Being scammed is disorienting, and the next thing that happens is often a second scam: someone contacts you claiming they can get the money back for an up-front fee.
The FBI warns that these “recovery” operations deliberately target people who have already been defrauded.
The honest version of recovery help is less dramatic. Report it for free, move fast with your bank, preserve evidence, and get a realistic read on what can actually be done.
This page is the map.
First: report it for free (do this today)
These channels are free, run by the U.S. government, and the reason a later investigation or bank claim has anything to stand on.
File them before you do anything else:
- FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center: ic3.gov, the federal front door for internet crime and the fastest path to the Financial Fraud Kill Chain if a wire just left.
- FTC fraud reporting: reportfraud.ftc.gov feeds pattern data shared with thousands of law-enforcement partners.
- FTC identity theft: IdentityTheft.gov builds an official report and a recovery plan if your name or identity was used.
- Your bank or payment provider: call the fraud department the same day if money moved by wire, Zelle, or card. Many claim windows start on the transaction date.
The honest part: what recovery really looks like
No legitimate service can guarantee it will get your money or account back for an up-front fee.
Recovery is genuinely possible in narrow circumstances, usually when regulated U.S. institutions were involved and can be reached within roughly 72 hours, before funds are withdrawn.
Crypto sent to an unknown attacker is generally final: industry tracing finds that only on the order of ~$1 is recovered for every ~$65 stolen.
A trustworthy investigator tells you that up front instead of selling a doomed effort.
Where the money went: tracing by payment rail
Every payment rail keeps records, and every rail has its own recovery mechanics and deadlines.
The short honest version runs rail by rail. The full deadlines, odds, and exact first calls live in can you get scammed money back:
- Card or bank account: federal law is strongest here. A transfer made with stolen credentials is an unauthorized transfer under Regulation E per the CFPB’s published FAQs, and credit-card charges carry billing-error rights under Regulation Z, both with 60-day notice windows. A payment you were deceived into sending yourself is generally not treated as unauthorized under Regulation E’s definition, which changes the path, not the urgency.
- Zelle & P2P apps: the classic scam payment is self-sent, so it rides on policy rather than statute. Zelle’s network adopted a voluntary imposter-scam reimbursement policy effective June 30, 2023, under which certain impostor scams may qualify. Report to your own bank the same day.
- Bank wire: a recall is a request, not a reversal, and consumer wires generally sit outside Regulation E, so speed is everything. Reported fast through IC3, the FBI’s Financial Fraud Kill Chain can attempt recalls on international wires of $50,000 or more within 72 hours, and for domestic wires the IC3 Recovery Asset Team froze $469.1 million in 2024 with a 66% success rate on attempted freezes.
- Crypto: transactions are public and traceable on-chain until funds reach an exchange. Identifying the account holder there takes law-enforcement legal process. Tracing is real; attribution and freezing run through institutions, which is why fast IC3 reporting matters more than any tracing tool. Who is actually behind the scam is its own track: how to find out who scammed you.
Evidence that gets reports and disputes taken seriously
Banks, card networks, and police all act on the same thing: a clear, dated, complete record.
Before anything disappears, preserve the full conversations, payment identifiers, and account or wallet addresses, then package them once and reuse the package everywhere.
How to report digital evidence to law enforcement covers the reporting hierarchy and what a police report needs; the deception-dispute evidence checklist covers what wins with a bank or card issuer.
Find the guide for your situation
Each guide leads with the same FBI warning and sticks to verified facts.
Tracing the money & getting it back
- How to find out who scammed you, and where the money went
- Can you get scammed money back? Honest odds and deadlines by payment method
Crypto & investment scams
- Crypto “recovery” services are usually a second scam
- Can stolen crypto be recovered? The honest odds
- What is pig butchering? A plain-English explainer
- Pig-butchering warning signs to catch it early
Elder fraud & impersonation
- My parent was scammed, what to do now
- The grandparent scam now uses AI voice cloning
- Tech-support scams: the fake “your computer is infected” call
Wire, payment & romance fraud
- You wired money to a scammer: the first 24 hours
- Real-estate closing wire fraud
- Gift-card and Zelle scams
- Romance-scam red flags (before you lose money)
- How to report a scam (free, step by step)
When a forensic investigator can help
If the loss was large, the case is going to court, the victim is elderly or vulnerable, or an attacker keeps getting back in, a credentialed digital-forensics examiner can preserve court-admissible evidence, trace attribution where possible, and support a filing.
SleuthX works these cases by loss type:
- Crypto scam recovery
- Pig-butchering scam investigation
- Romance scam & catfish investigation
- Wire fraud recovery
- Elder fraud investigation
There is no charge to ask, and a reputable investigator will tell you honestly when the free rails above are all you need, and when they are not.
If a guide above fits your situation, read it first; it will tell you exactly what to preserve and who to call.
