What should I do in case of a scam? Six steps and where to report it

You have just realised that an offer, a seller or a message was part of a scam. Act as soon as possible: evidence may disappear, and some payment options may become harder to use.

This guide gives six immediate steps, then explains where to report the scam. Nothing here guarantees that you will get your money back. Acting quickly may improve your options, and it helps warn other people.

Six steps to take now

1. Collect the evidence before it vanishes

Note how the scammer reached you: email, phone, website, social network. Write down the email addresses, phone numbers, website address, domain name, profile name and account number, if available. Take screenshots of the conversations, the product page, the payment page and the order confirmation. Scammers may change their identities or close a website quickly. Keep screenshots and other records while they are still available.

2. Stop sending money

This sounds obvious and is the hardest step. The scammer may offer to unblock your money, refund you, or solve the problem for one last payment. Such offers are usually part of the same scam. Be suspicious of anyone who asks you to pay again before returning or releasing your money.

3. Ignore the recovery offers

Lists of victims circulate. Within days, people who present themselves as specialists, lawyers or other victims will offer to recover your money for a fee. This is a second scam, built on the first one. No private service can reverse an irreversible transfer.

4. Warn the platform

If the scam took place on a marketplace, a social network, a classified ads site or a payment service, report it there. The platform can suspend the account, and it is also where any buyer protection you may have will be triggered. This step is often skipped, and it is one of the most useful.

5. Report the scam publicly

Reporting on a community site takes a few seconds and has an immediate effect: the next person who searches the address or the domain will find your report. It is also what gets fraudulent websites listed by search engines and blocked by browsers. The section below lists where to report, depending on the type of scam and the country.

6. Check your accounts, and keep checking

Fraudsters often come back later: a recurring payment set up on your card, a loan taken in your name, a new direct debit. Look at your statements carefully for several months, and contact your bank at the first unexplained line. If you shared identity documents, ask what monitoring your bank or insurer offers.

Where to report a scam

Three kinds of places are useful, and they do not replace each other.

Community databases

These sites index scams by email address, phone number, domain and pseudonym, so that a simple search reveals the fraud before someone pays. ScamWatcher publishes reports instantly and is free. Scamwarners also offers advice from volunteers who have been through it. 419eater hosts a forum and a database focused on advance fee fraud.

Official complaints

A crime is a crime online too, and a report to the authorities is what allows an investigation. In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission handles most consumer frauds, while the Internet Crime Complaint Center of the FBI covers cybercrime, identity theft and extortion. In the United Kingdom, Action Fraud centralises reports. In Canada, the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre. Elsewhere, start with your national police force and your consumer protection body, and consult usa.gov for a general overview of the steps.

For a large sum, or if your identity was stolen, file a formal complaint rather than an online form. It gives you a document, which banks and insurers often ask for.

The platform where it happened

Marketplaces and social networks have their own reporting tools, and they can act on an account, which a public database cannot. Report the profile, the listing, the message, and keep the reference number of your report.

Can you get your money back?

It depends almost entirely on how you paid. A card payment can be disputed with your bank, which is what a chargeback is. Payment services such as PayPal offer their own buyer protection, with conditions and deadlines that matter: open a case rather than waiting. Marketplaces such as eBay or AliExpress have their own procedures, and some card issuers include purchase protection in their contracts.

Money sent by bank transfer to a private individual, by money transfer service, in gift cards or in cryptocurrency is, in practice, gone. That is precisely why those methods are demanded, and why a request for one of them is a warning sign in itself.

Keep in mind

• Evidence first: screenshots and references disappear fast.
• Never pay a second time to recover the first payment.
• Anyone offering to recover your money for a fee is running a second scam.
• A report takes seconds and protects the next buyer.
• The payment method decides whether recovery is realistic.