What to do if you lost money to a scam
Act fast: who to call first, how to report it, and how to avoid "recovery" scams afterwards.
Speed matters. Banks can sometimes stop or recover a payment if they hear about it quickly.
Do this now
- Call your bank or card issuer on the number on your card or their website. Tell them it was a scam and ask them to stop or reverse the payment.
- If you paid by card, ask about a chargeback. If you paid by bank transfer, ask the bank to contact the receiving bank.
- In the UK you can call 159 to reach your bank's fraud team. UK banks must now reimburse most victims of bank-transfer scams.
- If you paid with gift cards, contact the gift card company straight away with the card numbers and receipts.
- Change passwords on any account the scammer may have seen, and remove any remote access software they asked you to install.
Report it
- US: Federal Trade Commission (reportfraud.ftc.gov).
- US: FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (ic3.gov).
- UK: Action Fraud (actionfraud.police.uk).
- Canada: Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (antifraudcentre-centreantifraude.ca).
- Australia: Scamwatch (scamwatch.gov.au/report-a-scam).
- Reports help police link cases and warn others, even when money cannot be recovered.
Beware of "recovery" offers
People who have lost money are often contacted by someone offering to get it back for a fee, sometimes pretending to be a law firm or the police. This is almost always a second scam.
See the latest on our scams page, updated daily from official sources.