Mumbai Police’s innovative cybercrime response system has successfully returned nearly ₹4 crore to over 6,000 victims in just two months, highlighting the importance of swift complaint action and advanced digital tools in combating online fraud.
Mumbai Police said their cybercrime response has helped return ₹3.97 crore to 6,096 victims over the past two months, underscoring how quickly funds can be recovered when complaints are filed during the first few minutes after a fraud. The force said the returns were made through the Cyber Crime Helpline 1930 and the Money Restoration Module, a system designed to speed up the release of frozen money back to victims once legal checks are complete.
The police said the module has become a crucial part of the city’s anti-fraud network because it allows banks, investigators and complainants to act in parallel rather than through slow court-linked procedures. In the same two-month period, officers said they blocked ₹18.27 crore in 24,860 cases, found ₹16.18 crore of that amount eligible for return and have already restored funds in 6,096 cases. A further payout process has been started for the remaining eligible money. In June, Mumbai cyber police also said they had returned ₹10.9 lakh to 85 victims in just four days using the same upgraded portals, according to The Times of India.
The wider crackdown has also targeted the machinery behind online fraud. NDTV reported that Mumbai Police recently exposed an interstate mule-account racket linked to more than ₹125 crore routed through a small cluster of bank accounts, with officers identifying 110 accounts tied to 38 complaints and seizing debit cards and passbooks. Over the past four years, the city’s cyber unit has said it has frozen or put under lien about 30,000 first-layer bank accounts and permanently deactivated more than 17,000 mobile numbers obtained with forged documents.
Police have urged victims to act immediately, especially during the “golden hour” after a fraud is detected, and to call 1930 at once. They have also told complainants to keep bank details, UTR numbers, screenshots, chat records and suspicious-call logs, which can help investigators trace the money. The force said its grievance redress portal has also eased pressure on genuine account holders caught up in investigations; of 2,337 complaints received in the past two months, 2,169 were resolved. Mid-Day reported in June that the police had also returned lost and stolen property worth ₹3.26 crore to 440 complainants, showing that the recovery drive now extends beyond cybercrime alone.
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