I sent money to a scammer, or shared payment details. What do I do?

By Muhammad Imran · Last updated October 2026

Take a breath. You are not too late, and you are not the first person this has happened to. What you do in the next hour matters more than what happened in the last minute.

This page is for two situations that often go together. You clicked a link in a text, an email, or an ad, and you are worried about what it did. Or you already sent money, and you need to know what can still be done. The steps below are in the order that helps most. Work through them one at a time. If you get stuck, ask a trusted family member or friend to sit with you while you make the calls.

One rule runs through every step on this page: use only contact details you find yourself. Do not use a phone number, a link, or a reply button from the suspicious message. Scammers control those. Your bank card, a paper statement you already have, and a website address you type in yourself are the safe routes.

Step 1: Call your bank first

If money, a card number, a bank login, or any account detail may be involved, the bank call comes before everything else. Do not wait until you have finished reading this page. Do not wait until morning if you can call now. The number on the back of your card will get you to your bank's fraud help.

If you are nervous about what to say, read this out loud. It covers what the bank needs to hear:

"Hello. I think I gave my information to a scammer, and I may have sent them money. I need you to freeze my card, stop any payments you can still stop, and give me a new card number. Please also put a fraud note on my account, and tell me what I should watch for next."

If you only clicked a link and did not pay anything, change the first sentence to: "Hello. I clicked a link in a suspicious message, and I am worried my account information may be at risk."

Before you hang up, ask for three things and write them down:

• The name of the person you spoke with.
• The time of the call.
• A case number, if they give you one.

Ask plainly whether any payments are still pending and can be stopped, and whether your account needs a new number, not just a new card. A new card with the same account number does not always close the door. If the bank says a new account number is needed, ask what happens to your regular payments and deposits, so nothing important is missed while the change goes through.

If more than one bank or card is involved, call each one. Start with the account that lost money or that you logged into from the suspicious page. Then work through the rest. If you share an account with a spouse or family member, tell them what happened so they are not surprised by a frozen card, and so they can watch the account with you.

Step 2: Cards and accounts: freeze, replace, and check

Freezing a card stops new charges on that card while you sort things out. It is a pause, not a punishment, and your bank can explain how to unfreeze it once a replacement is on the way. Ask for a new card number for every card you used on the suspicious page, or that you gave to the caller or sender. If you entered a debit card number, that card is tied straight to your bank account, so tell the bank that too, and ask them to check for withdrawals you do not recognize.

Next, look at your recent statements with fresh eyes. Check bank statements and card statements line by line, including small charges. Scammers sometimes test a card with a tiny purchase before they try a large one, so a small charge you do not recognize is worth reporting, not ignoring. Tell the bank about every charge you do not recognize, even if it looks small, and ask what to do about each one.

Then think about the regular payments tied to a replaced card. Subscriptions, utility bills, and other automatic payments may fail when the old number stops working. Make a short list of them, and update each one with the new card number once it arrives. Do this from the real website of each company, or by calling a number you already trust, not from a link in a message.

If your monthly benefits or a pension payment go into an account that has been changed, ask the bank what happens to the next deposit. Write down their answer. If a letter later arrives about that account, our free Letter Explainer can help you read it in plain English before you act on it.

Step 3: Passwords: change them in this order

Change your passwords now, but change them in the right order. The order matters because one account can unlock the others.

1. Your email account first. Password reset messages go to your email. If a scammer controls your email, they can reset other passwords for you. Change the email password before anything else, and pick one you have not used anywhere else.
2. Your bank and credit card accounts second. Change the login password for every bank and card account you may have exposed, even if the bank has already frozen the card. A frozen card and a changed password protect you in two different ways.
3. Everything else third. Work through shopping accounts, social media, and any other account that uses the same password, or that you logged into from the suspicious page. If you used the same password in more than one place, change it in every place. That is the hardest part, and it is also the most important.

Pick passwords that are long and different for each important account. A short sentence you can remember, with a mix of words, is often easier to keep than a jumble of characters you will forget and write on a sticky note. If a site offers an extra check at sign-in, such as a code sent to your phone, turn that on for your email and bank accounts. It means a stolen password alone is not enough to get in.

