you’ve just been scammed. here’s exactly what to do, in order, for the next 24 hours

Save this before you need it. If you’re in it right now, start at step 1 and don’t read ahead.

First 10 minutes

**1.	Call 1930.** National Cyber Crime Helpline. This starts the process that can freeze the money downstream. Do it before anything else, even before your bank.  
**2.	Call your bank’s fraud number.** Say: “unauthorised transaction, please freeze my account and block my cards.” Note the reference number and the time.  
**3.	Do not** call any number the scammer gave you.

First hour

**4.**	File at **cybercrime.gov.in**, financial fraud category. Save the acknowledgement number. Every other agency will ask for it.  
**5.**	Change your net banking password and UPI PIN, from a different device if possible.  
**6.**	If you installed an APK or gave remote access via AnyDesk, TeamViewer or QuickSupport: airplane mode, then uninstall. Assume every OTP that reached that phone was read.

First 24 hours

**7.	Screenshot everything** before it vanishes. Chats, numbers, UPI IDs, transaction IDs, the app, the website. Deleted WhatsApp groups are gone forever.  
**8.**	Report the number or message at **sancharsaathi.gov.in** so the SIM gets flagged.  
**9.**	Written complaint to your bank branch. Get it stamped. Email is fine but keep a paper trail.  
**10.**	If UPI was involved, raise a dispute with the app as well as the bank.  
**11.**	Go to your local cyber crime cell with the acknowledgement number and printouts. If they push back, that acknowledgement number is what makes it hard to refuse you.

Next few days

**12.**	Check your credit report for loans opened in your name.  
**13.**	If an APK was installed, factory reset the phone.  
**14.**	Tell one person you trust. Not for the money. For you.

Then, the part that isn’t about money:

People will now approach you offering recovery. They’ll know details about your case, because victim lists get sold. Every one of them is a second scam. No genuine agency, lawyer or “ethical hacker” cold-calls victims. If money comes back, it comes back through the bank and the 1930 process, slowly, and nobody charges you upfront for it.

And this was not your fault. These are full-time professionals running scripts tested on thousands of people. Getting hit by one says nothing about your intelligence.