How to Get Your Money Back After a Scam
Card chargebacks, wire recalls, Zelle/Venmo disputes, gift cards and crypto — ranked by your real odds of recovery.
Read the guide →Key takeaways
- Two front doors handle almost everything: ReportFraud.ftc.gov for any scam, and ic3.gov (FBI) for anything that happened online.
- If money left your account by wire transfer, report to IC3 and call your bank immediately — the FBI can sometimes freeze wires, but usually only within the first 24–72 hours.
- Identity theft has its own dedicated site: IdentityTheft.gov, which builds your official recovery plan and FTC affidavit.
- Specific scams have specific agencies — Social Security imposters go to SSA OIG, mail fraud to the Postal Inspection Service, investment fraud to the SEC. The routing table below covers each one.
- Reporting rarely triggers an individual investigation of your case, but it feeds the databases law enforcement uses to find, freeze, and prosecute fraud rings — and it creates the paper trail you need to pursue your money back.
When you realize you have been scammed, the natural questions are "who do I even tell?" and "will it do any good?" The honest answers: there is a clear priority order, and yes — it matters, both for you and for the next victim. This guide gives you the exact site, form, or phone number for every major type of fraud, all official government channels. AntiFraud.com is an independent informational site; we link only to the official agencies themselves.
Start here: the two universal front doors
1. ReportFraud.ftc.gov — for every scam, no matter what kind
The Federal Trade Commission's ReportFraud.ftc.gov is the single most important place to report any scam: phone, text, email, door-to-door, fake store, phony charity, imposter call — all of it. Your report goes into the FTC's Consumer Sentinel Network, a database available to more than 2,800 federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies. Investigators use Sentinel to spot patterns — the same phone number, wallet address, or fake company name hitting hundreds of victims — and to build cases and shutdowns. The form takes about ten minutes, works in English and Spanish (ReporteFraude.ftc.gov), and you can also file by phone at 1-877-382-4357.
2. ic3.gov — for anything that happened online
If the scam involved the internet in any way — email, social media, a website, an app, cryptocurrency, online banking — also file with the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov. IC3 is the FBI's central intake for cybercrime, and its annual report is the government's primary picture of internet fraud losses.
Speed matters most for wire transfers. The FBI's Recovery Asset Team can ask receiving banks to freeze domestic wires, and for large international wires (generally $50,000 or more, reported within about 72 hours) it can activate the Financial Fraud Kill Chain to intercept funds abroad. If you wired money to a scammer, call your bank's fraud department first, then file at ic3.gov the same day. Every hour counts.
File with both. It is not redundant — the FTC and FBI databases serve different investigators, and a scam reported in both places is more likely to surface in a pattern.
Then report to the agency that owns your type of fraud
After the two front doors, route your report to the specialist agency. Use this table.
| Type of fraud | Where to report | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Identity theft (accounts opened in your name, stolen SSN) | IdentityTheft.gov | Generates an official FTC Identity Theft Report and step-by-step recovery plan. See our guide to reporting identity theft. |
| Robocalls, spoofed caller ID, scam texts | FCC consumer complaints; forward scam texts to 7726 (SPAM) | Also register at DoNotCall.gov — legitimate telemarketers must honor it; scammers who ignore it are easier to identify. |
| Social Security imposter calls | SSA Office of the Inspector General | The real SSA almost never calls to threaten arrest or demand payment. |
| IRS imposters and tax scams | TIGTA (Treasury Inspector General); forward phishing emails to phishing@irs.gov | The IRS initiates contact by mail, not by phone, text, or email demanding gift cards. |
| Mail fraud, fake checks, packages used in scams | U.S. Postal Inspection Service | Any scam that used the mail at any step — even just a mailed check — is federal mail fraud. |
| Investment and securities fraud (fake brokers, pump-and-dumps, Ponzi schemes) | SEC tips, complaints and referrals | Insiders with original information may qualify for the SEC whistleblower program. |
| Bank, credit card, loan, or credit bureau problems | CFPB complaint portal | The CFPB forwards your complaint to the company, which generally must respond — often the fastest way to get a bank's attention. |
| Cryptocurrency scams (pig butchering, fake exchanges) | ic3.gov plus CFTC complaints | Include wallet addresses, transaction hashes, and exchange names — investigators trace these on-chain. |
| Any consumer scam in your state | Your state attorney general's consumer protection office — find yours via USA.gov's state consumer directory | State AGs sue scam operations, mediate complaints, and enforce state consumer laws. |
| Theft, threats, or a scammer you can identify locally | Your local police department (non-emergency line) | A police report number is often requested by banks and insurers, and is sometimes required for identity theft recovery. |
Two more that come up often: fake or deceptive online ads can also be reported to the platform running them, and Medicare-related scams go to the HHS Office of Inspector General at oig.hhs.gov or 1-800-HHS-TIPS. If an older family member is the victim, the Department of Justice runs the National Elder Fraud Hotline at 1-833-372-8311 — a live person will help route the report. Our elder fraud guide walks through that process.
What actually happens after you report
Here is the honest version. In most cases, no agent is assigned to your individual complaint, and nobody calls you back. That is not because your report was ignored — it is because these systems work in aggregate:
- Pattern detection. Your report joins thousands of others in Consumer Sentinel and the IC3 database. Analysts connect repeated phone numbers, bank accounts, crypto wallets, and website registrations into cases.
