How to Report a Fraud or Scam
If you have observed a scam or been the victim of a scam, spam or fraud and want to report it for enforcement, here is a list of where to report different types of scams in the US, UK, Canada and many other countries. In some cases there is more than one agency to contact. Some scams fit into more than one category, also.
Of course, in all cases, you can start by reporting it to us, using this form. We will use the information to warn other consumers and help you to direct it to law enforcement agencies.
A catch-all for bringing internet scams to the attention of the FBI and FTC is the U.S. government's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) at Internet Fraud Complaints Center. If you are looking for your local FBI Office Listings to report a crime or scam, click here.
Do you want to report a fraud, scam or crime to the FBI (the Federal Bureau of Investigation), but can't find the phone number for your nearest local FBI office? See this page to find the closest office!
But to protect your finances, identity and in some cases, identity, you will generally also want to report the scam directly to another specific agency - see further down this page for specific directions.
Be sure to contact your bank or credit card company if you have given out credit card numbers, bank account information, etc.
And we will track and post more examples, so once again, please forward a copy to us - see the email address at the top of this page or cut and paste the email into our feedback form!
How to report different types of scams:
-
In the United States:
- Reporting Advance Fee Frauds (also called Lottery scams, Money Transfer Frauds, Lawyers with deceased clients, widows and orphans with money to transfer, AFF Scams, Nigerian scams, etc.
- Reporting abusive use of email accounts (to send scams or spams or receive responses)
- Filing complaints against a business
- Reporting crimes
- Reporting identity theft
- Reporting medical frauds
- Reporting fake websites (called Phishing and Spoofing)
- Reporting Postal / Mail scams
- Reporting scams on the internet
- Reporting Securities and stock frauds
- Reporting Spam (unsolicited business emails)
- Reporting stolen checks
- Miscellaneous scams
- Other useful U.S. Agencies and Websites
-
Reporting Spams and Scams in Other Countries
See this page for all other countries
Reporting to Email account providers
You can report spams and scams that are coming from specific email accounts to the providers. For example, if a scammer is using a Hotmail account to send scams or spams or receive replies, you can report it to Hotmail. Be sure to forward the email and copy it's headers (click here to see how) into the email you send to the provider . That helps them to trace the source. See this page for the reporting addresses for the major email account providers.
Scams: AFF - Nigerian, Lottery scams, Money Transfer Frauds, Lawyers with deceased clients, etc.
- Write to the Federal Trade Commission: spam@uce.gov - copy them on the email and explain what has occurred since.
- U.S. Secret Service: If you ever receive an e-mail or fax from someone you do not know requesting your assistance in a financial transaction, such as the transfer of a large sum of money into an account, or claiming you are the next of kin to an wealthy person who has died, or the winner of some obscure lottery and suffered a significant financial loss related to the advance fee fraud (so-called "Nigerian scam"), please contact your local Secret Service field office. Forward the email to the US Secret Service at 419.fcd@usss.treas.gov or via fax at (202) 406-5031. The Secret Service retains these messages for future investigations. Make sure that you include the scammer's message with its headers (see this page for information about how to do that). Local Secret Service office phone numbers are available in the Field Office Directory and may also be found on the inside cover of your local telephone directory. Any investigation regarding this type of fraud will be conducted on a case by case basis at the discretion of the local Secret Service and U.S. Attorney's Office.
- If you have given money to the scammers, or believe a crime has been committed, contact your State Attorneys General
Businesses: Complaints with businesses with fixed addresses
- Complaints with any US or Canadian business: Better Business Bureau - Contact the Better Business Bureau where the company is located.
Crimes
- Any type of Crime; Write to the Federal Trade Commission: spam@uce.gov and
- contact your State Attorneys General. Your state Attorney General or local office of consumer protection is also listed in the government pages of your telephone book
Phishing and Spoofed websites
- Phishing and Spam: Internet Crime Prevention & Control Institute, a cooperative effort between Zero Spam Network Corp. and the University of Miami. Staffed by Miami undergraduate and graduate students and Zero Spam employees, works closely with the Secret Service's Electronic Crimes Task Force and ISPs in the United States and abroad to identify and block traffic to machines hosting phishing sites.
- And of course, you can notify the company that is being "spoofed" - for example, if you receive a phishing attempt that looks like it came from PayPal, write to the scam reporting at Paypal - click here for the addresses for most major companies that have been spoofed.
Medical Frauds, Illegal Drug Sales and Spam
- Medical fraud spam: If you receive medical fraud spam, contact the Food and Drug Administration: webcomplaints@ora.fda.gov
- Illegally selling Prescription Medications Online: You can report emails promoting illegal medical products by forwarding those emails to webcomplaints@ora.fda.gov (or click here to see this FDA website ).
