What to do if you've
been scammed.

The first instinct is to confront the scammer, demand your money back, or try to reason with them. Don’t. Every additional interaction gives them information they can weaponize, and any money they promise to "return" is bait for a recovery scam. Block their number. Close the chat. If they’re threatening to release photos or information, that’s a sextortion tactic — engaging only escalates it.

Call your bank’s fraud department. The number is on the back of your card — don’t use any number the scammer gave you. If you sent a wire transfer, request an immediate recall. Banks can sometimes reverse wires within 24–72 hours through the SWIFT network. For credit card charges, file a formal dispute — you have strong chargeback rights under the Fair Credit Billing Act. For Zelle, Cash App, or Venmo, report the transaction as fraud through the app and contact your linked bank separately.

If you clicked a phishing link, entered credentials on a fake site, or shared login information with the scammer, change those passwords immediately. Start with email — your email account is the master key to everything else. Then banking, social media, and any account that shares the same password. Enable two-factor authentication on every account that offers it. Use an authenticator app, not SMS, since SIM-swap attacks can intercept text codes.

Scammers delete profiles, close accounts, and change phone numbers quickly. Before they do, capture evidence: screenshots of all conversations (with timestamps visible), the scammer’s profile pages, email headers (not just the body — headers contain routing data), transaction receipts, cryptocurrency wallet addresses, phone numbers, and any websites they directed you to. Store these in a dedicated folder. This evidence package is critical for every report you’ll file next.

Your report here creates a searchable public record that warns the next person who encounters the same scammer, website, phone number, or crypto wallet. It’s anonymous, takes under 5 minutes, and contributes to a database used by investigators tracking fraud networks.

File with the FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov — this feeds the Consumer Sentinel database used by over 2,800 law enforcement agencies. File with the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) at ic3.gov — especially for losses over $1,000, international scams, or cryptocurrency theft. For investment fraud, also file with the SEC (sec.gov/tcr) or CFTC (cftc.gov/complaint). For identity theft specifically, go to identitytheft.gov for a personalized recovery plan.

If the scammer has your Social Security number, date of birth, or enough personal information to open accounts in your name, freeze your credit at all three bureaus: Equifax (equifax.com/personal/credit-report-services/credit-freeze), Experian (experian.com/freeze), and TransUnion (transunion.com/credit-freeze). A freeze is free, takes about 10 minutes per bureau, and prevents anyone from opening new credit accounts using your identity. You can temporarily lift the freeze when you legitimately need credit.

Pull your free credit reports at annualcreditreport.com. Look for accounts you didn’t open, addresses you’ve never lived at, or inquiries you don’t recognize. Set up free monitoring through Credit Karma or your bank’s identity protection feature. If the scammer had access to your email, check your sent folder and login history for activity you don’t recognize — they may have used your account to scam others.

This is critical: after being scammed, you become a target for recovery scams. Someone will contact you claiming to be a lawyer, a government agent, or a "hacking service" that can recover your money for an upfront fee. These are the same criminal networks. No legitimate recovery service charges upfront fees. The FTC and FBI do not charge victims to investigate. If someone guarantees they can get your money back, they are running the next scam.