If you've been scammed, the first thing to know is: you're not stupid. Scammers run this as a profession, testing scripts on thousands of people until they find what works. Millions fall for these every year, including plenty of tech-savvy people who know better in theory. Now let's focus on what you can actually do.
Step 1 — Stop all contact with the scammer
Don't respond, don't engage, and don't try to scam them back for the story. Block them on every channel they've used to reach you. Continued contact rarely gets your money back and often exposes you to a second, more targeted attempt.
Step 2 — Contact your bank or payment provider
What to say and how fast it moves depends entirely on how you paid:
- Bank transfer: call your bank immediately and request a recall, explaining clearly that it was fraud. Transfers can sometimes be stopped or reversed if caught within hours.
- Credit or debit card: request a chargeback and ask them to block the card. Card payments have the strongest built-in consumer protection of any method here.
- PayPal, Bizum, Venmo: open a formal dispute inside the app and report the recipient — don't just delete the conversation.
- Cryptocurrency: recovery is extremely difficult once a transaction confirms, but document the wallet address and transaction ID anyway — it can still matter for a police report.
- Gift cards: contact the issuing company (Google Play, Apple, Amazon) directly and report the codes as used in a scam. Chances of recovery are low, but not zero — some issuers will freeze an unused balance if you're fast.
Don't figure out the right contacts alone
Tell Nerva IR how you paid and it'll give you the exact next steps for that payment method, plus help you document everything for your bank and the police.
Step 3 — Document everything
Screenshot every message, save every email, note every phone number involved, and record transaction IDs and timestamps. This becomes your evidence file for the police report and your bank's fraud investigation — the more specific it is, the more useful it is.
Step 4 — Report it
Reporting matters even when your own money isn't recoverable — it's how law enforcement tracks scam networks across victims:
- Spain: Policía Nacional (denuncias.policia.es), or call INCIBE at 017.
- UK: Action Fraud (actionfraud.police.uk).
- US: the FTC (reportfraud.ftc.gov) and the FBI's IC3.
- Germany: the Online-Wache of your state police.
- Australia: Scamwatch (scamwatch.gov.au).
Step 5 — Secure your accounts
If you shared any password or account information as part of the scam, change it now and check every connected account for anything you don't recognize — see Someone Has My Password — What to Do Right Now for the full steps. Scams that start as a financial ask often try to grab credentials along the way too.
Step 6 — Watch for follow-up scams
Scam victims are frequently targeted a second time — by someone claiming they can recover your money for an upfront fee. This is always another scam. No legitimate recovery service asks for payment before doing anything, and your bank or the police will never contact you asking for money to "release" your funds.
Can I actually get my money back?
Being honest about this matters more than being comforting. Bank transfers and card payments have the best real chance, mainly through chargebacks and fraud recalls. Cryptocurrency and gift cards are, in most cases, gone for good once used. Across every method, speed is the biggest factor — the sooner you report, the better your odds, which is exactly why the steps above are ordered the way they are.
Europol's fraud prevention resources are a good next read if you want to understand how these scam networks actually operate — it can make the "why did this happen to me" question a lot easier to let go of.