Take a breath — you can still do something, and the next hour matters most. The right first move depends entirely on how the money or information left you. Pick what happened and this tool gives you the exact steps, who to call, and what’s still reversible. Free, anonymous, nothing to install.
Act on the money trail first. Call whoever can still stop the payment — your bank, card issuer, payment app or gift-card company — using a number from your card or their official app, never one the scammer gave you. Then secure any account whose password or code you shared, report it to your country’s fraud authority, and ignore anyone who later offers to “recover” your money for a fee. How you paid decides what’s reversible — so the tool below sorts your next steps by exactly that.
The most useful thing to know in the minutes after a scam is that not all payments are equal. Some can be clawed back; some are gone the moment you hit send. That single fact — the rail the money travelled on — should drive everything you do next, which is exactly how the U.S. Federal Trade Commission organises its own “what to do if you were scammed” guidance. A card charge can be disputed. A bank transfer can sometimes be recalled if your bank acts before it’s collected. A payment app, gift card or crypto payment moves like cash and is far harder to reverse — but a fast report can still occasionally freeze funds before they’re moved on.
That’s why panicking and “trying everything” is the wrong move — it wastes the window. Pick the one rail that matches what happened, make the one call that can still act, and do it before you do anything else. If no money moved and you only gave a password or a code, the job is different but just as urgent: lock the attacker out before they can use it.
Two things hold true on every rail. First, report it even if the money looks gone — reports are how funds get traced and how the scam gets shut down for the next person; whether your bank has to refund you depends a lot on where you live. Second, in the days that follow, expect a “recovery” offer — and treat it as the second scam, because that’s what it almost always is.
Act on the money trail before anything else, and let how you paid decide who you call. If it left your bank account, call your bank's fraud line; a card, your card issuer to dispute it; a payment app like Zelle or Venmo, report it in the app and call your bank; gift cards, the gift-card company's fraud line; crypto, the exchange you used. Use the number on your card or the official app — never a number the scammer gave you. The faster you move, the better the chance some of it can be stopped, because a few rails can still be reversed in the first minutes or hours.
It depends almost entirely on the rail. Debit and credit cards have the strongest protection — you can dispute the charge and request a chargeback. Bank transfers, payment apps, gift cards and cryptocurrency are much harder, because they move like cash, but reporting immediately still gives you the best chance and occasionally recovers part of it. There's no honest guarantee either way — and anyone who promises to get all your money back for an upfront fee is running the second scam.
Sometimes, if you move fast. Call your bank's fraud line immediately and ask them to attempt a recall — a transfer can occasionally be stopped before the money is withdrawn at the other end. If you used a wire service like Western Union or MoneyGram, call them directly and ask them to halt it. Then ask your bank, in writing, whether you'll be reimbursed; if they refuse, ask how to escalate to the financial ombudsman for your country.
Maybe not, if you call right away. Contact the fraud line of the company that issued the card — the brand on the card, not the shop you bought it from — report that it was used in a scam, give the card number and receipt, and ask them to freeze the balance. Some issuers can freeze remaining funds if you report quickly. The FTC keeps a list of gift-card issuer contact numbers. Then report it at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.
No. That is the second scam, and it specifically targets people who were just defrauded — sometimes using a list of known victims. No real government agency, bank or lawyer asks for an upfront fee, or payment in cryptocurrency or gift cards, to recover your money. If someone contacts you out of the blue offering to get your funds back, treat it as another scam attempt and report it.
Report it to your country's fraud authority — our scam-reporting directory lists the right agency for the US, UK, Canada, Australia and 16 more countries. In the US, report to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov and, for online crime or crypto, the FBI's IC3 at ic3.gov. Reporting is how losses sometimes get traced and how the scam gets shut down for the next person, even when your own money can't be recovered.
The guidance in this tool follows the published advice of these authorities. Click any to verify.