If you have been scammed, document everything and contact Refundee. This will help your bank and regulators recover your money.
Report the scam
Your chances of getting money back after a scam depend on how you paid for the goods or services and how quickly you act. While it may be difficult to focus on anything else after you’re scammed, contacting your bank, filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau and documenting your experience can help protect others and give you the best chance of recovering funds.
Stopping communication with the scammer is the most important thing you can do. Contact your service provider to change any phone numbers or email addresses that the scammer may have used. Then, contact your bank or credit card company to report the scam and ask them to cancel any fraudulent transactions. It’s also a good idea to warn your family and friends about the scam, so they can be on the lookout for follow-up attempts.
If you want to recover your money, do not send the scammer more money or use other resources to “get revenge” or trick them. This will only harm you and could lead to the scammer contacting you again to ask for more money.
Another thing you can do is call the police or a local consumer protection agency. This will help law enforcement find the scammer, and stop him from stealing money from others. Document any communications you have had with the scammer, and the details of their scam. This will be useful when you are trying to get your money returned.
If the scammer paid for the product or service using a bank card or credit, you may be eligible to recover some money from the bank’s fraud department. But this can take time, so it’s best to file a claim as soon as you realize you’ve been scammed.
Contact your bank
If you’ve lost money to a fraudster, try to get it back from your bank. Whether you paid for a ticket to a concert or movie, wired funds to purchase something, gave a fake charity a check or bought merchandise from a fraudulent seller that never delivered the goods, the quickest way to get your money back may be to contact your bank and report the incident.
When you contact your bank to report the fraud, you will need to provide all relevant information, including your name, address and phone number. The bank will then be able to help you close the accounts and investigate.
Scammers trick consumers by using fake phone numbers and email addresses that look like those of a legitimate financial institution. For example, they may send a text from the same shortcode your bank uses for customer service and hope you won’t catch on. You can check your bank’s short code online and independently confirm the request before you respond.
Once the scammer has your financial information, he or she can take various steps to steal more money from you. For example, they might ask you for upfront fees, such as “retainer fees,” processing charges, shipping and handling charges, tax or a donation to an organization that they claim to be supporting. They also might ask you to pay through gift cards, cryptocurrency or wire transfers through companies such as Western Union and MoneyGram.
A common scam involves using a fake check to convince you that the person is legit and deserves your money. Typically, you’ll receive a check for an amount that appears to be your purchase or deposit, but it turns out to be counterfeit. If you deposit a check and then send more money to the scammer to cover other expenses, the additional funds will be your responsibility.
Some scammers even target consumers who already have lost money to other frauds. They may claim they can get your money back, or help you recover an item or prize that has been stolen from you if you pay upfront.
Contact the CFPB
Getting your money back after being a victim of a scam might require a lot of paperwork and time. It’s worth fighting for your rights, particularly if money was exchanged in ways that can be difficult to reverse, such as cash, wire transfers or prepaid debit cards. Acting quickly is also helpful.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, known as CFPB, is the federal agency that enforces the laws and regulations that protect consumers. The CFPB’s role includes: setting rules that govern how companies provide their products and services; taking action to make sure the marketplace works as fairly, efficiently, and transparently as possible for consumers; educating consumers on financial topics; and responding to consumer complaints.
The CFPB, like a police officer on the beat, monitors the financial market and industry to identify potential risks for consumers. It then warns them about these risks.
When a consumer experiences a problem with a company that is not adhering to federal consumer finance laws, they should contact the CFPB. You can contact the CFPB by phone, email, or online. The CFPB then sends the complaint directly to that company. The CFPB also publishes complaints information in its database, without identifying any consumers.
Look them up online using words like “complaint,” “scam,” or “review.” Search for them using words such as “complaint,””scam,” or a “review.” You can also check with your state attorney general to see if anyone has filed a complaint against them.
Contact your state attorney general
Scammers often ask for payment in ways that make it difficult to get your money back. They may ask for cash, wire transfers or prepaid debit cards, or cryptocurrency. Before you pay anyone, check out the organization or government agency online and with your attorney general. You can find out if others have complained about your entity.
Many scams work by targeting your emotions, like greed, fear and love. They may pretend to a be a relative or government official and tell you that bad things will happen if they don’t get money from you immediately. You might be given a very short timeframe to act, or you could lose out on an amazing opportunity.
They may tell you that they require your financial information or your bank account number in order to process a payment, claim a reward or verify your identity. They might say they need numbers for your credit card, debit card and other financial accounts to deposit money or transfer money directly from your account into theirs. They might ask for your Social Security number or green card in order to steal you identity.
Another scam involves someone claiming to be from your bank or another financial institution and telling you that they have received a suspicious or unauthorized transaction. They may ask you to confirm information by calling a different number than your bank or other financial institution. These spoof numbers lead to call centres in foreign countries which charge you for their services and give your personal data to scammers.
Scammers sometimes target the same people over and over again. They can buy lists of people who have paid to fraudsters and then contact them by phone or email saying they will help them recover the money they lost in the original scam. They could also pretend to be a company which offers services to scam victims and offer to “repair or replace” the stolen money or merchandise. They might also ask the victim to pay a “recovery fee” in order to receive their money back.