India saw the fastest growth in crypto-scam losses of any major market in 2025 — task scams and pig butchering exploded together. The reporting system works, but only if you use the federal portal and the 1930 helpline first, not your local thana. Here is the order.
Hour 1: stop and capture
Stop sending. Refuse the "TDS clearance", "RBI verification fee", "IT department release" — these are the second slaughter. Screenshot the chat, dashboard, wallets, names, and phone numbers *before* blocking the scammer.
Hour 1–24: the four actions
### 1. Call 1930 (National Cybercrime Helpline)
This is the single most important call in India. 1930 is the national cybercrime helpline operated by I4C (Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre) under the MHA. They have direct, real-time links to the Citizen Financial Cyber Fraud Reporting and Management System — they can request a freeze on the receiving bank account / UPI handle / wallet within minutes if you call inside the "golden hour" (the first 60 minutes after the transfer). Inside that window, recovery rates jump from <2% to >50%.
### 2. NCRP — cybercrime.gov.in
File the formal complaint at the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal. The 1930 call should already have created the case; the NCRP filing adds the documentary record. Get the Acknowledgment Number — every subsequent step requires it.
### 3. Your bank — formal email + branch visit
Email the bank's Nodal Officer (every Indian bank publishes one) with the NCRP acknowledgment number, requesting: - Freeze / mark on the beneficiary account - Chargeback / recall on the transaction - A written response under the RBI's Limited Liability Framework for Unauthorised Electronic Transactions circular (2017, updated 2022)
Visit the branch in person the next morning with the printed NCRP acknowledgment. In-person follow-up dramatically improves response speed in India.
### 4. The receiving exchange's compliance team
If the funds went to a crypto exchange, trace the wallet on a block explorer to identify the exchange. Email compliance@, legal@, or india-law-enforcement@ with your NCRP acknowledgment. Indian-regulated exchanges (CoinDCX, WazirX, ZebPay, Mudrex) move fastest because they're registered with FIU-IND under the PMLA.
Day 2–7: supporting filings
- SEBI SCORES portal — for any "investment advisor" or "fund" angle to the scam.
- RBI Sachet portal (sachet.rbi.org.in) — for unregulated entities accepting deposits.
- The platform where contact began — Telegram, WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, Tinder. All have India-localized fraud-reporting forms.
- The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of your state police, if the loss exceeds ₹10 lakh.
- GACS — gacs.app/report. Adds the platform, wallets, and phone numbers to the public blacklist serving Indian searches.
The tax claim
Indian victims of a fraudulent "investment" can in some cases claim the loss under §57 of the Income Tax Act as a deduction against income from other sources, where the loss arises from theft or embezzlement and is genuinely irrecoverable. ITAT case law (notably the *Ramaswamy Iyer* line of cases) supports the deduction with proper documentation: the NCRP acknowledgment, the FIR copy, and bank-statement evidence.
Treatment depends on whether the "investment" was in your name in a recognized capital asset (§45 capital loss path) or pure fraud (§57 deduction path). Talk to a CA familiar with crypto-fraud loss claims before filing your ITR.
What does *not* work
- "Recovery agents" contacting you on WhatsApp with fake CBI / RBI / Cyber Cell IDs. 100% are the second scam, often run by the same network. Real Indian law enforcement never demands fees from victims.
- Filing only an FIR at your local thana without the NCRP / 1930 step — the local station almost never has jurisdiction over inter-state cyber fraud and the case stalls.
- Posting the scammer's UPI handle or wallet address on Twitter — useful for awareness, not for freezing funds. The 1930 call is what freezes funds.
The golden hour
I4C's published data is unambiguous: recovery within the first hour vs the second hour drops by a factor of five. Within the first day vs the first week, by a factor of fifty. Call 1930 *before* finishing this paragraph if the loss happened today.