Layering

Layering means passing stolen money through many accounts and people quickly so the trail is hard to follow. Speed of reporting matters.

Layering: Layering is the step where criminals move illegal money through many accounts, wallets, people or cash handlers so that its origin is hard to trace. In plain words, they split and shuffle the money until it looks like it came from nowhere.

After a victim pays, the money rarely stays in the first account. It may be sent in parts to ten others, withdrawn as cash, converted into crypto or handed to informal money agents who settle elsewhere without any bank transfer. Each hop adds delay for investigators. The people in the middle are often mule account holders who do not know the full story.

This is why reporting fast matters. A bank can try to freeze funds only while they are still sitting in an account. Call 1930 within minutes and give exact details of where you paid. Do not accept requests to receive and forward money, however small the commission, since you could become one of the hops. Think of it as a race: your report against the speed of the criminals moving the money.

Tips

• Call 1930 immediately after any online money fraud.
• Note the receiving account or UPI ID, amount, time and transaction ID.
• Never accept money to forward to someone else for a commission.

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