Where to report, and what happens next

Reporting is worth doing, and it is not what most people expect

Almost nobody gets their money back through a report. That is the honest starting point, and it is not a reason to skip it: a report is how one person's private disaster becomes a pattern somebody can act on, and in one specific case it is also the fastest route to a freeze.

United States

ic3.gov, the same day. The FBI's complaint centre says clearly that you will not hear from it and that it conducts no investigations. But it runs a Recovery Asset Team that can ask a receiving bank to freeze funds, and it works from the banking details in your complaint. Ask your own bank at the same time for a recall and a hold harmless letter, which is the phrase that moves things between banks. Two practical points: IC3 accepts no attachments, so keep your originals, and the confirmation screen is the only copy you will ever get, so save it.

reportfraud.ftc.gov feeds the Consumer Sentinel database used by law enforcement. It will not resolve your case or contact you about it.

identitytheft.gov is different in kind and is where to go if identity documents or security answers were taken — it produces a recovery plan rather than a record.

For investment fraud, add the SEC, which runs victim resources and is honest that most harmed investors recover little or nothing.

United Kingdom

reportfraud.police.uk, or 0300 123 2040, and your bank first. This replaced Action Fraud in January 2026, so anything still pointing you there is out of date — including a great deal of advice that has not been revisited since. In Scotland it is Police Scotland on 101. The UK is the one place with a real reimbursement right for payments you made yourself: mandatory since 7 October 2024, capped at £85,000 per claim. Banks reimbursed £354.3m of it in 2025.

Netherlands

Ring 0900-8844. This matters: online aangifte covers buying and selling fraud only. Romance fraud, investment fraud and bank-helpdesk fraud all require a phone call or a station visit. The police list what to bring — the dating platform, the name and contact details used, the correspondence, bank statements with dates and amounts, and for a money-transfer service the MTCN reference.

Expect an email after ten weeks saying whether an investigation has started, and a closing message after six months if not.

Fraudehelpdesk, 088-7867372, is the first port of call for advice and will point you to the right body. It is government-funded and it says plainly that it has no legal power to investigate. Slachtofferhulp Nederland, 0900-0101, is free victim support.

Rest of the EU

Your national police. There is no EU-level place for an individual to report: Europol states that it does not take crime reports from citizens, and its "report cybercrime online" page is a directory of national links.

What happens to the money

Covered properly in the lesson on talking to your bank. The short version: if somebody else moved it, the law is on your side almost everywhere. If you moved it yourself after being deceived, only the UK gives you a right, and the Netherlands gives goodwill in one narrow case.