- Health privacy and patient safety concerns - If you believe your (or someone else's) health information privacy rights or security have been violated, you can file a complaint with OCR here.
- To report Medicare Fraud: HHS Office of Inspector General , Phone: (800) 447-8477, www.oig.hhs.gov (This website provides direction on what should be done if you suspect Medicare fraud.
Miscellaneous scams and frauds
- All types of frauds: There are some NON-government organizations that can help: You can also report the problem to law enforcement agencies through the complaint form at the National Fraud Information Center/Internet Fraud Watch or 800-876-7060, TDD 202-835-0778. The information you provide helps to stop identity theft.
Postal scams (actual letters in your mailbox / mail slot / letterbox / postbox)
- Fill out the United States Postal Service fraud complaint form and
- Contact your State Attorneys General. Your state Attorney General or local office of consumer protection is also listed in the government pages of your telephone book and
- Write to the Federal Trade Commission: spam@uce.gov
Scams: Internet Scams
- Any type of Crime; Write to the Federal Trade Commission: spam@uce.gov and contact your State Attorneys General. Your state Attorney General or local office of consumer protection is also listed in the government pages of your telephone book
- Contact the FBI (United States Federal Bureau of Investigation) at the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3)
Search engine scam / spam results
- If you have information regarding a security problem with any of
Google's services, systems, or networks, here's a list of contacts and the
services they can help you with.
To report a security problem with:
- Google search results - that are spam or irrelevant
- Gmail
- Orkut (www.orkut.com)
- Blogger
- YouTube: visit the security page
- Google Adsense service or accounts: e-mail adsense-support@google.com
- Google's systems, networks, or applications: visit the security page
- any other product or service at Google
Securities and Stocks
- Securities, Stocks, Bonds: If you are aware of a securities (e.g., stocks) scam, insider trading, etc., you will want to contact the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission).
Spam
-
To forward unwanted or deceptive spam to the Federal Trade Commission; send it to
spam@uce.gov,
and be sure to include the full email header.
Also see the
FTC
and here to
Report
Porn Spam. In California, also use
caspam@doj.ca.gov. In
Missouri, use spamcomplaint@ago.mo.gov.
In
Virginia, use cybercrime@oag.state.va.us. - If you think you have been taken advantage of by a spam scam, file a complaint with the FTC online at www.ftc.gov. Complaints will help the FTC find and stop people who are using spam to defraud consumers.
- Spam and frauds, contact the U.S. Department of Justice
- Spam Cop - to complain to a spammer's internet service provider
- Phishing and Spam: Internet Crime Prevention & Control Institute, a cooperative effort between Zero Spam Network Corp. and the University of Miami. Staffed by Miami undergraduate and graduate students and Zero Spam employees, works closely with the Secret Service's Electronic Crimes Task Force and ISPs in the United States and abroad to identify and block traffic to machines hosting phishing sites.
Stolen checks
- If you have checks stolen, you
will obviously need to quickly notify the police and obtain a copy of the
police report. You must also promptly notify your bank, and not only
void those check numbers, but also close your account and open a new
account. The reason for this is your account numbers can used by the
criminals to create counterfeit checks, like the ones sent to people in
lottery scams. (see
this page as an example of what can happen). Also notify the check
verification agencies yourself. Here is a list of these agencies:
- National Check Fraud Service: 1-843-571-2143
- SCAN: 1-800-262-7771
- TeleCheck: 1-800-710-9898 or 927-0188 (also see this page for more information)
- CrossCheck: 1-707-586-0551 or (800) 552-1900
- Equifax Check Systems: 1-800-437-5120
- International Check Services: 1-800-526-5380
- CheckRite (800) 766-2748
- ChexSystems (800) 428-9623
Telemarketers
Other U.S. Agencies and Websites
- State and Local Consumer Protection Agencies, Master List for the United States - If you are looking for the best local consumer protection agency to use to report a scam, seek advice, to obtain assistance in resolving a dispute, this list has the contact information!
- EConsumer.gov, a service of the International Consumer Protection and Enforcement Network
- Federal Trade Commission, Washington D.C.
- National Fraud Information Center and Internet Fraud Watch, USA
- Nigeria ' The 419 Coalition, USA
- Department of Homeland Security
- US-CERT Computer Emergency Readiness Team
- National Infrastructure Protection Center (FBI)
- National white Collar Crime Center
- Digital Phishnet
- U. S. Postal Inspection Service
- U. S. Postal Inspection Service Publication 300a on Frauds and Scams
- United States Secret Service
- Scambusters
- National Fraud Information Center
Non governmental agencies and private organizations
- Better Business Bureau
- antiphishing.org/
- Microsoft's Spear Phishing Page
- Microsoft's Phishing Page
- Mail Frontier Phishing Guide
For a comprehensive list of national and international agencies to report scams, see this page.