What to Do If Something Goes Wrong: A Harm-Reduction Protocol

What to Do If Something Goes Wrong: A Harm-Reduction Protocol

Most meetings arranged through a directory are uneventful. This guide is about the minority that are not — and it exists because the worst time to work out what to do is while it is happening. This is a calm, practical, India-specific harm-reduction protocol: what to do if you are being defrauded, if a meeting feels unsafe, if someone is threatening you, or if you have been harmed. Read it once now, when nothing is wrong, so the steps are already in your head if they are ever needed.

A framing note first. SilkDots is a directory. Independent advertisers publish profiles, and a listing's rate is the advertiser's own stated fee for their time and companionship. The platform does not set rates and does not process payments between advertisers and the people who contact them. This protocol treats every scenario as what it legally and practically is: a personal-safety or fraud situation between adults, handled the way any such situation should be handled in India.

The one principle behind every step

Harm reduction is not about courage in the moment. It is about having pre-decided what you will do, so the moment only requires execution. Personal-safety researchers have made this point for decades: people freeze not from lack of options but from having to invent them under stress. Everything below is written so that if the situation arises, you are recalling a plan, not improvising one.

The scale of why this matters is not abstract. India's National Crime Records Bureau, in its most recent published "Crime in India" volume, recorded well over 400000 cases of crime against women reported in a single year, and its data consistently shows the accused was known to the survivor in roughly 90 percent of such cases rather than a complete stranger (NCRB volumes are published at ncrb.gov.in). "I had spoken to them before" is not, by itself, protection. A protocol is.

"In the cases we see, the people who recover money or stay safe are almost never the ones who improvised — they are the ones who already knew the helpline number, kept the conversation on a recorded channel, and acted in the first hour instead of the next day. Speed and a plan beat panic every time." — Priya Nair, Cyber-Safety Counsellor, India Digital Safety Collective

Scenario 1: You are being defrauded

Fraud in this market runs on one script: an advance fee. A "deposit" to secure a meeting, an "unlock" to see contact details, a "taxi" or "token" payment, a sudden emergency that needs money first. There is no legitimate version of this on a directory, and SilkDots itself never requires any upfront payment.

Before you have paid anything — the decision is free. The correct response to any advance-fee request is to stop. No genuine advertiser needs a deposit; the directory never asks for one. An advance-payment demand is not a yellow flag to weigh, it is a stop sign. Decide now, while reading this, that you will never send an upfront payment to secure a meeting. That single pre-decision defeats the entire fraud category.

If money has already been taken — act in the first hour. India's national cybercrime helpline is 1930, staffed for exactly this. Call it immediately, and file the complaint at cybercrime.gov.in. The first hours are decisive: the financial-fraud reporting system can attempt to freeze a transfer before it is withdrawn down the chain, but that window is short. Do not wait until morning, do not wait to feel less embarrassed — the embarrassment is not worth the money, and the system is built for precisely this report.

Then preserve and report. Screenshot the conversation, the profile, and the payment record. Use the Report button on the listing; the moderation team reviews reports within 24 hours and removes confirmed fraudulent listings, which protects the next person. Reporting on-platform and to 1930 are separate steps — do both.

Scenario 2: A meeting feels unsafe before it starts

This is the easiest scenario to handle well, because nothing irreversible has happened yet. If a person does not match their photos or their earlier call, if you are being steered somewhere unplanned, or if you simply feel wrong about it — do not go in, or leave.

You do not owe an explanation, an apology, or a reason to exit a situation that feels unsafe. This is exactly why personal-safety guidance recommends pre-loading an exit: a rideshare app already open, a real call scheduled to yourself, transport decided before you arrive. The decision to leave should already be made; the moment only has to execute it. A genuine counterpart will not punish a cancelled or shortened first meeting — and one who reacts to a polite exit with pressure or anger has just told you that leaving was correct.

