To provide a safe and secure digital payments ecosystem, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has launched National Cyber Crime Helpline Number 155260 and a reporting platform for victims of cyber fraud cases. The National helpline will be manned by respective state police and aided by the Citizen Financial Cyber Frauds Reporting and Management System, a centralized integrated system for police, banks, e-wallets, and other stakeholders.
Detailing the way the system will work, the MHA statement said, “The Police operator notes down the fraud transaction details and basic personal information of the caller and submits them in the form of a ticket on the Citizen Financial Cyber Frauds Reporting and Management System. A ticket gets escalated to the concerned banks, wallets, merchants, and so on, depending on whether they are the victim’s bank or the bank/wallet in which the defrauded money has gone. The concerned bank, which can now see the ticket on its dashboard on the Reporting Portal, checks the details in its internal systems.”
“If the defrauded money is still available, the bank puts it on hold, ie, the fraudster cannot withdraw the money. If the defrauded money has moved out to another bank, the ticket gets escalated to the next bank to which the money has moved out. This process is repeated until the money is saved from reaching into the hands of the fraudsters,” it added.
The Ministry of Home Affairs further informed that an SMS will also be sent to the victim with an acknowledgment number of the complaint with direction to submit complete details of the fraud on the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal within 24 hours, using the acknowledgment number.
National Cyber Crime Helpline Number:
The National Cyber Crime Helpline Number 155260 and its reporting platform have been made operational by the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) under the Ministry of Home Affairs, with active support and cooperation from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), all major banks, Payment Banks, wallets and online merchants. The Citizen Financial Cyber Fraud Reporting and Management System has been developed in-house by I4C to integrate Law Enforcement Agencies and Banks and Financial Intermediaries.