What should I do if I have been scammed?

The most important thing is to act now rather than working out how it happened. Recovery chances fall sharply with time, and the shame that stops people acting is exactly what scammers rely on. This happens to careful people constantly.

Safety

What you'll need

• Your bank's number from your card
• Another device you trust (optional)
• Somewhere to write a timeline (optional)

Step by step

1. Contact your bank immediately.Use the number on the back of your card, not one from the message or call. Report it as fraud. Speed is the single biggest factor in whether money is recovered.
2. If you gave someone remote access, disconnect the device.Turn off wifi and unplug it. Do not use it for banking or email until it has been checked. Remote access software gives them everything on it.
3. Change your email password first, from a device you trust.Email is the recovery route for every other account. Do this before banking, social media or anything else.
4. Turn on two-factor authentication everywhere important.It stops a stolen password alone being enough. Email and banking first.
5. Check for changes they made.Email forwarding rules, changed recovery addresses and phone numbers, new payees on your bank account. Attackers add these to keep access after a password change.
6. Report it to the police or national fraud reporting service.You will usually get a reference number, which banks and insurers ask for. Reporting also feeds the intelligence that stops others being targeted.
7. Write down the timeline while it is fresh.Dates, times, amounts, what was said, any account numbers or addresses used. Every subsequent step will ask for it and memory fades fast.
8. Expect a follow-up attempt.People who have been scammed are targeted again, often by someone offering to recover the money for a fee. That is always a scam. Never pay anyone who contacts you offering recovery.

Tips

• Do not blame yourself. Modern scams are professionally produced and specifically designed to work on careful people under time pressure. Acting quickly matters far more than how it happened.
• Many countries have reimbursement rules for authorised push payment fraud. Ask your bank directly what applies rather than assuming nothing does.
• Tell someone. Isolation makes the next decision worse, and the embarrassment is exactly what stops people acting quickly.

Common mistakes

• Waiting to see whether the money comes back — Recovery chances fall sharply within hours. Contact the bank immediately, even in the middle of the night.
• Using the number in the message that scammed you — It reaches the same people. Always use the number printed on your bank card or the official website you navigate to yourself.
• Paying a recovery service that contacts you — That is a second scam targeting people already victimised. Legitimate recovery never comes from an unsolicited approach.

Questions people ask