Scenario 3: You are being threatened, blackmailed or extorted

Sextortion and blackmail — "pay or I send this to your contacts" — depend entirely on the target paying and staying silent. The protocol is counter-intuitive but firm.

Do not pay. Payment does not end it; it confirms you will pay and invites more demands. Every counselling body that handles these cases gives the same advice on this point.

Do not delete anything. The messages and the profile are evidence. Screenshot and keep them.

Report immediately. Call 1930 and file at cybercrime.gov.in; cyber-extortion is a specific, recognised offence and the cybercrime units handle it routinely and discreetly. If the threats involve a woman or are gender-based, the National Commission for Women provides support and complaint channels at ncw.gov.in. You are the complainant here, not the wrongdoer — the people who staff these channels deal with this category constantly and are not there to judge you.

Tell one trusted person. Isolation is the lever blackmail pulls. Telling one person you trust removes most of its power, because the threat's force comes almost entirely from your fear of disclosure — and that fear collapses the moment someone already knows.

Scenario 4: You have been physically harmed or assaulted

If you are in immediate danger, the all-India emergency number is 112. For a medical emergency, get to care first; evidence and reporting can follow, safety cannot wait.

Assault is a serious criminal offence in India regardless of the context in which the meeting was arranged — the directory context does not reduce anyone's rights or the seriousness of the act. A survivor can report to the police, and gender-based offences can additionally be raised with the National Commission for Women at ncw.gov.in. Seek medical attention even if injuries seem minor; a medical record is both health care and, if you later choose to pursue it, evidence. Whether and when to pursue a complaint is the survivor's decision and theirs alone — this guide's role is only to make clear that the right to do so exists fully here.

Scenario 5: The listing was not who you met

If the person who appeared was meaningfully not the person in the verified profile, that is impersonation and a verification failure, and it matters beyond your own experience because the next reader is relying on that badge. Report it on-platform with the specifics; a credible photo-mismatch report can suspend the badge pending a fresh human review. If the misrepresentation was used to defraud you, treat it as Scenario 1 as well and call 1930. The two reports are complementary, not alternatives.

The numbers, in one place

Pre-loading these is the single most useful thing you can do before ever needing them:

• 112 — all-India emergency (immediate danger, police, medical).
• 1930 — national cybercrime / financial-fraud helpline. Use within the first hour for any money taken by deception.
• cybercrime.gov.in — file fraud, extortion and cyber-offence complaints.
• ncw.gov.in — National Commission for Women, support and complaint channels for gender-based harm.
• In-platform Report button — for fraudulent or misrepresented listings; reviewed within 24 hours.

What this protocol is not

It is not legal advice, and it is not a substitute for the police, a counsellor or an advocate. Its only job is to compress the decisive first responses into something you already know before you need it. The legal frame is unchanged across every scenario: a directory operates lawfully by listing time and companionship, not by arranging sexual services for a fee, which the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956 prohibits — the statute is published by the Government of India at indiacode.nic.in. Being harmed or defrauded does not put a person outside the law's protection, and nothing in the directory context changes that.

The short version

Decide in advance and act fast. Never send an advance fee — that pre-decision alone defeats the most common fraud. If money is taken, call 1930 within the hour and file at cybercrime.gov.in. If a meeting feels wrong, leave without explanation; the exit should already be planned. If you are threatened, do not pay, do not delete, report to 1930 and tell one trusted person. If you are harmed, 112 first, then medical care, then — entirely your choice — reporting. Preserve evidence, report bad listings on-platform, and remember that the people staffing these channels handle exactly this every day.

About the author

The SilkDots Safety Desk is the platform's in-house harm-reduction team. It develops the platform's safety guidance, reviews reported listings, and consolidates personal-safety and fraud-response best practice for an Indian context, drawing on published guidance from bodies including India's national cybercrime programme, the National Commission for Women and the National Crime Records Bureau, and from independent cyber-safety counsellors. This article is educational harm-reduction content, not legal advice; for legal questions consult a qualified advocate and the official text of the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956, published at indiacode.nic.in.