How to Report a Scam: Where to Report It by Country

How to report a scam in the US, UK, EU, Türkiye, Canada and Australia: official channels, first steps if you sent money, and how to report scam emails.

Here is how to report a scam: stop all contact and call your bank right away if you sent money. Then use your country's official channel: ReportFraud.ftc.gov or IC3 in the United States, Report Fraud in the UK, national police in EU countries, or the cyber security authority in Türkiye. Forward scam texts to 7726.

Reports help police connect cases, help phone and email providers block the same campaign for other people, and help get fake websites added to browser blocklists. This guide explains where to report a scam, how to report a scammer on email, social media and marketplaces, and what information to include so your report is actually useful.

Quick answer: how do I report a scam?

1. Protect yourself first: stop replying, secure your accounts and call your bank or card issuer if money or card details are involved.
2. Report to the national fraud channel for the country you live in (listed below).
3. Report the message or account where you received it: your email provider, your mobile network (7726 in the US and UK) or the social media platform.
4. Report any fake website to browser blocklists and the hosting provider, so other people stop reaching it.

First steps before you report

Limit the damage first, in this order.

1. Stop contact

Do not reply, call back or click anything else. Scammers often follow up with urgent messages or offers to recover your money. Block the number or account once you have saved the evidence (screenshots, sender details, links).

2. Secure your accounts

If you typed a password into a suspicious page, change it immediately on the real website, which you should reach by typing the address yourself, not through the link you were sent. Change it anywhere else you reused it, turn on two-step verification and check your email account for forwarding rules you did not create.

3. Contact your bank or card issuer immediately if money was sent

Speed matters most here. Call the number on the back of your card or on your bank's official website and say you have been scammed. The US Federal Trade Commission's guide What To Do if You Were Scammed explains how to ask for a refund or reversal for cards, bank transfers, payment apps, wire transfers, gift cards and cryptocurrency. The same advice applies everywhere: the sooner your bank knows, the more options it has.

Where to report scams, country by country

Use the official links below, not search ads or "recovery services" that contact you.

United States

• Federal Trade Commission: report scams, fraud and bad business practices at ReportFraud.ftc.gov. The FTC says reports help it build cases, spot trends and warn the public.
• FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3): report online fraud and cyber-enabled crime at ic3.gov. IC3 is run by the FBI and encourages you to file even if you are unsure whether your case qualifies.
• Scam text messages: copy the message and forward it to 7726 (SPAM), as the FTC's guidance on spam texts recommends. This helps your wireless provider block similar texts.
• Phishing emails: forward them to the Anti-Phishing Working Group at reportphishing@apwg.org, as the FTC's phishing guide advises.
• Identity theft: if your personal details were used, go to IdentityTheft.gov for a recovery plan.

United Kingdom

• Report Fraud: the national fraud and cyber crime reporting service for England, Wales and Northern Ireland is now Report Fraud, run by the City of London Police. It replaced Action Fraud in December 2025. You can report online or call 0300 123 2040.
• Scotland: contact Police Scotland on 101.
• Suspicious emails: forward them to report@phishing.gov.uk, the National Cyber Security Centre's Suspicious Email Reporting Service.
• Scam texts: forward them to 7726 for free, as explained on the NCSC's scam text reporting page.
• Scam websites: use the NCSC's Report a suspicious website form.

Note that the NCSC services are for suspicious messages and sites. If you lost money or were hacked, report it to Report Fraud (or Police Scotland) as well.

European Union

There is no single EU-wide portal for reporting scams to the police. Report to the police or the national cybercrime unit in the country where you live; many member states offer an online form on their national police website. Your bank and your national consumer protection authority are the other key contacts.

If the problem involves a purchase from a business based in another EU country, Iceland or Norway, the European Consumer Centres Network (ECC-Net) can explain your rights, help with a cross-border dispute and tell you who else to contact. You contact the centre in the country where you live.

Türkiye

• Call your bank first if card details or money are involved. The cybercrime FAQ of the Turkish National Police (EGM) advises speaking to your bank, getting a statement of the suspicious transactions and not wiping your phone or computer.
• Police or prosecutor: according to the EGM cybercrime FAQ, you file a written, signed complaint (dilekçe) in person with the police station or the Chief Public Prosecutor's Office (Cumhuriyet Başsavcılığı) responsible for where the crime took place, or with a cybercrime branch. The FAQ notes that scanned complaints should not be sent by email.
• Phishing websites (formerly USOM): USOM's reporting services now run under the Cyber Security Presidency (Siber Güvenlik Başkanlığı). Report phishing sites and other cyber incidents through the Siber Olay Bildirimi form or by email to ihbar@siberguvenlik.gov.tr.

