If it already happened

Move quickly, in this order. Feel whatever you're feeling afterwards — the next hour matters more.

Before anything else

This was not your fault, and being embarrassed will cost you money.

These operations are run by organized, full-time professionals with scripts refined on thousands of people. Doctors fall for them. Bank managers fall for them. The only thing that helps now is speed, and speed requires telling someone.

The first hour

Call your bank on the number on the back of your card. Say the words "I think I've been scammed" — that phrase routes you to the right team. Ask them to freeze the card or account, reverse anything pending, and put a note on the file.
If you sent a bank transfer or used a payment app, tell them immediately and ask them to attempt a recall. Ask directly whether you are eligible for reimbursement, and get the claim reference number.
Then file at ic3.gov the same day. Not next week — see the box below. This is the one report that can actually get your money back.
If you bought gift cards, keep the cards and the receipts and call the number for that brand of card right away. Funds are sometimes still frozen if the scammer hasn't drained them yet.
If someone was on your computer, disconnect it from the internet and shut it down. Assume anything you were logged into is compromised, and do the next step from a different device — a phone is fine.
Change your email password first, before your bank's. Email is the master key: whoever holds it can reset everything else. Then change any password you reused elsewhere.
Switch on two-factor authentication for email and banking while you're in there. It is the single best thing you'll do all week.

If real money left your account, this is the one that matters

File at ic3.gov within roughly 72 hours.

The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center runs a Recovery Asset Team that can work with banks to freeze a fraudulent transfer before the money is gone — published figures put their freeze rate somewhere around 58% to 74% depending on the year. But it hinges almost entirely on speed. After about three days the odds fall away sharply, because the money has been moved on and split up. Call your bank first, then file. Hardly anyone knows this exists, and it is the only report that can get your own money back — see Does reporting help? for what all the others actually do.

The first day or two

Freeze your credit at all three bureaus — Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. It's free, it takes minutes at each, and it stops anyone opening new accounts in your name. You can lift it temporarily whenever you need to.
Report it. Reporting rarely recovers money directly, but it builds the case that gets these operations shut down, and some banks ask for a report number:
- reportfraud.ftc.gov — the Federal Trade Commission, for any scam.
- IdentityTheft.gov — if personal details were taken. It generates a personalized recovery plan and the letters you'll need.
- ic3.gov — the FBI's internet crime center, for anything online, and especially where real money was lost.
- Your local police — for a report number. Banks and insurers often want one.
Call the AARP Fraud Watch Network Helpline: 877-908-3360. Free, and open to anyone — you don't have to be a member. Trained volunteers talk you through what to do next, and they are notably kind about the part where you feel foolish. Weekdays, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern.
Get the computer properly cleaned if anyone had remote access, by a repair shop or a trusted person. Don't just delete the program they installed.
Write down what happened while it's fresh: times, numbers, names, amounts, what was said. You'll be asked more than once, and memory fades fast.

⚠️ Now brace for the second wave — this one catches people twice Within days or weeks, someone will contact you offering to recover the money you lost. They may claim to be a lawyer, a "fund recovery" firm, a fraud investigator, or even the police. They will know real details about what happened to you, because victim lists are sold on.

It is the same people, or their colleagues, coming back for the rest. Nobody who is legitimate charges an upfront fee to recover scam losses. Recovery goes through your bank, the official reporting sites above, and nowhere else. Being scammed once makes you a target, not a fool.

In the weeks after

Read every statement line by line for a few months. Small test charges often come before large ones.
Expect more attempts across every channel. Your details are now on a list marked "responds."
If the bank says no, that isn't the end. Ask for the decision in writing, ask for their complaints process, and escalate. Decisions do get overturned, particularly when you were deceived rather than careless.
Tell your family what happened. Not as a confession — as a warning. The same script is being read to them next.
Be gentle with yourself. The financial loss is usually the smaller injury. Feeling stupid, or no longer trusting your own judgment, is the part that lingers, and it's worth talking to someone about.

Worth saying plainly

Nobody who loves you will think less of you for this.

The shame is manufactured. It's the last tool in the kit, and it exists for one reason — to keep you quiet long enough for the money to be gone. Make the call.

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