Trading app scam complaint: step by step process and documents

By Advocate Panchanand Shaw, Bar Council of West Bengal · Published 1 Nov 2026 · Court process

A trading app scam complaint works best when it is filed within hours, while the money is still sitting in the beneficiary accounts and can be frozen. The victim who telephones 1930 first and writes to the bank second gives the authorities a trail they can act on the same day. The victim who argues with the app's support desk for a fortnight loses the only window in which funds are typically recoverable. The offence is cheating under Section 318(4) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, with cheating by personation using a computer resource under Section 66D of the Information Technology Act, 2000.

What follows is the practical sequence, with the authority to contact and the document to carry at each step, so that a first-time complainant knows exactly what to do and in what order.

What the complaint must establish

A complaint about a trading app has to establish four things, and each maps to a provision. First, that a false promise of profit was made, which is the essence of cheating under Section 318 of the BNS, and in particular Section 318(4) where property was dishonestly induced to be delivered. Second, that a person personated a broker or platform using a computer resource, which is Section 66D of the Information Technology Act, 2000. Third, that documents or identity were misused, which brings in Section 66C for identity theft and Section 336 of the BNS if false documents were created. Fourth, that money was entrusted and misused, which is Section 316 of the BNS.

The procedure is governed by the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023. The first information is recorded under Section 173. If the police decline, the Magistrate can direct an investigation under Section 175(3). Evidence in electronic form is proved under Section 63 of the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023. Where a bank transfer was unauthorised, the Reserve Bank of India's 2017 circular on limiting customer liability in unauthorised electronic transactions determines the sharing of the loss.

How to file a trading app scam complaint, step by step

1. Secure the evidence before you do anything else. Do not uninstall the app. Photograph or screen-record the dashboard, the balance, the trade history, the withdrawal screen and any fee demand. Export the chat from the group and note the admin's number or handle.
2. Call 1930. Report the financial fraud with each amount, the date and time, the transaction reference numbers and the recipient account or UPI identifier. The desk can request a freeze on beneficiary accounts. Write down the acknowledgement number.
3. File on cybercrime.gov.in. Register and lodge a complaint under the financial fraud category, uploading the evidence and the transaction identifiers. Save the portal reference number.
4. Write to your bank and its nodal officer. Send a written complaint demanding the transaction logs and the beneficiary details, and asking the bank to treat the transfers as induced by fraud. Keep proof of dispatch and any acknowledgement, because the RBI circular operates on a written complaint to the bank and its nodal officer.
5. Lodge a written police complaint. Take a printed complaint to the cyber crime cell or the police station with jurisdiction, listing the facts, the sections and the annexed evidence. Ask for the receipt.
6. Get an FIR under Section 173 BNSS. If the information discloses a cognizable offence, the officer records it. Read it, and obtain a certified copy once registered.
7. If the police refuse, move the Magistrate under Section 175(3) BNSS. File an application setting out the complaint, the police refusal and a prayer for a direction to investigate, attaching the 1930 reference and the station-house acknowledgement.
8. Preserve and, where required, certify the electronic record. Retain the device and the app data, and ensure the certificate requirements under Section 63 BSA, 2023 are met for anything to be relied on in court.
9. Follow the freeze and pursue restitution. If an account is frozen, recovery runs through the investigation and the trial court under the BNSS disposal-of-property provisions, not through the bank alone.

Documents and evidence checklist

The timeline that matters

What decides whether the complaint succeeds

Specificity is the first factor. A complaint that names the app, the download link, the amounts and the beneficiary identifiers gives the officer a starting point; a complaint that says only that money was lost to a trading app does not. The second is the timing of the report, because the freeze is the mechanism that preserves money. The third is the nature of the recipient: a merchant or company account is more pursuable than an individual UPI handle attached to a mule. The fourth is the conduct of the complainant, since paying repeated "fees" after the withdrawal was blocked, or sharing credentials, will be weighed by the bank under the RBI circular and by the court.

It is worth stating plainly that proof of the offence is usually easier than recovery of the money. The false promise and the fake platform are provable from the evidence; whether the money can be reached depends on the accounts and the people behind them.

What happens after the complaint is registered

Once the information is recorded and an FIR is registered under Section 173 of the BNSS, the case passes to an investigating officer. The officer will typically seek the customer-identification and transaction records for the beneficiary accounts from the banks, examine the app and the download link, and record the statements of the complainant and any witnesses. Where funds are frozen, the officer reports the freeze to the court. Progress depends on how clearly the accounts and the amounts were identified in the complaint: vague complaints stall, specific ones move.

The victim's role during this period is to be reachable and to produce originals on demand. If the bank or the aggregator replies to your written request, forward the reply to the officer. If you receive another demand for a fee, report it as a fresh attempt rather than paying, both because paying enlarges the loss and because the new demand is itself evidence of the deception under Section 66D of the IT Act, 2000.

If you are named as part of the chain

Occasionally a person is wrongly implicated because money passed through an account in their name that they did not control, or because a stolen identity was used to open it. The remedy is to engage with the investigation rather than ignore it: produce the account-opening records, show that the account was not in your control, and where necessary seek relief from the court. Being named at the investigation stage is not the same as being guilty, but it does require a documented response, and a person in that position should not wait for the case to reach them.

Common mistakes

• Uninstalling the app before recording the evidence. The dashboard and the fee demand are the case.
• Filing only on the portal and believing a police case exists. The portal reference is not an FIR.
• Describing the loss as a market setback. That description removes the false promise on which the cheating charge depends.
• Sending the bank an oral complaint. The RBI circular responds to a written, acknowledged complaint to the bank and its nodal officer.
• Ignoring the Magistrate route. If the police will not register the FIR, Section 175(3) BNSS is the remedy, and it is lost by delay.

A complaint that is documented on the first day and pursued through each stage in order stands a far better chance than one assembled later from memory. The victim's own record, kept from the moment the loss is noticed, is often the difference between a case that freezes money and a case that ends in a letter of closure.

When to involve a lawyer

The victim can and should file the first report alone. A lawyer helps when the police refuse to register the offence and an application under Section 175(3) BNSS has to be drafted, when charges under Sections 66C and 66D of the IT Act have to be framed precisely, when frozen funds have to be pursued through the court, or when someone has been wrongly implicated in the chain. A cyber crime lawyer in West Bengal can prepare the complaint and follow it through the cyber cell and the courts, while a criminal defence brief is the correct step if you have been named as an accused rather than defrauded. The complaint comes first; the legal steps build on the record it creates.

Frequently asked questions

Information for general guidance only and not legal advice. Provisions cited follow the Information Technology Act 2000, the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023 and the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita 2023.

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