Lost Money to an Online Trading or Investment Scam in India? What to Do

Short answer: call the national cyber-crime helpline 1930 and file a complaint at cybercrime.gov.in the moment you realise the money is gone, then tell your bank in writing. Those free, government-run routes are the only ones built to stop the money while it is still sitting in the receiving account. Nobody who contacts you offering to “recover” the funds for a fee is part of that system, and an unsolicited recovery offer after a scam should be treated as a second scam.

General consumer information, not legal advice. Rules and figures below were checked against the cited official sources on 12 October 2026. Whether money can actually be recovered depends on how fast it moved and where it went.

What the official system does, and what it does not promise

The Ministry of Home Affairs describes the “Citizen Financial Cyber Fraud Reporting and Management System” (CFCFRMS), run by the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), as launched in 2021 “for immediate reporting of financial frauds and to stop siphoning off funds by the fraudsters”, with 1930 as the toll-free number for help in lodging a complaint (Lok Sabha Unstarred Question 274, 21 July 2026). A government backgrounder of October 2025 puts the helpline’s role more precisely: “facilitating prompt reporting and, where possible, freezing of fraudulent transactions”. The words “where possible” matter. A freeze only works on money that has not yet been withdrawn or moved on.

The same parliamentary reply says that through 30 June 2026 more than ₹11,158 crore had been “saved” across more than 32.80 lakh complaints. “Saved” is the Government’s word, and it is not the same as “refunded to every complainant”. Two further points from that reply are worth knowing:

• The portal does not itself register an FIR. It says incidents reported on the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal, “their conversion into FIRs and subsequent action”, are handled by the State or UT law-enforcement agencies concerned.
• There is now a restoration route. A Money Restoration Module and a Grievance Redressal Module (for complaints about account freezes and lien marking) were made functional from April 2026, under a standard operating procedure that covers bank coordination, removal of lien markings and “restoration of defrauded funds to rightful claimants”.

The first hours, in order

1. Call 1930. Have ready the transaction reference or UTR number, the date and time, the amount, and the receiving account number or UPI ID. Note the complaint acknowledgement you are given.
2. File at cybercrime.gov.in under financial fraud, with the same details and screenshots. Do both the call and the portal complaint; they feed the same system.
3. Tell your bank or payment app in writing, quoting the transaction details and the acknowledgement number, and ask it to record the transaction as fraudulent and to coordinate with the receiving bank. Block any card or UPI handle that was involved. See the bank complaint and RBI Ombudsman guide for what to do if the bank does not respond.
4. Stop paying. A platform that asks for a “tax”, “security deposit” or “release fee” before you can withdraw is asking you to send good money after bad. Do not pay it, however convincing the dashboard looks.
5. Preserve everything before it disappears: chats, the app or website address, payment receipts, the profiles or numbers that contacted you. The guides on preserving evidence before an app deletes it and what a WhatsApp chat proves explain how.
6. Go to the local police for an FIR if the loss is large or your bank or insurer asks for one. The portal complaint and an FIR are not alternatives to each other.

Which route fits which situation

SEBI’s complaint system, SCORES, is real and free to use, but it covers a narrower set of cases than most victims expect. The deciding question is whether the platform or person is registered with SEBI. The figures below are from SEBI’s own SCORES 2.0 FAQ.

SEBI’s SCORES helpline is 1800 266 7575 or 1800 22 7575, available in eight languages from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on days that are not declared holidays. To find out whether a broker or adviser is registered before you file, see how to check if a stock broker or advisor is SEBI-registered.

Why “fund recovery” offers are a second scam

Once you have reported a loss, messages tend to follow: a lawyer, a “cyber-cell officer”, a “recovery department” or a service that says it can trace and return your money after you pay a processing fee, a tax, or a deposit. Treat every one of these as hostile, for three reasons.

• The official process has no place for them. The Government’s own description of its system names banks, I4C and State and UT police. It does not provide for a private agent who intervenes for a fee.
• They know you are a victim. The offer reaches you because you told someone you lost money, or because your details were on a list of people who did.
• It asks for money before anything happens. The same trick that took your first payment is being repeated: pay a little more to unlock the larger sum.

This is our advice, not an official finding. The test is simple and does not depend on the details of any one approach: a genuine route never needs you to send money to an individual, share an OTP or install remote-access software.

The law, briefly

Deliberately deceiving someone into handing over money is cheating. Section 318 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 defines it, and sub-section (4), which covers dishonestly inducing delivery of property, carries imprisonment of up to seven years and a fine. Pretending to be someone else to do it is cheating by personation under section 319. Section 66D of the Information Technology Act, 2000 separately punishes cheating by personation using a communication device or computer resource, with up to three years’ imprisonment and a fine of up to one lakh rupees. Which sections police apply is their call once an FIR is registered.

Related reading: online shopping scam: the first 24 hours, is a crypto exchange legal in India, fake job and task scams and the complaint directory.

More in this series on scams and recovery: fake customer care number scams.

Frequently asked questions

Can I get my money back after an investment or trading scam?

Sometimes, but nothing is guaranteed. Recovery is most realistic when you report within hours and the receiving account can still be frozen. The Government says more than ₹11,158 crore had been “saved” through the 1930 system up to 30 June 2026, and that a Money Restoration Module for returning defrauded money to victims has been functional since April 2026. “Saved” does not mean every complainant was repaid.

What number do I call to report an online trading or investment fraud?

Call 1930, the toll-free national cyber-crime helpline, and file the same complaint at cybercrime.gov.in. Then notify your bank in writing. Do all three as early as you can.

Is a complaint on cybercrime.gov.in the same as an FIR?

No. According to the Ministry of Home Affairs, converting a portal complaint into an FIR and the action that follows are handled by the State or UT law-enforcement agencies. For a large loss, or if your bank asks for it, also approach the local police or a cyber-crime police station for an FIR.

Can I complain to SEBI about an unregistered trading platform?

Not through SCORES. SEBI’s FAQ for the system excludes “complaints about any unregistered/un-regulated activity”. SCORES is for complaints against listed companies, SEBI-registered intermediaries and market infrastructure institutions. For an unregistered operator, report to 1930 and cybercrime.gov.in, and you can pass information on suspected violations to SEBI’s market-intelligence portal.

Someone has offered to recover my lost money for a fee. Is that genuine?

Assume not. The official reporting and restoration process described by the Government involves banks, I4C and the police, not a paid intermediary, and an unsolicited recovery offer after a scam is a common follow-on fraud. Never pay a fee, share an OTP or allow remote access to your phone or computer for a “recovery”.

Will my bank refund me if I sent the money myself?

Probably not automatically. The RBI’s limited-liability framework of 6 July 2017 deals with unauthorised electronic transactions, and a transfer you made yourself to a scammer is generally not one. The RBI has since notified amended directions on 24 June 2026, due to take effect on 1 January 2027, that follow a draft proposing wider coverage and compensation for small-value frauds; the existing framework applies until then. Report to the bank at once regardless, and see the UPI refund guide for the timelines.