Canada

Report fraud and cybercrime online at reportcyberandfraud.canada.ca, the national system run by the RCMP's National Cybercrime Coordination Centre and the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre. Anonymous reports are possible. The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre also asks victims to contact their local police.

Australia

Report scams to Scamwatch, run by the ACCC's National Anti-Scam Centre. If you lost money or personal information to a cybercrime, you can also report to police through ReportCyber via the Australian Signals Directorate's cyber.gov.au. Contact your bank immediately, and consider IDCARE for identity support.

How to report a scam email

Before reporting, check whether the message is really a scam. Our guide on how to spot a phishing email walks through the signs.

1. Use your provider's report button. In Gmail on a computer, open the message, click More next to Reply and choose Report phishing. In Outlook, select the message and choose Report, then Report phishing. See our full guide on how to report phishing in Outlook.
2. Forward it to the national service. In the US, forward to reportphishing@apwg.org; in the UK, to report@phishing.gov.uk.
3. Forward as an attachment if you can. APWG recommends the "forward as attachment" option because it keeps the technical headers investigators need.
4. Delete the email after reporting, without clicking links or opening attachments.

How to report a scammer on social media and marketplaces

Every major platform has a report option on profiles, posts, ads, messages and listings, usually behind a three-dot menu or a flag icon. Use it on the account itself, not only on a single message, so the platform sees the full pattern.

• Report before you block. Blocking can hide the conversation you need as evidence.
• Choose the most specific reason, such as scam, fraud, impersonation or fake account.
• Keep payments on the platform. If a seller pushes you to pay outside the marketplace, report the listing and use the platform's own dispute or buyer protection process.
• Report impersonation of companies and public figures, including fake support accounts and fake investment ads. Read more about fake customer support accounts and fake ads and deepfake investment scams.

If a scam message pointed to a fake website, report the site too. Our step-by-step guide on how to report a scam website covers browser blocklists, hosting providers and registrars.

What information to include in your report

Clear, complete reports are easier to act on. Gather the following before you start:

• Dates and times of each contact, payment or login
• How the scammer reached you: email address, phone number, username, profile link or ad
• Full website addresses (URLs), copied as text rather than clicked
• Screenshots of messages, listings, profiles and payment pages
• Payment details: amount, method, transaction or reference numbers and the receiving account, wallet or card
• Any names, company names or reference numbers the scammer used
• A short, factual timeline of what happened

Never send your passwords, full card numbers or security codes in a report. No genuine agency needs them.

What happens after you report

Most national fraud services do not reply to every report individually. Your report is recorded and analysed so investigators can link it to other cases and spot new scams. Message reports help email providers and mobile networks block the same campaign, and website reports can get a fake site flagged in browsers or removed by its host.

Be very careful about anyone who contacts you afterwards offering to recover your money. IC3 states that it will never contact you directly for information or money, and that it does not work with law firms or crypto services to recover lost funds. "Recovery" calls are often a second scam aimed at the same victims.

Run a brand that scammers are impersonating? Phishvoid finds lookalike domains and cloned login pages and takes them down through hosts, registrars, Cloudflare and browser blocklists. You can report a phishing site to Phishvoid, or book a free exposure scan to see what is already out there.

FAQ

Should I report a scam if I did not lose any money?

Yes. Reports without a loss still help agencies and providers detect new scams early and block them before they reach other people. The UK's NCSC, for example, asks you to report suspicious sites even if you are not sure they are a scam.

Where do I report a scammer if I do not know which country they are in?

Report to the official channel in the country where you live. National services share intelligence with other agencies, and your local police and bank are the ones who can act for you.

Can I report a scam anonymously?

Some services allow it, such as Canada's national reporting system. If you lost money, though, give your contact details so police and your bank can follow up.

Will reporting a scam get my money back?

Not by itself. Your best chance of recovering money is contacting your bank, card issuer or payment provider as quickly as possible. Reporting to the police supports that process and helps stop the scammer.

How do I report a scam text message?

In the US and the UK, forward the text to 7726 for free, then delete it. You can also use your messaging app's report junk option. Learn more in our guide to phishing links and texts.