Financial fraud: How to report and register a complaint if you’ve been scammed

fraud

People nowadays want convenience and what’s better than making online payments to a friend, online website, or e-commerce platform, and even to a scammer – sometimes? Jokes apart, convenience is just one aspect, but it has also brought security implications to the table which has resulted in the increased numbers of financial fraud, banking scams, credit card frauds and more.

To make it easier for users to report such incidents, the government of India has a national cyber crime reporting portal. This portal allows users to report cybercrime, including financial fraud, register a complaint and follow up with it too.

If you’ve become a victim or someone else you know has been duped by scammers, here’s how you can register a complaint online.

A PC or phone with internet connection

Some proof of financial fraud

Working phone number with SMS service to receive OTP

Identity proof (soft copy)

Incident date and time along with 200 words explaining the incident

Voter ID

Driving License

Passport

PAN card

Aadhaar card

Make sure the file format is .jpeg, .jpg, .png and the file size is less than 5MB.

To file a financial fraud complaint, you will be required to upload a soft copy of a couple of information. Also, the upload size can’t exceed 10MB.

Name of the Bank/ Wallet/Merchant

12-digit Transaction ID/UTR No.

Date of transaction

Fraud amount

Suspected website URLs/ Social Media handles (wherever applicable)

Suspect Details (if available)

Mobile No

Email id

Bank Account No

Address

Any other document through which the suspect can be identified.

Once you have all this information handy with you, you can proceed with the complaint registration process. Here are the steps you need to follow

Open https://cybercrime.gov.in/ on your phone or PC

Click on the “Register a Complaint” option at the top and choose “Financial Fraud”

On the next page, find the “Financial Fraud” tab and click on “Register a Complaint” button

Once again, click on “File a complaint” button on the next page and hit “I Accept button.

If you are new to the portal, then click on the “Click here for new users” option to create an account and enter the following details: State, Login ID of your choice, and phone number.

Then, click on “Get OTP” button and enter the OTP received

Fill in the CAPTCHA and click “Submit”

Login into the account using your phone number, Login ID and OTP

Then you will be asked to fill up the form. Enter key details in the form which has four sections -- Incident Details, Suspect Details, Complaint details.

Once done, hit Preview and Submit

That’s it! The complaint has been filed. You can also download the PDF of your complaint and keep it with you.

Keep the Acknowledgement number provided after submission is handy to track the status of the application in future.