Mumbai Police Return ₹3.97 Crore to Over 6,000 Cyber Fraud Victims in Two Months

The Mumbai Police have facilitated the direct return of ₹3.97 crore to more than 6,000 cyber fraud victims across the city within the past two months, utilizing the national cybercrime helpline 1930 and the newly developed Money Restoration Module (MRM).

The automated MRM framework, developed by the Mumbai Police following directives from the Central Government, aims to bypass lengthy legal hurdles and repeated visits to banks and courts by streamlining real-time coordination between investigating officers and financial institutions.

According to police data, swift intervention in 24,860 cases over the two-month period led to ₹18.27 crore being blocked in bank accounts linked to fraudulent activity. Following financial and judicial scrutiny, ₹16.18 crore of the blocked funds was confirmed eligible for refund to genuine complainants. Of this, restoration has been completed in 6,096 cases with ₹3.97 crore transferred directly to victims' accounts, while transfers for the remaining eligible funds have been initiated.

Officials credited the recoveries to citizens reporting financial frauds during the "golden hour" immediately after an incident occurred. When a victim dials 1930, police coordinate with banks to freeze the funds in first-layer accounts before the money can be transferred deeper into cybercrime syndicates' networks.

Over the past four years, the Mumbai Police Cyber Cell has also targeted the technical infrastructure supporting financial fraud. Around 30,000 primary bank accounts used to route proceeds have been frozen or placed under lien, while more than 17,000 mobile numbers acquired with fake documents have been traced and permanently deactivated.

In addition, the police have deployed the Grievance Redressal Mechanism (GRM) portal to handle instances where genuine citizens have their accounts frozen due to technical links or suspicion during investigations. Over the past two months, the portal received 2,337 public grievances, of which 2,169 were resolved following verification, including checks conducted via video conferencing.

Mumbai Police have urged citizens to report fraudulent incidents immediately via the 1930 helpline and preserve critical evidence, including bank transaction details, UTR numbers, WhatsApp chats, screenshots, and call logs to assist investigators in tracing stolen funds.