The Clock Starts the Moment You See the Alert
Your phone shows a transaction you did not make. That moment is not the time to call a family member or Google what happened. It is the time to move. Chanakya wrote in the Arthashastra that a loss identified at once is a loss half-recovered. He was describing a treasury, but the logic holds for your bank account.Before anything else, take a screenshot of the SMS or app notification. Note the exact time, the merchant name, and the transaction amount. This record becomes your evidence. Do not delete the message. Do not attempt to log in to a suspicious link that may have arrived alongside the alert.