Change passwords on a device you trust, not on a phone or computer that a stranger has just been controlling. If a caller talked you into letting them into your computer, see Step 4 before you type new passwords into that machine.

Step 4: Your phone and computer: what to check, and what not to click next

Do not click the link again to see what it was. Do not reply to the message to tell the sender to stop. A reply tells them your number is active, and it can bring more messages. Do not download anything the message offers, and do not install an app or a program because a caller or a pop-up told you to.

If a pop-up on your computer claims your device is infected and tells you to call a number, close the browser window instead of calling. If you cannot close it, turn the computer off and back on, and do not call the number on the screen. Our tech support scam guide explains this trick in full.

If you let someone take control of your computer or phone, or you installed something at their request, stop using that device for banking until you have had help with it. Disconnect it from the internet if you can, and ask a trusted person, or the company that made the device, how to remove the program. Do not pay the same caller, or anyone who contacts you out of the blue, to clean it up. That is often the same scam wearing a new hat.

Check your phone and computer for changes you did not make: new apps you do not recognize, a changed home page, or messages sent from your accounts that you did not write. If you find something odd, save a note about it, with the date, before you remove it. Then change your passwords from a different, trusted device, as described in Step 3.

Going forward, get into one habit that stops most of these messages cold: never log in, pay, or confirm personal details from a link in a message. Close the message, open the real website yourself or call a number you trust, and start from there.

Step 5: If you already paid: what to do by payment type

The bank call in Step 1 is still the first move, whatever you used to pay. What happens next depends on how the money left your hands. In every case, save your receipts and be honest with the bank about exactly what happened. The bank can only help with what it knows.

• Credit or debit card. Tell the card company the charge was a scam. Ask about disputing the charge and about a replacement card number. Keep the receipt, the statement line, and the case number together.
• Bank transfer or wire. Tell your bank right away and ask whether the transfer can still be stopped or recalled. The sooner you call, the better your chances, but a completed transfer is hard to reverse. Ask the bank to explain, in plain words, what it can and cannot try.
• Gift cards. Call the card company using the number on the back of the card, or on the receipt, and ask whether the balance can be frozen. Keep the cards and the receipts, even if the balance is already gone. The numbers on them are part of your proof.
• Cash sent by mail or courier. Tell your bank and the police, as described in Step 6. Cash is the hardest payment to recover. Save the tracking slip, the address you sent it to, and any message that told you to send it.
• Cryptocurrency. Tell your bank and report it as described in Step 6. Cryptocurrency payments are very hard to reverse. Save the wallet address, the transaction record, and every message about the payment. Do not send more money to anyone who promises to get it back.

Watch out for the recovery scam that often follows. Days or weeks later, someone may contact you claiming they can get your money back, find the scammer, or unlock your account, for a fee paid up front. Real banks, police, and government agencies do not work that way. If you paid once, do not pay again to chase the first payment. Report the new contact too, and see our scam recovery guide for the warning signs.

Step 6: Report it, in this order

Reporting takes a few minutes, and it does two things at once. It creates a record that your bank or police may ask for, and it helps investigators spot the same scam hitting other people. You do not need to prove everything before you report. Report what you know, and say clearly what you are unsure about.

1. Your bank or card company. This is first whenever money or account details are involved, as in Step 1.
2. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC). File a report at ReportFraud.ftc.gov. The FTC collects scam reports from across the country, and your report helps show how a scam is spreading.
3. The FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3). File a report at ic3.gov, especially if the scam came through the internet, email, or a website. Keep a copy of what you submitted, and any confirmation number you receive.
4. The Elder Fraud Hotline. Call 1-833-372-8311 for help and guidance after a fraud. The person on the line can talk through what happened and point you toward the right next step.
5. Your local police, on the non-emergency number. Look the number up yourself, rather than using a number from the suspicious message. Ask for a report number, and write it down. Your bank may ask for that number when you dispute a charge or a transfer.

