Get your money back — the first hour

Fill in the time above and the elapsed time and open windows appear.

• First hour — call 1930Counted from the bank's intimation — not from this clock

  A complaint on record within this hour gives the banks the best chance of holding the money before it moves on.

• 24 hours — written complaint on cybercrime.gov.inCounted from the bank's intimation — not from this clock

  The phone complaint lands on the same portal, but only you can add the written account and the documents.

• 3 working days — zero liability where the breach was a third party'sCounted from the bank's intimation — not from this clock

  This zero liability is not unconditional. Paragraph 6 of the circular gives it in two cases only — where the fraud, negligence or deficiency was the bank's own, in which case it does not matter when you report; and where a third party breached the system and the deficiency lay neither with the bank nor with you, provided you notified the bank within three working days of its communication about the transaction. Those three working days run from the bank's intimation, not from the transaction.

• 4–7 working days — limited liabilityCounted from the bank's intimation — not from this clock

  In that same third-party case, reporting between four and seven working days caps liability at the transaction value or the slab above, whichever is lower.

• Beyond 7 working days — the bank's board-approved policyCounted from the bank's intimation — not from this clock

  The circular fixes no cap here: where the delay in reporting is beyond seven working days, the customer's liability is determined by the bank's board-approved policy. This is where most victims actually land, so ask your bank for that policy in writing — the burden of proving customer liability lies on the bank, not on you.

• If you passed on the OTP, PIN or password yourselfNot a window — a rule

  Paragraph 7 of the circular says that where the loss is due to negligence by the customer — such as where he has shared the payment credentials — the customer bears the entire loss until he reports the unauthorised transaction to the bank. The zero and limited liability rows above do not apply to that case. But any loss occurring after the report is borne by the bank, so reporting now is still the single most valuable thing you can do.

• 10 working days — the disputed amount credited backCounted from your notification to the bank — not from this clock

  On being notified, the bank must credit the disputed amount back to your account within 10 working days of your notification (a shadow reversal), without waiting for any insurance claim to settle, value-dated to the date of the unauthorised transaction. The complaint itself must be resolved, and your liability if any established, within the time set by the bank's board-approved policy and in any case within 90 days of the complaint.