I already paid. What now?
In order, right now
- Payment provider first. Bank, card issuer, payment app. Ask them directly: can this be stopped, recalled or charged back, and what do you need from me in the next hour?
- Secure the accounts the scammer touched. Change passwords, revoke any screen-sharing or remote-access app they had you install, remove it entirely. If you read out a verification code, tell the provider that specifically.
- Report it. US: ic3.gov and reportfraud.ftc.gov. EU/UK: your national police or national fraud reporting service. Keep the reference number.
- Keep everything. Call times and numbers, messages, transfer receipts, the account details you paid into, any gift card numbers and the physical cards.
- Tell one other person. Isolation was part of the design. Saying it out loud ends it.
What is recoverable, honestly
| How you paid | Realistic outlook | Do this |
|---|---|---|
| Credit or debit card | Strongest position — established chargeback machinery | Dispute as fraud with the issuer immediately; ask for the claim reference |
| Bank transfer | Depends on speed and on your bank's policy; funds may be recallable if the receiving account can be frozen | Ask the bank to attempt recall and to contact the receiving bank now |
| Payment app | Varies by provider and by whether the transfer was "to a friend" | Report in-app and by phone; ask what protection applies to your specific transfer type |
| Gift cards | Occasionally recoverable if the codes are unspent | Call the card issuer with the numbers; keep the cards and receipts |
| Cryptocurrency | Usually not reversible | Report anyway with the transaction hash and destination address; refuse all "recovery" offers |
Outcomes depend on your provider, your country and the facts. This page does not promise recovery, and anyone who does is selling something.
Scale, so you know you are not the exception
The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center recorded more than one million complaints in its 2025 Internet Crime Report, with reported losses above $20 billion, a 26% rise on 2024. Losses reported by people aged 60 and over reached $7.75 billion across 201,266 complaints. People who report are not outliers; they are the reason the numbers exist at all.
Source: FBI IC3 2025 Internet Crime Report (published 2026) — ic3.gov annual reports. We quote only the report's headline figures; we do not republish per-scam breakdowns we cannot trace to the report itself.
So it does not happen again
| Change | What it removes |
|---|---|
| A family code word | The impersonation. A voice can be copied; a shared memory cannot |
| Callback on a saved number, always | The controlled channel the caller needs to keep |
| The household rule: money moves last | The urgency the whole script depends on |
Frequently asked
I already paid a scammer. What do I do first?
Call the bank, card issuer or payment provider before you do anything else, and say the words fraud and unauthorised or scam payment. Speed is the single biggest factor you still control, because reversing a payment depends on it still being reachable in the system. Do that first, then report to the authorities, then tell one other person in your household so you are not making the next decisions alone.
Which payments can realistically be recovered?
Broadly: card payments have the strongest chargeback machinery behind them; bank transfers depend on how fast the receiving account can be frozen and on your bank's own reimbursement policy; gift cards are sometimes recoverable if the codes have not yet been spent, which is why you keep the cards and receipts; cryptocurrency transfers are usually not reversible at all. Ask your provider what is possible in your case rather than assuming, and never pay a second time to release the first payment.
Where do I report it?
In the United States, report to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov and to the FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov. In the EU and the UK, report to your national police or national fraud reporting service; the country-specific route is the one your own police force publishes. Reporting rarely gets your money back on its own, but complaints are how patterns get spotted and cases get built, and some banks ask for a reference number.
Someone is offering to recover my money for a fee. Is that real?
Treat it as a second scam until proven otherwise. Recovery fraud specifically targets people who have already lost money, often using details only the original scammer would know, and sometimes impersonating the police or a law firm. No legitimate agency charges you an upfront fee to get stolen funds back. If someone contacts you unprompted about recovering your loss, hang up and call the agency back on a number you looked up yourself.
How do I stop it happening again?
Three durable changes. Agree a family code word so an urgent voice can be checked in seconds. Make callback-on-a-saved-number the household rule for any request involving money, codes or account access. And tell your bank you want additional verification on unusual transfers. The scam relied on speed and isolation; each of those three removes one of them.
Set up a code word todayOfficial reporting routes
Written by the AGI Scorecard editorial desk (about us). Not legal or financial advice. Last updated 2026-09-15.