I Got Scammed. What Do I Do Now?
Take a breath. Acting in the first hour matters most. Here are the steps, in order.
If you have just realised something was a scam, the most useful thing to know is that quick action limits the damage. First, if you entered a password, change it straight away on the real website, and change it anywhere else you used the same one.
Second, if you shared card or banking details, call your bank now and ask them to freeze the card or reverse the payment, as many banks can stop a transfer that is only minutes old. Third, turn on two-step verification for your email and banking, because your email is the master key that can reset everything else.
Fourth, keep the evidence, take screenshots of the message and the website, and report it to your national fraud service. Consumers reported losing more than 12.5 billion dollars to fraud in a single year according to the FTC, and reporting yours helps stop the next one.
Once things are calm, Sorinify can catch the fake pages that cause this, warning you before you ever reach a login form, so the same trick cannot work twice.
What you get
- —Clear, ordered steps for the first hour after a scam
- —What to tell your bank, and how fast it matters
- —How to lock down your email and accounts
- —Prevents the fake pages that cause it, going forward