see no-merit in their discussions, Police authorities will initiate a refund and the victim may get a refund and this may not be possible in all cases.
FOR VICTIMS FROM TELANGANA – VICTIMS CAN GET MONEY BACK IN THE BELOW TWO CASES
- FIR registered, amount is put on hold and accused not traceable.
- FIR not registered, amount is put on hold and amount lost is 25000 or less.
(C) ONE NATION ONE OMBUDSMAN SCHEME
One Nation One Ombudsman Scheme is a scheme that allows to raise complaint (a) for unauthorised transactions or (b) failure in execution of transactions or (c) service related complaints.
It is important to note that you should reach Ombudsman only after (a) FIR is filed (b) Contacted Relevant Bank and Grievance is submitted and they neither have acknowledged nor resolved your issue.
Complaints can be raised on issues related to (a) Banking (b) NBFC, and (c) Digital Transactions.
(a) Raise the complaint on the respective Banker / Service Provided
(b) Call Toll Free Number 14448 (Office Working Hours Only)
(c) Long to the portal https://cms.rbi.org.in and raise complaint
(d) Alternatively you can also email your complaint to CRPC@rbi.org.in (Bank Statement – Transaction Screen Shots / UPI App – Transaction Screen Shots / Phone Numbers Both Sent and Received)
See the Below Videos , Before Filing the Complaint
(a) How to File a Complaint. (b) How to Track Your Complaint. (c) How to File an Appeal.
(D) UPI DISPUTE REDRESSAL MECHANISM
Every end-user customer can raise a complaint with respect to a UPI transaction, on the PSP App (Payment Service Providers ) / TPAP App (Third Party Application Providers ).
The NPCI Portal for Raising Complaint- https://www.npci.org.in/what-we-do/upi/dispute-redressal-mechanism
Requests can be raised for the following reasons only (a) Amount Debited but not credited to beneficiary (b) Transaction failed but amount debited (c) Incorrectly transferred to another account (c) Transaction time out but amount debited in account (d) Fraudulent Transaction (e) Transaction pending (f) Transaction not permitted (g) Transaction Declined (h) Threshold Exceeded.
– Anil Rachamalla