- Freezes and takedowns. Clusters of reports trigger asset freezes, domain seizures, and platform takedowns. Wire recalls through the IC3 kill chain, in particular, only happen because someone reported fast.
- Prosecutions and refunds. When the FTC or a state AG wins a case, refund programs are often built from the complaint database. Victims who reported are the ones who get found. The FTC lists active refund programs at ftc.gov/enforcement/refunds.
- Your paper trail. Banks, card networks, credit bureaus, and insurers all take a dispute more seriously when it comes with an FTC or IC3 report number. If you are trying to reverse a payment, start with our guide on how to get your money back, and consider a credit freeze if the scammer has your personal information.
Warning: the "recovery service" follow-up scam. After you report a scam — or post about it online — you may be contacted by someone claiming to be a "fund recovery specialist," a "crypto tracing firm," a lawyer, or even a government agent who says they can get your money back for an upfront fee. This is a second scam targeting the same victims, often run by the same criminals using your information. No legitimate government agency charges a fee to investigate fraud or return funds, and none will contact you by WhatsApp, Telegram, or social media DM. Real recovery, when it happens, comes through your bank, the courts, or official FTC/CFPB refund programs — never through someone who found you.
If you have inside knowledge of ongoing fraud, you may be owed a reward
Reporting as a victim helps stop crime. But if you are an insider — an employee, contractor, accountant, or business partner with original, non-public information about ongoing fraud against the government, investors, or the tax system — you may be in a different category entirely. U.S. government whistleblower programs pay rewards of roughly 10–50% of what the government recovers, and recoveries in large cases run into the millions. The SEC whistleblower program covers securities fraud, the IRS program covers major tax fraud, and the False Claims Act covers fraud against federal programs. See our directory of 69 government reward programs to find the one that matches what you know.
Reporting checklist: do these in order
- Stop the bleeding. Call your bank or card issuer's fraud line, freeze the affected accounts, and change compromised passwords before anything else.
- File at ic3.gov if any money moved online — especially a wire transfer. Do this the same day. Include account numbers, wallet addresses, and exact timestamps.
- File at ReportFraud.ftc.gov. Save the confirmation and reference number; you will reuse it with banks and bureaus.
- File with the specialist agency from the routing table above (SSA OIG, TIGTA, USPIS, SEC, CFPB, or your state AG).
- Get a local police report if you know who the scammer is, lost a significant amount, or need documentation for a bank, insurer, or identity theft recovery.
- Protect your identity going forward. If the scammer has your SSN, ID, or account details, use IdentityTheft.gov and place a credit freeze or fraud alert with all three bureaus.
One last thing: do not let embarrassment stop you. Fraud reports to the FTC and FBI come from every age group, income level, and profession — these operations are industrialized and script-tested against millions of people. Reporting is not an admission that you were foolish; it is the single most useful thing a victim can do. For what to do next about the money itself, continue to getting your money back or browse all of our victim recovery guides.
Frequently asked questions
Should I report to both ReportFraud.ftc.gov and ic3.gov?
Yes, if the scam touched the internet at all. The FTC's report feeds the Consumer Sentinel Network used by thousands of law enforcement agencies, while ic3.gov is the FBI's own cybercrime intake and the trigger for wire-recall attempts. They are separate databases serving separate investigators, so filing both roughly doubles the chance your report connects to a case.
Will the FTC or FBI investigate my individual case?
Usually not individually — neither agency resolves personal complaints one by one. Your report is combined with others to identify fraud rings, freeze assets, and build prosecutions. For your own losses, work with your bank or card issuer directly (see our guide on getting your money back), and use your FTC or IC3 report number as documentation in those disputes.
Can reporting to IC3 actually get a wire transfer reversed?
Sometimes. The FBI's Recovery Asset Team can request freezes on domestic wires, and its Financial Fraud Kill Chain extends that to large international wires (generally $50,000 or more, reported within about 72 hours). Either way, speed decides the outcome — think hours, not weeks. Call your bank's fraud department immediately to request a wire recall, then file at ic3.gov the same day with the exact wire details.
Where do I report a scam if I don't know what category it fits?
Start with ReportFraud.ftc.gov — it accepts every type of scam and routes the data appropriately. If the scam happened online, also file at ic3.gov. You can add specialist-agency reports later once you know more; there is no deadline penalty for filing the general reports first.
Someone contacted me offering to recover my lost money for a fee. Is that real?
No. Treat anyone who contacts you promising to recover scam losses for an upfront fee as a scammer — this "recovery service" fraud specifically targets people who were already victimized, and often comes from the same criminals. Legitimate recovery happens through your bank, card network chargebacks, courts, or official FTC and CFPB refund programs, none of which cold-call victims or charge advance fees.
Is reporting different if I'm an employee who discovered fraud at my company?
Yes — significantly. Victims report to stop crime, but insiders with original, non-public evidence of fraud may qualify for government whistleblower rewards of roughly 10–50% of what the government recovers, through programs like the SEC whistleblower program and the IRS whistleblower program. Browse the full directory of U.S. reward programs before you report, because how and where you file can affect eligibility.
Last updated: July 4, 2026. AntiFraud.com links only to official and nonprofit help channels — never paid "recovery services" — read our methodology.