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First 48 hours

You already paid. Work down this list now.

Speed decides the outcome. Every hour reduces what can be frozen or reversed, so start at the top and do not wait to see whether the other side replies.

Do these first

  1. 01Within the hour

    Call your bank and use the word fraud

    Ask explicitly for a recall or reversal on the outgoing transfer and say the words fraud and unauthorised beneficiary. Transfers are hard to reverse once withdrawn, but same-day recalls are occasionally stopped in the receiving account. Ask the bank to freeze any further scheduled payments, flag the beneficiary, and log the case in writing with a reference number you keep.

  2. 02Within the hour

    If it was crypto, report the address to the receiving exchange

    Copy the transaction hash from your wallet or exchange history and trace the destination in a block explorer. If the funds landed at a known exchange, file a report through that exchange's compliance or fraud channel with the hash and the address. Exchanges can and sometimes do freeze accounts before withdrawal. Report the address to Chainabuse at the same time so it becomes public. Do this in hours, not days — after the funds pass through a mixer, nothing further is possible.

  3. 03Same day

    Dispute anything paid by card or a protected rail

    A credit or debit card payment is your strongest position: open a fraud dispute with the issuer and, separately, a chargeback for goods or services not received. PayPal goods-and-services payments carry buyer protection; friends-and-family payments do not. Be realistic about Zelle, Cash App, Venmo, and bank transfers — because you authorised them yourself, reimbursement is discretionary. Report them as a scam in writing anyway and escalate past the first representative.

  4. 04Same day

    Capture the evidence before it is deleted

    Screenshot the whole operation now: the platform dashboard and balance, the website including its about and contact pages, every chat thread with names and phone numbers visible, the payment confirmations, the wallet addresses, and the invoices. These sites and accounts disappear within days and your evidence goes with them. Save full-page captures with the URL and timestamp visible, and export chat histories where the app allows it.

  5. 05Within 24 hours

    Change every credential you handed over

    If you entered a password, a one-time code, or seed words anywhere, or granted remote access to your device, assume the account is compromised. Change the password and revoke active sessions on that account and anywhere the password was reused, re-enrol two-factor authentication, and check for new payees, forwarding rules, or connected apps. If seed words were exposed, move any remaining funds to a newly generated wallet immediately.

  6. 06Within 24 hours

    File with IC3, Action Fraud, or your national body

    Submit the domain, the exact amounts and dates, the beneficiary or wallet address, the receiving institution, and the contact identities. For US domestic wires this is the highest-value step available: IC3's Recovery Asset Team can trigger the Financial Fraud Kill Chain and ask the receiving bank to freeze funds, which is built around reports filed within roughly 72 hours. File immediately, and file even if your loss is small.

Then, over the following days

File a local police report

You will likely need a crime reference number for your bank, your insurer, and any civil claim. Bring printed evidence and ask for it to be recorded as fraud rather than a civil dispute.

Report to the consumer regulator

In the US, file at reportfraud.ftc.gov, which feeds the Consumer Sentinel database investigators use to link complaints across victims. Elsewhere, use the equivalent national consumer body.

Report the domain to its registrar and host

Find the registrar via WHOIS and submit an abuse report with your evidence. Registrar and host suspension is the fastest route to taking a live site down before the next person pays.

Report the accounts and the ads

Report the messenger accounts, social profiles, and any paid advertisements that carried the approach. Ad-network takedowns cut the traffic supply the operation depends on.

Warn the impersonated brand

If the operation cloned a real bank, retailer, or brokerage, tell that company's fraud team. They can pursue the registrar and take legal routes that are unavailable to you.

Publish the identifiers

File a report here so the domain, wallet, handle, and beneficiary are documented and indexed. Reused identifiers are what connect a brand-new site to an operation already on record.

Warning — the second scam

Whoever contacts you next offering to recover the money is the same operation

Within weeks of a loss becoming known, most people are approached by a recovery agency, a blockchain tracing firm, a lawyer holding a settlement, or a regulator's compensation unit. They will know the amount and the platform, because victim lists are sold and reworked. Every one of them charges an upfront retainer, gas fee, or tax before release, and the recovered balance they show you does not exist. Recovery only ever runs through your bank, your card issuer, and law enforcement, and none of them ask you to pay to get your money back. Neither do we, ever.

See documented recovery-fraud alerts

Official reporting channels

File with the body covering where you live. These are official government and law-enforcement channels, and none of them charge a fee to accept a fraud report.

  • FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3)

    United States

    The primary channel for wire and online fraud. Complaints route to FBI field offices and to the Recovery Asset Team for possible fund freezes.

    www.ic3.gov

  • FTC ReportFraud

    United States

    Feeds the Consumer Sentinel database used by federal, state, and international investigators to connect complaints against the same operation.

    reportfraud.ftc.gov

  • Action Fraud

    United Kingdom

    National reporting centre for fraud and cybercrime in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland; reports go to the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau.

    www.actionfraud.police.uk

  • Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre

    Canada

    Joint RCMP, Competition Bureau, and OPP centre that collects fraud reports and issues national alerts.

    antifraudcentre-centreantifraude.ca

  • Scamwatch (National Anti-Scam Centre)

    Australia

    Collects reports, disrupts active campaigns, and publishes current scam warnings.

    www.scamwatch.gov.au

  • eConsumer.gov

    International

    Cross-border complaint portal shared among consumer protection agencies in more than forty countries.

    econsumer.gov

Add it to the feed

Once the urgent steps are done, submit a report or email alerts@scamalerted.com. Your name is never published. The domain, wallet, and handle are — so the next person searching them finds the record before they pay.