How To Report Online Scams In India Using Cyber Crime Portal: Follow This Step-By-Step Guide

As online scams become more common, more people are losing their hard-earned money. But the worst part is that scammers—who hide behind fake virtual identities—get away with their crimes. The scams range from WhatsApp/Telegram job scams to the infamous fake army officer scam that we reported earlier this month. The problem is that most people who are scammed give up and do not report it to the authorities. This allows scammers to become more confident and continue to scam people.

Luckily, in India, there are several ways for citizens to report scams to the authorities. They can either go to their local police station and file a complaint there—or they can simply register a complaint on the Cyber Crime Reporting Portal. In this article, we will discuss how to register a complaint on the latter.

For the uninitiated, the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal is an initiative of the Government of India to allow victims of cyber frauds to come forward and report cyber crime complaints online. Users can visit the platform here. 

How to File a Complaint on the Cyber Crime Reporting Portal:

1. Open the Cyber Crime Reporting Portal and navigate to the homepage to find the ‘File a complaint’ section.
2. Click on the ‘File a complaint’ option and carefully read the agreement. Then, click on ‘I accept.’
3. The page will present two options: ‘Report Cyber Crime Related to Women/Child’ and ‘Report cyber crime.’ Choose the second option, which is ‘Report cyber crime.’
4. If you haven’t registered on the portal yet, click on ‘Click here for a new user’ and complete the registration process by providing your details.
5. Next, fill in your address details as required.
6. The portal will prompt you to select the nature of the cybercrime from the provided list.
7. Additionally, you need to specify where the crime occurred, such as on a website or online platform like Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, etc.
8. You must also provide a detailed description of the crime—limited to a maximum of 1500 words—including how it happened.
9. On the following page, provide the necessary details about the suspect.
10. After providing further information, review all the details you’ve submitted, and then click on ‘submit.’
11. Once submitted, you should receive confirmation from the portal via both your phone and email, along with the assigned complaint ID.