There was no arrest, no case and no investigation. What happened to you is cheating by people pretending to be public servants, and every provision that matters treats you as the person wronged. The first twenty-four hours decide how much of the money comes back, so do the steps below in this order and do them today.
What do I do in the first hour?
Report before you gather anything. The reporting system is built to reach the receiving bank while the money is still in the first account.
- Call 1930. The Citizen Financial Cyber Fraud Reporting and Management System run by the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre connects the helpline to 85 banks and payment intermediaries, and the call generates a complaint number that follows your money through the chain of accounts.
- File the financial fraud complaint on cybercrime.gov.in with every UTR number, the beneficiary account or UPI handle, the amounts and the exact times. Save the acknowledgement number.
- Write to your bank the same hour, by email or through the in-app complaint, not only by phone. Ask it to block the channel used, register the dispute and send a hold request to the beneficiary bank. The date and time of that written notice is the single most important fact in the file.
- Do not call the number back, do not answer the next call, and do not pay any "release fee" or "verification deposit" to get the money back. That second call comes from the same gang.
Our guide on recovering money from online fraud sets out what happens inside the banking system once the 1930 ticket lands.
Which offences go into the FIR?
Take a written complaint to the police station the same day. In Bengaluru that is the CEN police station for your division, but under Section 173(1) of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 information about a cognizable offence can be given at any station irrespective of where the offence was committed, and it can be given by electronic communication if you sign it within three days. Name the provisions yourself. An FIR that cites the right sections is investigated as a serious offence, and Section 78 of the Information Technology Act, 2000 requires an officer not below the rank of Inspector to investigate an IT Act offence.
| Provision | What it covers | Maximum punishment |
|---|---|---|
| Section 318(4) BNS (old Section 420 IPC) | Cheating that dishonestly induces delivery of property, the transfer itself | Seven years and fine |
| Section 319(2) BNS (old Section 419 IPC) | Cheating by personation, real or imaginary officer | Five years, or fine, or both |
| Section 204 BNS (old Section 170 IPC) | Pretending to hold office as a public servant and acting under colour of that office | Six months to three years and fine |
| Section 205 BNS | Wearing the uniform or carrying the token of a class of public servants with fraudulent intent | Three months, or fine up to Rs 5,000, or both |
| Section 336(3) BNS | Forged electronic record used for cheating, the fake warrant, court order or RBI letter | Seven years and fine |
| Section 351(2), (3) and (4) BNS | Criminal intimidation, seven years where the threat is of death, grievous hurt or a seven-year offence, plus two years where the caller concealed identity | Up to seven years, plus two |
| Section 66D IT Act | Cheating by personation using a communication device or computer resource | Three years and fine up to Rs 1 lakh |
If the station says the offence happened elsewhere, ask for the information to be recorded under Section 173(1) and transferred. If it refuses outright, the escalation is the Deputy Commissioner and then an application to the Magistrate under Section 175(3) BNSS, which we cover in what to do when the police refuse to register an FIR.
What evidence should I keep?
- Screenshots or a screen recording of the video call, the caller's number, the app used and the display name, with the phone's clock visible
- Every "document" they sent: the arrest warrant, the court order, the identity card, the letterhead, saved as received
- The UTR numbers, beneficiary account numbers or UPI handles, amounts and times of each transfer
- Your bank statement for the period, downloaded from the app rather than photographed
- The SMS alerts from the bank and the exact time you first reported
- The phone itself, unwiped. Section 63 of the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023 requires a certificate for electronic evidence, and it is far easier to give while the device exists
What happens to the money after the freeze?
A freeze is a hold, not a refund. The beneficiary bank marks the credited amount so it cannot be withdrawn, and the money then sits until a court orders its release. Where the police have seized or frozen the account and it is not produced before a court, the application for release goes to the jurisdictional Magistrate under Section 503 BNSS, the successor to old Section 457 CrPC. Where the money has been produced before the court during the investigation or trial, Section 497 BNSS, old Section 451, governs interim custody. The sibling answer on what to do when the money has already moved on takes that process further.
Two developments shape what to expect. On 4 August 2026 the Supreme Court passed orders in its suo motu matter on victims of digital arrest built on forged documents which, as reported, direct the Reserve Bank to circulate within four weeks a standard operating procedure for temporary debit holds on accounts linked to mule activity and cyber-enabled fraud, and direct the States to run grievance redressal and money restoration modules under the Home Ministry's procedure. Separately, the Reserve Bank's amended directions of 24 June 2026 define a fraudulent electronic banking transaction to include one the customer approved under coercion or duress. Those directions apply to transactions on or after 1 January 2027, so they do not rewrite your case today, but they mark the direction the system is moving.
The 2017 RBI circular on customer liability protects you against unauthorised transactions. A transfer you keyed in yourself under threat is not unauthorised in that sense, so the refund track that works for a hacked account is weak here. Your money comes back through the freeze, the court release and the attachment of the fraudsters' assets, which is why speed on the police side matters more than the argument with your bank.
What I tell people who come in after a digital arrest
The shame is the scammer's instrument. Isolation kept you on the call, and the same embarrassment keeps people from reporting for two or three days, which is precisely when the account is emptied. Nobody at the station will think less of you. Retired officers, doctors and bankers fill these complaints. Report today, in writing, and let the paper do the arguing. Our post on digital arrest and online impersonation explains why no agency in India can arrest anyone over a video call, which is the sentence to hold onto if they call again.