If the scam pretended to be a particular agency or company, report it to that agency or company as well, using contact details you find yourself. For example, if the message pretended to be Medicare, call Medicare at 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227). If it pretended to be Social Security, call the Social Security Administration at 1-800-772-1213, or its fraud line at 1-800-269-0271. If it pretended to be your bank, your bank call in Step 1 already covers it. See also our fake bank text guide and our Medicare scam guide for the exact scripts those versions use.

Step 7: What to save as proof

Before you delete anything, save a copy of it. Proof helps your bank, helps the police, and helps you remember details later when you are asked about them. You do not need a perfect file. A folder, an envelope, or a notebook page will do, as long as it is all in one place.

• The original message, as a screenshot or a photo, including the sender name or number.
• The link, if you can see it without clicking it again.
• The date and time you received it, clicked it, or paid.
• How much you paid, how you paid, and any receipt or tracking slip.
• The name, phone number, website, or account details the scammer gave you.
• Your bank case numbers, FTC and IC3 confirmation numbers, and your police report number.
• Notes about every call you made: who you spoke with, when, and what they told you.

Once you have saved copies, you can delete the original message from your phone so you do not tap it by accident later. Keep the copies somewhere safe, and bring them with you if you visit your bank in person.

Step 8: What to tell family

Tell someone you trust, soon. You do not have to tell everyone, and you do not have to tell the story perfectly. One trusted person is enough to start. They can sit with you during the bank call, help you check statements, and keep an eye out for follow-up messages while you are still shaken.

If you are not sure how to start, try this:

"I got a message that looked real, and I clicked it [or: I sent money before I realized it was a scam]. I have called the bank, and I am working through the steps. Can you sit with me while I finish the reports, and help me watch for anything strange over the next few weeks?"

If you are the family member reading this for a parent or grandparent, start with reassurance, not blame. Ask what happened, help with the bank call, and write down the case numbers together. Check in again in a week, because follow-up scam messages often arrive after the first one, when the person is still hoping the money will come back.

It also helps to warn the people around you in plain terms: "If you get a message like this one, do not click it. Call the company yourself instead." That one sentence, passed on, is how a single report turns into protection for a whole family.

The honest reassurance: acting fast limits damage, it does not undo everything

Calling the bank quickly, freezing cards, changing passwords, and reporting the scam all limit what a scammer can do next. That is real, and it is worth doing even if some money is already gone. It can stop a second charge, close off an account, and keep a stolen password from opening more doors.

What fast action cannot do is guarantee a refund. Some payments can be stopped or disputed. Others, especially cash and cryptocurrency, usually cannot be recovered once they are gone. Anyone who guarantees a full refund, or who asks you to pay a fee to get your money back, should be treated as a new scam, not as help.

None of this is a judgment on you. Scammers work full time at sounding urgent, official, and believable. They use real company names, real-looking websites, and threats timed to make you act before you think. Being caught by that does not make you careless. It makes you a target of a professional trick, and the steps on this page are how you take control back.

Keep watching your statements for the next few months, not just the next few days. If a charge appears that you do not recognize, report it to your bank right away, the same way you did the first time. If a letter arrives that you do not understand, or that demands payment, check it with our Letter Explainer before you pay anything or call any number printed on it.

Next time: check before you click or pay

The best time to use a checker is before you act, not after. Next time a message asks you to click, pay, confirm details, or act urgently, pause and paste the message into our free Scam Checker first. It will give you a plain-English verdict on what the message looks like. A clean result does not prove it is safe, so if you are still unsure, call the company yourself using a number you trust, and do not act until you have checked.

That one pause, paste the message before you do anything else next time, is the habit that turns this bad experience into protection for the next message, and the one after that.

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Sources: Federal Trade Commission (ReportFraud.ftc.gov); FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (ic3.gov); Elder Fraud Hotline 1-833-372-8311; Medicare 1-800-633-4227; Social Security Administration 1-800-772-1213 and SSA fraud line 1-800-269-0271. General guidance only, not legal or financial advice. Last updated October 2026.

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