How to Report a Scam: Where to Report and What to Include

To report a scam, contact your bank first to try to stop the money, then file a report with the right authority: ReportFraud.ftc.gov and the FBI’s IC3 in the US, or Action Fraud in the UK. Reporting and getting your money back are two separate tracks, so do both, and in that order. This guide covers where to report, what to gather first, and what actually happens once you file.

Stop the money before you report

Contact your bank or card provider before you do anything else, because that is the only step with a real chance of clawing money back. Reporting to an authority is important, but it is slow; a payment dispute is time-sensitive and often measured in hours. The longer a transfer sits, the harder it is to reverse, so make the bank call first and the official report straight after.

If you paid by gift card, contact the card’s issuer (the brand on the front) and report it; some can freeze the balance if it has not been drained. Keep any receipts and the card itself. For the full order of recovery steps, see what to do if you have been scammed.

Where to report a scam

Report to the body that matches where you are and what happened. In the US, the three core destinations are:

• ReportFraud.ftc.gov is the Federal Trade Commission’s central hub for scams and fraud of every kind. Reports here flow into the FTC’s Consumer Sentinel Network, a database shared with thousands of law-enforcement agencies.
• ic3.gov is the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, the right place for online fraud, cybercrime, and money lost over the internet. In 2023 the IC3 logged more than 880,000 complaints with reported losses above 12.5 billion dollars.
• IdentityTheft.gov is the FTC’s dedicated service for when your personal information or identity has been used. It both records the report and generates a step-by-step recovery plan.

In the UK, report fraud and attempted fraud to Action Fraud, the national reporting centre, online or by phone; in Scotland, report to Police Scotland. For impersonation of a specific company, also tell the real organisation through a channel you find yourself, so they can warn other customers.

What information to include

Gather your evidence before you open the report form, because a complete report is far more useful than a vague one. Have ready:

• The timeline: when contact started, when you paid, and when you realised it was a scam.
• The money: the amount and exactly how you paid (card, bank transfer, gift card, wire, or crypto), plus any reference numbers.
• The scammer’s footprint: phone numbers, email addresses, website links, social media handles, and any names or company names used.
• The proof: screenshots of messages, emails, payment confirmations, and receipts.

You do not need every item to file. Report with whatever you have; the FTC and Action Fraud both accept partial reports, and something is always better than staying silent.

When I reported my own loss, I almost did not bother because I felt I had nothing solid: no real name, just a slick website that had already vanished. What I did still have was a folder of screenshots and a bank reference, and that turned out to be enough to file a proper report. The shame nearly stopped me more than the missing details did. Filing it was the first moment I stopped feeling like a victim and started feeling like a witness.

What happens after you report

You will usually receive a confirmation or a reference number, and then, often, silence. That silence is normal and does not mean nothing happened. Individual scam reports are rarely investigated one at a time; instead they are pooled, cross-referenced, and used to spot patterns, link cases, and shut down the phone numbers, accounts, and websites behind them.

Keep your reference number. It can support a bank dispute, a credit-card chargeback, or an insurance claim, and it documents that you acted promptly. If your identity was exposed, treat that as its own job and follow identity theft: what to do to lock down your credit and accounts.

One last warning: filing a report sometimes puts you on a scammer’s radar for a second hit. If anyone contacts you offering to recover your money for an upfront fee, that is itself a scam; read recovery scams: the second wave before you engage with anyone promising to get your funds back.

This is general information, not individual legal, financial, or security advice. If you have been targeted, report it to the proper authorities such as the FTC, the FBI’s IC3, or Action Fraud in the UK.