If you or someone you care about has been targeted by a scam, you are not alone and it is not your fault. Scams are professionally run operations designed to work on smart, careful people. The resources below are where real help lives.

If money moved recently, act now

Time matters most in the first hours and days. Contact your bank, card issuer, or the payment platform (wire service, payment app, crypto exchange) immediately and ask them to recall, reverse, or freeze the transaction. Even if you are not sure it will work, ask. Then report it: in the U.S., to the FBI's IC3 (below); elsewhere, to your country's service under Outside the United States. For wire transfers, the sooner you report, the better the chance the transfer can still be stopped or recalled.

Where to report

  • FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3): ic3.gov. The primary U.S. reporting channel for internet-enabled fraud, especially if money was lost.
  • Federal Trade Commission: reportfraud.ftc.gov. Report any fraud or scam, with or without financial loss.
  • AARP Fraud Watch Network Helpline: 877-908-3360. Free, for people of any age (you do not need to be an AARP member). Trained volunteers who will listen and help you figure out next steps.
  • Your state Attorney General: most state AG offices have a consumer protection division that takes scam complaints. Find yours at naag.org/find-my-ag.
  • Local police: file a report even if recovery is unlikely. A police report creates documentation you may need for banks, insurers, or credit bureaus.

Outside the United States

The channels above are for the U.S. If you are elsewhere, use your country's service below, and act quickly, especially if money moved.

  • United Kingdom: Report Fraud (City of London Police), reportfraud.police.uk, phone 0300 123 2040. Covers England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, call Police Scotland on 101.
  • Canada: Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, antifraudcentre-centreantifraude.ca, toll-free 1-888-495-8501.
  • Australia: Scamwatch (National Anti-Scam Centre), scamwatch.gov.au. If accounts or devices were compromised, also report to ReportCyber.
  • New Zealand: Netsafe for scams, netsafe.org.nz. For compromised accounts or devices, contact the NCSC (ncsc.govt.nz, 0800 114 115).
  • Ireland: there is no national online scam-reporting portal. Report fraud to your local Garda station in person or by phone. In an emergency, call 999 or 112. More information at garda.ie.
  • Singapore: ScamShield, scamshield.gov.sg, 24/7 helpline 1799.
  • India: National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal, cybercrime.gov.in, helpline 1930. Call quickly: reporting within hours improves the chance of freezing transferred funds.
  • Everywhere else: report to your national police or consumer-protection authority.

Every link and phone number on this page was checked against the official source in July 2026. Services do change, so if a number does not connect, go to the official website listed here and use the contact details published there.

Support beyond reporting

Reporting is only part of recovering from a scam. For emotional support, counseling, and peer recovery groups, Operation Shamrock maintains a curated list of victim-support organizations, including free mental health services for scam survivors and their families.

If the scam is still happening

If someone is pressuring you right now to move money, buy gift cards, withdraw cash, or keep a secret, stop contact, do not send anything else, and talk to someone you trust before you take another step. Scammers rely on pressure and secrecy to keep you from stopping to think, and on a trusted name, like your bank, a government agency, or someone you love, to make the demand feel real. No real bank or government agency will ask you to pay with gift cards or crypto, or to move your money to keep it safe. If the request seems to come from someone you know, contact them on a number you already have, not one the caller gives you.

What SC&MS can and cannot do

SC&MS is a research framework for classifying how scams work. We cannot investigate individual cases, recover lost funds, or provide legal advice. If you write to us about a scam you experienced, we will read it with care and point you to the resources on this page, but the organizations above are the ones equipped to actually help.

SC&MS does not provide any recovery service, and no one will ever contact you on our behalf about getting your money back. If someone reaches out offering to recover your funds, or asks for a fee to do so, it is a scam. Lists of scam victims circulate, and "recovery services" that find you are almost always a second scam aimed at the same people. The only parties that can sometimes reverse a transfer are your own bank, the payment platform, and law enforcement.