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Stop sending money, stop communicating with the suspected scammers, and contact the bank, card issuer, wire service, payment app, or crypto platform you used. Ask whether it can stop, recall, dispute, or freeze the transaction; do not assume a reversal is possible. Save the evidence, report the fraud through the appropriate official channels, and ignore anyone who asks for an upfront fee to recover your money.
What to do immediately
- Stop payments and contact. Do not send another payment or respond to demands for taxes, account verification, unlocking, or withdrawal fees. Use contact details you verify independently—not a phone number or link from the person who approached you. The SEC advises suspected victims to stop communicating and give the scammers no more money; the FBI gives similar advice for crypto scams. SEC guidance on relationship investment scams; FBI/IC3 and ABA Foundation crypto-scam guidance.
- Contact the payment provider promptly. Tell the institution or service that you were induced to make a fraudulent investment payment. Ask what options apply to that specific transaction, including whether it can be stopped, recalled, disputed, or whether the receiving account can be frozen. Provide transaction details and follow its instructions.
- Save evidence before it disappears. Keep payment receipts and dates; amounts; recipient names and account details; crypto wallet addresses and transaction IDs; the website, app, or platform name; phone numbers, email addresses, usernames, messages, and screenshots. Save any video or voice messages, too. Do not delete the conversation or reset a device before preserving relevant material.
- Report the fraud. File an FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) report for cyber-enabled or crypto investment fraud. Report suspected securities or investment fraud to the SEC, and consumer fraud to the FTC. If someone misused your personal information, use IdentityTheft.gov for identity-theft recovery steps. Commodity or precious-metals investment fraud may also be relevant to the CFTC. Agency reports create a record and can help authorities identify patterns, but do not guarantee repayment. See the FBI’s reporting guidance, SEC guidance, and the FTC’s investment-scam guidance.
- Protect accounts and identity information. Tell your bank or other relevant institutions if you shared login credentials, account details, identity documents, or tax forms. Change exposed passwords and secure affected accounts. Do not give additional personal or financial information to someone who contacts you claiming to help.
What to ask depends on how you paid
The provider that handled the payment is the first place to ask about options. The available steps depend on the payment method, the provider’s procedures, and how quickly you report it; there is no single reversal deadline or entitlement established for every kind of transaction.
| How you paid | Who to contact | What to ask |
|---|---|---|
| Bank transfer or wire | Your bank or the wire service | Whether the transfer can be stopped or recalled, whether the receiving account can be flagged or frozen, and what transaction details it needs. |
| Card | Your card issuer | Whether you can dispute the charge and what documentation it requires. |
| Payment app | The app’s official support channel and, if linked, your bank or card issuer | Whether the payment can be reversed, disputed, or reported, and whether the recipient account can be reviewed. |
| Cryptocurrency | The exchange or platform used to send the funds, if any | Whether it can flag or freeze an account under its own process, and how to submit wallet addresses and transaction IDs. |
| Cash or courier handoff | Local law enforcement and the relevant reporting agency | How to report the handoff and preserve any messages, vehicle or courier details, and other evidence. |
For cryptocurrency, recovery can be difficult, and funds may quickly move overseas. Exchanges may freeze accounts under their own processes or in response to legal process, but a private recovery firm cannot issue a seizure order. The SEC’s crypto-scam guidance and FBI guidance on crypto recovery claims describe these limits; neither establishes that a particular transaction can be reversed.
Report with enough detail to be useful
When filing an IC3 complaint, give a clear timeline and include as much of the following as you can:
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- How and when the contact began, and the names, usernames, or company names used.
- Phone numbers, email addresses, websites, messaging apps, and other communication channels.
- Payment dates and amounts, recipient names, financial institutions, and account numbers.
- For crypto payments, wallet addresses, transaction IDs, exchange or wallet details, and the amounts sent.
- Screenshots, messages, receipts, and other records that show the offer, payment instructions, or later demands.
The FBI’s 2026 alert specifically asks victims to provide the contacting person or company, communication methods, bank accounts and wallets, recipients, and app or message screenshots when possible. Choose reporting routes that match what happened: IC3 for cyber-enabled crime, the SEC for suspected securities fraud, the FTC for consumer fraud, and the CFTC where commodity or precious-metals investment fraud is involved. Reporting does not replace contacting the payment provider.
Do not pay someone who promises to recover the money
Scammers often target people after an initial loss by posing as recovery experts, lawyers, regulators, or tracing firms. Treat unsolicited offers and claims that funds have already been located with particular caution. Do not pay an upfront fee, share identity or banking data, or provide wallet access to someone who contacts you unexpectedly.
The FBI warns that private-sector recovery companies cannot issue cryptocurrency seizure orders and that fraudsters may take an initial fee, disappear, or demand more. The SEC also warns that scammers impersonate regulators or law firms and demand upfront payments to release funds. As the FBI puts it, “Law enforcement does not charge victims a fee for investigating crimes.” Read the FBI’s recovery-company warning and its alert about fictitious law firms targeting crypto-scam victims.
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One free scan finds every outdated or missing driver and matches the right update for your exact hardware.Free scan · exact hardware matchWhy a convincing deepfake is not proof of a real investment
Fraudsters may use AI to clone, alter, or fake voices, images, and videos to deceive investors. A familiar face, convincing voice, live-looking video, or professional-looking trading dashboard does not establish who is behind an offer or whether displayed returns are real. Rather than relying on visual glitches to identify a deepfake, stop direct contact and verify organizations through contact details you find independently. The SEC describes AI-enabled deception in its crypto-asset scam alert; the FBI/ABA Foundation infographic also identifies deepfake videos, voices, and images as tools criminals use to mask identities.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How widespread are related losses?
The FBI’s 2023 Internet Crime Report recorded $3.96 billion in reported investment fraud with a reference to cryptocurrency, up from $2.57 billion in 2022—a 53% increase. Those figures are reported losses for that category, not totals for every deepfake scam or all actual losses. Separately, the FBI reported that victims lost more than $9.9 million between February 2023 and February 2024 to fictitious law firms offering to recover money from crypto scams. Neither statistic is a current 2026 total specific to deepfake investment-scam victims. Sources: the FBI 2023 Internet Crime Report and its 2024 fictitious-law-firm alert.
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