What to Do if You Paid a Scammer
Act now and read later. With most payment methods, the first few hours matter more than anything else you will do.
Two things decide whether you get your money back: how you paid, and how quickly you report it. Everything below is organized around those two facts.
If you are reading this in a panic, do the three things in the next section, then come back for the detail on your payment method.
Do these three things first
1. Contact the payment provider now. Your bank, card issuer, or the app you paid through. Use the number on the back of your card or in the official app, not any number the scammer gave you. Say clearly: "I have been the victim of a scam and I need to report a fraudulent transaction."
2. Write down everything while it is fresh. Names used, phone numbers, email addresses, the website, wallet addresses or account numbers, exact amounts, dates and times, and screenshots of every message. This is what every later step depends on.
3. Secure anything they touched. If you gave login details, change those passwords and turn on two-factor authentication. If you gave card or bank details, have the card replaced. If you let them install remote-access software, disconnect the device from the internet and have it checked.
Then work through the section for how you paid.
By payment method, best odds first
Credit card — the strongest position
Report it to your issuer immediately and ask to dispute the charge as fraudulent.
The Fair Credit Billing Act, the federal law covering credit card billing, caps your liability for unauthorized charges at $50, and in practice all major issuers apply zero-liability policies. If you were tricked into authorizing the payment yourself, it is not technically an unauthorized transaction, but you can still dispute it as goods or services not received or not as described, and those disputes often succeed.
Report within 60 days of the statement containing the charge.
Debit card — act within two business days
Same call, more urgency, because this is your actual money.
Under the Electronic Fund Transfer Act, the federal law covering debit cards and bank transfers, your liability depends entirely on timing:
| When you report | Your maximum liability |
|---|---|
| Within 2 business days of learning of the loss | $50 |
| After 2 business days, within 60 days of the statement | $500 |
| More than 60 days after the statement | Potentially unlimited |
That two-business-day window is the single most important deadline in this article. Call, then follow up in writing.
The bank generally has 10 business days to investigate, and must usually give you provisional credit if it needs longer — a temporary refund that stands while the investigation runs —, though the timeline can extend for new accounts and some point-of-sale and foreign transactions.
PayPal — check whether Purchase Protection applies
Open a dispute in the Resolution Center immediately.
PayPal's Purchase Protection can cover items that never arrived or were significantly not as described, but it generally does not cover money sent using "Friends and Family". Scammers push people toward Friends and Family precisely for that reason.
If you paid with a card through PayPal, you may also be able to dispute with your card issuer.
Zelle, Venmo, Cash App — fast, but limited
These are built to work like cash, and that is the problem. A transfer you authorized is usually final, even if you were deceived into making it.
Report it anyway, immediately, in the app and to your bank. Some transfers can be stopped if they have not yet completed, and banks do sometimes reimburse, particularly where the payment was genuinely unauthorized rather than induced.
Under Regulation E, the rule that implements that law, a genuinely unauthorized transfer — someone else got into your account and sent money — is reimbursable. A transfer you made because you were tricked generally is not, though this distinction has been the subject of active regulatory and legal attention.
Ask your bank to attempt a recall, and file a complaint with the CFPB if they refuse to investigate properly.
Bank transfer or wire — call within minutes
Wires are fast and hard to reverse, so speed is everything.
Call your bank immediately and ask for a wire recall. If the money has not yet been paid out at the receiving bank, it can sometimes be stopped. Hours matter here, not days.
For international wires, ask the bank to contact the receiving institution directly.
Gift cards — call the card issuer, not the retailer
Gift cards are a favorite scam payment method because they are near-untraceable. Recovery is unlikely but not impossible, and it depends entirely on whether the funds have been spent.
Call the number for the card brand — Apple, Google Play, Amazon, Target, Visa — not the shop you bought it from. Tell them it was used in a scam and ask them to freeze the remaining balance. Keep the card and the receipt.
Some issuers have refunded unspent balances. Move fast, because scammers usually drain them within minutes.
Cryptocurrency — treat as unrecoverable, still report
Crypto transfers are irreversible by design. There is no card company standing behind the payment to reverse it, which is what a chargeback relies on.
Report to the exchange you sent from, since exchanges can sometimes freeze funds that land in a hosted wallet they control, and report to the FBI's IC3. Record the wallet address and transaction hash.
Be especially careful here: crypto recovery services are almost universally a second scam.
Then report it properly
These do not usually get your money back directly, but they matter more than people think.
FTC — reportfraud.ftc.gov. Feeds the enforcement data behind refund programs.
FBI IC3 — ic3.gov. The right place for anything online, and essential for crypto.
Your state attorney general. Many run mediation that contacts businesses directly.
CFPB — for banks, card issuers, and payment apps that will not investigate properly. Companies must respond.
Local police. Often needed for an insurance claim or an identity-theft affidavit, even if they cannot investigate.
IdentityTheft.gov if personal data was exposed. It generates a recovery plan and an official affidavit.
How to protect your remaining accounts
Scam victims are targeted repeatedly, and lists of people who have already paid are traded.
- Freeze your credit with all three bureaus. It is free and it is the single best protection against new accounts opened in your name.
- Change passwords on financial accounts and email first, and turn on two-factor authentication.
- Watch your statements closely for small test charges.
- Expect follow-up approaches, including "we can get your money back".
Why these scams work
Being scammed is not a failure of intelligence. These operations are professional, well-resourced, and rehearsed, and they work on people of every age and background.
Consumers reported about $16 billion lost to fraud in 2025, the highest on record, and the FBI recorded more than $20.8 billion in losses across over a million complaints in the same year. Under-reporting means the real totals are considerably larger.
The people who recover money are the ones who report immediately and keep records. That is what makes the difference, not how the scam started.
What Chimo does
Chimo focuses on money you are owed: settlements, refunds, and consumer claims. Where a company's own security or billing failures contributed to harm, those cases often end in settlements that pay out years later.
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- Can I get my money back if I paid a scammer by bank transfer?
- Sometimes, if you call your bank within hours and the funds have not yet been paid out at the receiving end, in which case a wire recall may succeed. Once the money has been withdrawn it is usually gone, which is why speed matters more than anything else here.
- Does Zelle refund money lost to a scam?
- Not usually, if you authorized the payment yourself, because Regulation E reimbursement is aimed at transfers you did not authorize rather than ones you were tricked into making. Report it to your bank immediately anyway, ask for a recall, and complain to the CFPB if the bank will not investigate.
- How long do I have to report a fraudulent debit card charge?
- Report within two business days of learning about it to cap your liability at $50. After that it rises to $500 up to 60 days from the statement, and beyond 60 days you can be liable for the full amount.
- Can gift card money be recovered after a scam?
- Occasionally, if the balance has not yet been spent. Call the card brand's own fraud line rather than the shop, ask them to freeze the balance, and keep both the card and the receipt, though scammers usually drain them within minutes.
- Is it worth reporting a scam if the money is gone?
- Yes. Reports to the FTC and IC3 feed the enforcement actions and refund programs that return money to victims later, sometimes years afterwards, and a police report or identity theft affidavit is often required for other claims. Reporting also protects the next person targeted by the same operation.
- Why do I keep getting contacted after being scammed?
- Because lists of people who have already paid are sold between criminal groups, and a previous victim is a proven target. Be particularly wary of anyone offering to recover your lost money for a fee, which is a well-established follow-up scam.
Related reading
To avoid the next one, read how to tell if a text message is a scam and the most common impersonation scams. If the charge was made without you doing anything at all, see what to do if your card is charged without permission. For the national picture, see the state of consumer scams in America.
