What should you do after you are scammed, defrauded, conned, tricked or cheated. ?

The Sinking feeling you experience cannot be explained by words, you may blame yourself, you may cry,  you may feel helpless, your trust is broken and its simply difficult for someone to let go, it takes a lot of time to heal. Nonetheless you should definite fallback on the legal mechanism in the country. The instruments of law enforcement are such which will surely ensure the guilty is punished for the act of cheating and fraud.

The intention of this blog is to educate you on the do’s and don’ts after being cheated, it can be a relationship or a business transaction or an internet scam, there are ways to handle them.

Let’s classify the ways to deal with in two parallel categories.

1. Emotional
2. Legal

How to deal EMOTIONALLY when you are a victim of a Scam, Fraud, Cheating ?

1. Don’t Feel Helpless and stop blaming yourself : The first suggestion I give to my clients is to stop blaming yourself, don’t allow you to be judged by someone who does not know the situation you have gone through.

Victim blaming its quite a natural and common phenomenon, when you discuss with your near ones too, they get into blame game. You need to be tough, many at times people take harsh steps of committing suicide when they get cheated in a relationship, or lose money or are conned in some way where their self-respect is lost.

2.  Give yourself time but stop living in the Past : Grief is a normal human response, its ok to feel sad, depressed and absolutely normal for you to go through the turmoil from days to weeks and sometimes even months depending on the loss you suffered.

Also know that the scammers who loot you are professionals and sometimes operate as a team, thinking too much about the past will impact your health. What’s happened may be bad, but see this as a learning lesson and move on, the future is in your hands and you alone can shape it.

3.  Talk to someone: Talk with your friends or someone you trust, find a counsellor who understands and empathizes with you, talk to a legal advisor and gather advice on how to tackle the issues legally. Talk to someone who can laugh with you and not laugh at you.

Sometimes just venting out helps you feel relaxed, many a client of mine spend time with me talking out their issues and challenges, they need a patient listener who can not only listen without judging but also guide them.

On the flip side not talking and keeping things to yourself may be fatal, I have seen people who don’t express and keep things to themselves no only suffer health challenges but also tend to develop suicidal tendencies, they also face a lot of relationship challenges.

How to deal LEGALLY when you are a victim of a Scam, Fraud, Cheating ?

Based on my experience and the cases that I have dealt with we can categorize Cheating broadly into two categories.

1. Personal : Matrimonial / Marriage related Frauds, Dating and Romance Scams, Adultery or Extra Marital Affairs, Identity Fraud, Blackmail using your Private Data or Nude Pictures.

2. Financial : Cheated by giving Money to some (either as loan or for some work or business), Real estate Frauds, Internet Scams, Lottery Scams, Employment Scams, Investment and Ponzi Schemes, Online Shopping Scams, Hacking, Credit Card and Banking Frauds, Freelance Assignments and Commission related Frauds, Medical Frauds, COVID related Frauds etc.…

Irrespective of the challenge you have faced and been cheated either in a personal relationship or in a business transaction there are ways to deal with it legally. Here are the steps you need to take.

1. Speak with your legal advisor and understand the legal complexities, discuss all the possible (If – Then – Else) scenarios and get all your answers, remember you are getting into Litigation and you need to know all possible things that will come your way and the also the approximate cost involved. Finally understand how a complaint should be drafted or should you directly file a suit.

2. Based on the advice from your lawyer, if you decide to go through police and file a complaint, under the guidance of your lawyer draft a strong complaint, ensure you have covered all the points in your complaint and not missed out anything. (Its obvious when you are under stress, there may be some information you may not remember, its ok if there is some info missing and can be later appended, but try as much as possible to remember the dates, names of the people, address, location, etc.… and be as detailed as possible in the complaint.)

3. Visit to the police station as per your jurisdiction by yourself or with your lawyer and file a complaint. Collect the NCR number and follow up to get the FIR done.

4.   Once the FIR is done an Investigation Officer will be assigned and will start investigating,

1. If the person against whom you have complained is caught, and you will be informed to visit the police station. If there is an opportunity to compromise and you too wish, the matter can be settled here, your lawyer will do the paperwork and along with the police get the matter resolved. But if you wish that the person should be punished, and the act committed has not only infringed your personal rights but also is a crime against the state the matters proceeds further.

1. If the person against whom you have complained is not caught after all possible efforts and the police too is unable to trace due to lack of identity or you have no whereabouts of the person to be traced, then the matter will be recorded and the person will be classified as ABSCONDING.

Note : As per Article-20(3) of Constitution of India “no person accused of an offence shall be compelled to be a witness against himself.” The accused must be presumed innocent until proved. Hence it is your duty to prove the offence which you have given in the written complaint with evidence. In most of the case due to lack of evidence the accused is scot-free, and the victim continues to suffer … the miscarriage of justice …

5. The Charge sheet is prepared as per the investigation and gets filed in the court by the police and a Public Prosecutor is assigned to represent the state while a private lawyer who you have engaged can help representing you and assist the Public Prosecutor. The accused will hire a lawyer who will defend him.

6. If the accused is caught

1. the trail begins in the court of law and goes through various stages starting from Summons, Evidence, Eyewitness, Examination and Cross Examination, Final Augments followed with the judgement and decree. If the judgement is in your favor, then you will file an execution petition and get the reward as per the judgement if not you will have to knock the doors of higher courts.

1. If the accused is not traceable the order will be an Ex-Parte in your favor.

7. The accused may also go for an appeal if convicted and the process continues in the higher courts.

In my experience the suit may run anywhere between 18 to 36 months, and in a span of three years most of the cases get resolved. There is always a provision for out of court settlement and the case gets withdrawn and matter gets quashed.

Essentially, there is an act committed by some person or a group of persons (scamster / fraudster / cheat) with an intention to gain value by manipulating and playing with your emotions. They are professionals and the common man gets duped.

The intention of this blog is to educate the reader that there is always a dawn after the dusk, there is always a ray of hope, there is always help available, there is always guidance and advice available, don’t feel yourself alone, depressed and take any hasty decision because you went through a bad episode of your life.

If this blog helped you do like, share and comment. Feel free to reach me at mail@lawyersonia.com or +91 9845944896 for advice and or counselling.