An app that showed you a growing balance and then vanished was never trading anything. Your money went to bank accounts, usually mule accounts, the moment you paid it in, and the dashboard was a picture. That reframing decides your options: this is cheating, the remedies are the ones for cheating, and the regulatory routes depend on one question, whether anyone behind the app was registered with SEBI. Start with the reporting, then answer that question.
Was it a regulated intermediary at all?
SEBI's complaint portal, SCORES, takes grievances against SEBI-regulated entities: listed companies, registered intermediaries and market infrastructure institutions. You must first complain to the entity, and the portal gives a two-level review within fifteen days of each reply. If the app carried the name of a real registered broker, complain on SCORES against that broker and write to the broker directly, because a genuine intermediary whose name is being cloned has every reason to help you and to report it to SEBI. If the app answered to nobody, SCORES has no entity to act against, and the complaint belongs with the police first. Check SEBI's published list of registered intermediaries before you decide, and keep a screenshot of the search.
Which laws let the State attach their assets?
Two, and they work together. The Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes Act, 2019 defines a deposit as money received "with a promise to return whether after a specified period or otherwise, either in cash or in kind or in the form of a specified service, with or without any benefit in the form of interest, bonus, profit or in any other form". A trading app that took your money on a promise of returns, and was not a scheme regulated by SEBI or the Reserve Bank, was running an unregulated deposit scheme, which Section 3 bans outright. Section 5 separately prohibits any false, deceptive or misleading statement made to induce a person to invest in such a scheme. Section 7 lets a Competent Authority of Secretary rank provisionally attach the deposits and the property acquired with them, and Section 8 constitutes Designated Courts presided over by a Sessions Judge. Section 21 punishes accepting deposits in breach of the ban with two to seven years, and three to ten years where the taker also fraudulently defaults, with a fine that can reach twice the amount collected.
The Karnataka Protection of Interest of Depositors in Financial Establishments Act, 2004 is the State's own machinery and is the one Bengaluru victims actually see used. Section 3 lets the Government, on a complaint from depositors, order the attachment of the establishment's money and property and, where that is insufficient, the personal assets of its promoters, directors and managers, by an order published in the gazette. Section 5 appoints a Competent Authority of Assistant Commissioner rank who must apply to the Special Court within thirty days for the attachment to be made absolute. Section 7 requires that authority to assess the deposit liabilities and invite claims, and a claim not sent within one month of the notice is not paid. Section 8 provides for payment to depositors under the Special Court's orders, and Section 9 punishes fraudulent default with up to six years and fine.
| Route | Who acts | What it gives you | Condition |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1930 and cybercrime.gov.in | I4C and the receiving banks | A hold on whatever is still in the first accounts | Speed, measured in hours |
| FIR, Section 318(4) BNS and Section 66D IT Act | Police, Inspector rank under Section 78 IT Act | Trace, freeze, arrests, and attachment under Section 107 BNSS | A written complaint naming the sections |
| SEBI SCORES | SEBI | Direction to a registered entity, review within fifteen days | Only against a SEBI-regulated entity |
| BUDS Act 2019 | Competent Authority, Designated Court | Provisional attachment, prosecution | Money taken with a promise of return |
| Karnataka PID Act 2004 | Government, Competent Authority, Special Court | Gazette attachment including promoters' personal assets, pro rata payment | Claim filed within one month of the notice |
What will the police and the Economic Offences Wing do?
Register the FIR under Section 318(4) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 for cheating that induced delivery of property, Section 319 where the app used a false identity or a cloned brand, Section 336(3) for the forged screenshots and the fake dashboard as false electronic records made for cheating, and Section 66D of the Information Technology Act, 2000. Where the operation was a network, Section 111 BNS treats cyber-crime and "mass-marketing fraud or running any scheme to defraud several persons" carried on by a syndicate as organised crime. Section 173(1) of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 lets you file at any station and electronically. A scheme with many victims and a large sum usually moves from the CEN station to the economic offences side of the State CID, and that is where the Section 107 BNSS attachment application is drafted. Court-ordered central investigations exist for the largest frauds, and our post on when a court orders a CBI investigation explains how rare they are.
What can I realistically expect?
A typical timeline. Day 0, the app stops opening and you call 1930. Day 1 to 3, the FIR is registered and the first accounts are frozen, usually holding a fraction of what went in because withdrawals began weeks earlier. Month 1 to 3, the police trace the second and third layers and the victims' group grows from twelve to four hundred. Month 3 to 9, the State moves for attachment under the Karnataka Act, the gazette notice appears, and the Competent Authority calls for claims with a one-month window. Year 1 onward, attached property is sold under the Special Court's orders and the proceeds are distributed pro rata. In a scheme where Rs 40 crore went in and Rs 6 crore of assets were attached, each depositor receives about fifteen paise in the rupee, years later. That is the honest shape of these cases.
- The app installer or link, screenshots of the dashboard, the promised returns and the withdrawal history
- Every payment reference, the UPI handles and account numbers you paid to, and your bank statement
- Exports of the Telegram or WhatsApp groups, with the admin numbers and the "profit" screenshots they posted
- The KYC documents you gave them, because those may now be used to open mule accounts in your name
- The names, numbers and cities of other victims, since a group complaint moves faster than twelve separate ones
What I tell people who lost money this way
The early withdrawals that worked were the inducement, not proof that the scheme was real, and under Section 5 of the 2019 Act they are evidence. The "recovery agent" who messages you a week later, or the "SEBI officer" who calls asking for a processing fee to release your funds, is the same gang on a second pass. No regulator, court or portal charges a fee to return your money. File everything yourself, keep the group of victims organised with one spokesperson, and chase the investigating officer in writing every three weeks. The answer on money that has already moved on covers the release of frozen funds, and our guide on recovering money from online fraud the full sequence.