Scam Help (CSR) by Apex Influenceapexinfluence.in
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Scam Help / First hour (India)

I got scammed online in India. What do I do in the first hour?

Still on the call or chat? Hang up or stop replying now. Do not send any more money, OTPs or codes. Anyone who demands money or codes to keep you out of trouble should be treated as a scammer.

This page is for India. If you lost money to an online scam in the last few hours, do these things in this order. Speed matters.

Call 1930 (national helpline) Report online at cybercrime.gov.in

Source: the home page of the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal, Ministry of Home Affairs, shows "To report online financial fraud call 1930" and cybercrime.gov.in. Checked 3 October 2026.

What to do in the first hour

  1. Stop paying. Do not send more money, even if you are told it will fix things or release your money.
  2. Call your bank or card company now. Use the phone number printed on your card or inside the bank's own app, not a number from the caller or a message. Tell them it is fraud and ask them to block the card, account or UPI.
  3. Call 1930 or report at cybercrime.gov.in. Give the time, amount, the account or UPI ID you paid, and how the scammer contacted you.
  4. Keep evidence. Do not delete chats, call logs, SMS or payment screenshots. Write down phone numbers, UPI IDs, links and names used.
  5. Change passwords and sign out other devices for any account the scammer may have seen. If you installed an app on their request, uninstall it.

If someone offers to get your money back for a fee

We cannot recover money, and we do not charge anyone. A person who contacts you offering to get lost money back, especially for an advance fee, is a common second step in scams. Report that person too.

Report the scammer's details

The same national portal has a "Report Suspect" option for website links, WhatsApp numbers, Telegram handles, phone numbers, email IDs, SMS headers and social media links. It also lets anyone search whether a number, email, account or link is already linked to cyber criminals.

Source: cybercrime.gov.in home page notice on the Suspect Repository and Report Suspect facilities. Checked 3 October 2026.

Report a suspect on the portal
Watch out for fake officials. The portal itself carries an alert that fake emails are being sent in the name of officials of the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre, the Intelligence Bureau and Delhi Police, and that those claims are fake.
Source: cybercrime.gov.in, "Important Alert". Checked 3 October 2026.
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