As online frauds started increasing, the Mumbai cyber cell launched a helpline number, 1930, on May 17 to assist the victims. In the past 45 days, police have registered 575 FIRs on complaints from both Maharashtra and Goa and retrieved Rs 11 lakh siphoned off by the scamsters. Nearly half the complaint cops have received are from Mumbai.

In Mumbai, the biggest cyber fraud at present is the one run by unauthorised providers of instant loans through mobile apps. These companies, through recovery agents, have extracted from their victims more than what they were owed, with blackmails, threats and by shaming them on social media platforms. Many victims, tired of constant harassment, took their own lives.