Cyber Fraud: Reporting In The Golder Hour Is Proving To Be Inadequete
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By Our Editorial Team
First publised on 2026-11-13 05:26:26
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The India Commentary view
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The Mumbai Crime Branch deserves credit for the Goa raid. Twelve men are in custody. About Rs 100 crore has been frozen. Investigators have traced more than 150 mule accounts. This is solid police work.
But the case also exposes the limits of the current model. Police say the accused were trained for nearly fifteen days to move funds through bank accounts within minutes. They allegedly worked for Rs 35,000 a month plus a 3 per cent commission, under a handler in Dubai. Of a suspected Rs 500 crore laundered over six months, roughly a fifth has been frozen. That is the arithmetic of a defence that reacts after the money has moved.
The golden hour advice remains correct. Victims should call 1930 immediately. But it cannot be the system's main safeguard. A victim's reaction time will never match a trained crew with hundreds of accounts at its disposal. The fault line lies earlier. Police allege that mule accounts were opened on fake documents and that SIM cards were obtained alongside them. If forged papers can open accounts that handle crores, the first failure is at the bank counter, not at the victim's phone.
The remedy is plain. Banks must monitor new accounts for rapid in-and-out flows and hold suspicious transfers. Regulators must fix accountability where accounts are repeatedly linked to fraud complaints. Freeze powers must be faster, with a quick review route for innocent account holders.
Citizens have been told to hurry. It is time the institutions holding the accounts were told the same.
