Where to report it

A report rarely gets money back. It goes into databases investigators search, and it gives you a report number a bank, credit bureau, or refund claim may ask for.

If it’s happening now

Money just left your account. Stop replying to them. Call your bank or the payment company on the number on your card or in the app. If they had a password, a code, or your computer, change those passwords from a device you trust. Reports come after that. Steps by how you paid: I paid or sent money.

You sent a wire or crypto. File at ic3.gov at the same time as the bank call, or the minute you hang up, with every transaction detail you have.

Someone is coming to collect cash, gold, or your card, or threatening to hurt you. Call 911.

You’re 60 or older, or helping someone who is. The Justice Department’s National Elder Fraud Hotline has case managers who walk you through the federal, state, and local reports. It’s free. Scammers pose as hotline staff, so don’t give a caller money or your Social Security number.

Scripts below: the first is for the police, the second for the Elder Fraud Hotline, the last two for your bank.

What to say

• I want to file a police report for a scam. I lost money, and I need a report number for my bank, even if you can't investigate it.

• I'm calling for someone in my family who's over 60. They sent money to a scammer, and we need help working out which reports to file.

• I've filed with the FTC and the FBI. Can you add these report numbers to my fraud case?

• Can you send me that decision in writing, with the documents you based it on?

Where to report, by what happened

Any scam, even if you lost nothing

ReportFraud.ftc.gov, or in Spanish, ReporteFraude.ftc.gov. Can’t use the website? Call the FTC at 877-382-4357. More than 2,000 law enforcement partners can see FTC reports, and the FTC uses them to build cases. It can’t resolve yours. You can also report to your state attorney general.

You lost money or personal information

Also file at ic3.gov, the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center. It covers almost any scam that used the internet, and IC3 counts almost all phone calls as internet. Analysts send complaints on to law enforcement. IC3 doesn’t investigate them itself.

Someone used your name, Social Security number, or accounts

IdentityTheft.gov, or 877-438-4338. You get a recovery plan and an FTC Identity Theft Report, which credit bureaus and lenders ask for when you get fake accounts removed.

A company wants a police report

Call your local police on the non-emergency number. Ask for the report number even if they say they can’t investigate. Some refunds depend on it. Arizona, for one, requires a crypto ATM company to refund a new customer who reports the fraud within 30 days and brings a police report.

Only if it fits

• A scam text. Forward it to 7726 (SPAM).
• A fake email asking you to sign in or pay. Forward it to [email protected], and mark it as spam or junk in your email.
• Robocalls, or your number showing up on calls you didn’t make. ReportFraud.ftc.gov (choose “Just An Annoying Call”), or the FCC, which regulates phone companies. For a spoofed number: Phone, then Unwanted Calls/Texts, then “My own number is being spoofed.”
• Someone claiming to be Social Security. The Social Security Office of the Inspector General.
• Someone claiming to be the IRS. Calls: the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, 800-366-4484. Emails: forward to [email protected] with the subject “IRS.” Texts: forward to 7726, then send the details to [email protected] with the subject “Text.”
• Medicare charges you don’t recognize. Call Medicare at 1-800-633-4227.
• Cash or checks you mailed, or a scam that came by mail. U.S. Postal Inspection Service, 1-877-876-2455.
• An investment, broker, or adviser. The SEC’s tips and complaints form. Currency (forex) or futures trading: the CFTC.
• Sexual images of someone under 18, or threats to share them. NCMEC’s CyberTipline online, or 1-800-843-5678, any time. Also tell the FBI at tips.fbi.gov. To get the images taken down: Take It Down (NCMEC). Full steps, any age: Someone is threatening to share photos of me.
• Someone is taking an older adult’s money: a caregiver, a relative, a new “friend.” Adult Protective Services in their state: Adult Protective Services, by state.
• The fake profile, listing, ad, or account. Report it inside the app or site where you found it, after you’ve taken screenshots.

The bank or payment company won’t help

If you sent the money yourself, the bank may call it authorized and say no. Ask for that decision in writing. Then complain to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the federal agency that oversees banks and payment apps, or call 855-411-2372. It sends the complaint to the company. Most respond within 15 days; some take up to 60. A complaint won’t force a refund the bank doesn’t owe you.

What it looks like

Scammers fake the reporting sites, and they call people who lost money pretending to follow up.

You lost $3,800 to a fake crypto trading site. You've called your bank. Now you search for the FBI's complaint site.

fbi internet crime complaint center

Sponsored
ic3-gov.org
Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) | File a Complaint Online
Report online fraud, crypto theft, and scams to federal investigators. File in minutes.

Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3)
www.ic3.gov
File a complaint with the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center about online fraud and other internet crime.

Both results say IC3. What do you do?

• Tap the top result. It goes straight to the complaint form
• Tap the second result once you've checked it reads ic3.gov
• Close the search and type www.ic3.gov into the address bar

Show the answers

• Wrong move Tap the top result. It goes straight to the complaint form It's an ad. In September 2025 the FBI warned that fake IC3 sites collect names, addresses, and bank details, and said to skip sponsored results.
• Okay Tap the second result once you've checked it reads ic3.gov That's the real address, so it works. The FBI still says to type it in rather than search: the copies use addresses that differ by a word or an ending.
• Best move Close the search and type www.ic3.gov into the address bar That's the FBI's own advice. Then check the address still reads www.ic3.gov and ends in .gov before you fill anything in.

Type the reporting site's address yourself: reportfraud.ftc.gov, www.ic3.gov, identitytheft.gov. All of them end in .gov, and none of them charge you.

Nine days ago you filed at ReportFraud.ftc.gov about $2,600 you lost to fake tech support.

(202) 555-0187

Incoming call · 11:06 AM

1. Caller Good morning. This is Agent Mark Collins with the Federal Trade Commission, badge number 31608. I'm calling about the $2,600 you lost to the tech support company. You filed a report with us about it.
2. Caller Can you read me your report number so I can pull up your file?
3. Caller That company is part of a case we're closing this week, and you're on the list for restitution of the $2,600.
4. Caller I'm texting you my federal ID now so you know who you're speaking with.
5. A text arrives with a photo of an ID card: an FTC seal and "Mark Collins, Special Agent."
6. Caller To release the payment, I'll need the routing and account number where you'd like it deposited.

You did file a report, and he knows the amount. What do you do?

• Read him the report number, but don't give him your bank details
• Ask for a number to call him back on, and call it
• Hang up. If you want to check, call the FTC on the number listed at ftc.gov

Show the answers

• Wrong move Read him the report number, but don't give him your bank details The FTC says that if it ever calls about your report, the caller will already have the reference number. A caller who asks you for it isn't the FTC. Staying on the line just gives him more time.
• Wrong move Ask for a number to call him back on, and call it A number he gives you reaches him. The ID photo proves nothing either. The FTC says a real employee won't text you their ID, and that it doesn't have agents.
• Best move Hang up. If you want to check, call the FTC on the number listed at ftc.gov A number you look up yourself reaches the FTC. He can know the amount because scammers buy and trade lists of people who already lost money. A real FTC caller won't ask for your account numbers to pay a refund.

A follow-up call about a report you really filed can still be fake. A real FTC caller already has your report number and never asks for money or your account numbers.

Filing the report

Have ready: what happened, in order. Dates, amounts, and how you paid. Every name, phone number, email, website, account, and crypto wallet address (the long string of letters and numbers you sent to) they used. Leave out what you don’t know rather than guess.

Paste, don’t attach. Neither the FTC nor IC3 takes attachments. Paste the text of messages into the report, and keep the originals. Save evidence without spiraling.

Save or print your copy before you leave the page. Both sites show it once, when you submit. The FTC emails only the report number, and only if you gave an email address. IC3 sends nothing.

Filing for someone else is allowed on both sites. Say so on the form.

Remembered something later? File a new report that says it adds to the first one. On the FTC form, put the old report number in the comments.

Keep the numbers together: the bank’s case number, the FTC report number, the police report number, each with the date and who you spoke to. Give the FTC and police numbers to the bank’s fraud team.

What happens after

Usually, nothing you’ll see. Neither the FTC nor IC3 gives status updates, and IC3 says you won’t hear from it. If an FTC case later gets money back, the FTC will try to reach the people who lost it.

A call about your loss after you’ve reported it is often the next scam. Scammers buy and trade lists of people who already lost money. Anyone who offers to recover it for a fee is running a second scam, whoever they say they are. Someone offers to get my money back.

“IC3 has recovered your funds. There’s a release fee.” IC3 never contacts you for information or money, and never sends you to a company that charges to recover funds.

“I’m an attorney working with the FBI on your case.” IC3 doesn’t work with law firms or crypto services to recover lost funds.

What not to waste time on

Filing everywhere. Stop at the reports that fit what happened. More than 2,000 law enforcement partners can already see an FTC report.

Filing reports before you call the bank. The bank call is the one that can stop money. Most reports can wait a few hours. For a wire or crypto, file at ic3.gov at the same time as the bank call.

Paying anyone to file for you. You can file every report on this page yourself, for free.