Think You've Been Scammed? What to Do Next

The tickets were cheaper than anywhere else, the seller replied within minutes and the transfer went through before you'd thought twice. Or someone calling from "your bank" talked you through installing an app so they could help. Now the profile has vanished or the call has ended, and the sick feeling is setting in.

There's no shame in this. Scams are built to catch careful people, and they do. What helps now is a few steps in the right order, taken while there's still a chance to stop money leaving.

Protect the device, then call your bank

If you gave someone access to your device, disconnect it before using banking and make the call from another phone. Otherwise, call your bank straight away. Your bank is the only one that can act on the payment itself, so it comes before any report. Use the number in your banking app on a device you trust or on the back of your card, avoiding numbers from the message, website or caller, because that number can lead straight back to the scammer.

Tell them you think you've been scammed. Before you hang up, ask what they've done to protect the account and for a case number, and write both down. You'll use them in every report after this.

If you're not sure yet whether it's a scam, stop sending money while you find out. A scammer will keep asking for more until you stop. If you paid by card, the bank may also be able to dispute the payment, and our guide to chargebacks explains how that works.

When it's more than money

When someone has been connected to your phone or computer, cut them off before anything else: turn off Wi-Fi, switch on aeroplane mode or unplug the internet cable, then hang up and stop replying. Anything on that device is worth treating as seen. From a different device you trust, change the passwords for your banking, email and other important accounts, including any saved in your browser. Use another device for banking until someone you trust has checked this one.

Card or banking details typed into a fake page need the same call to the bank even when no money has moved yet, because they can still be used. Change that password too.

For ID such as your licence, passport or Medicare card, call IDCARE on 1800 595 160. It's a free national identity and cyber support service that helps you make a plan to limit the damage. Also check your credit report for accounts you don't recognise.

Keep a record before you block anyone

Blocking the scammer or deleting the chat feels like closing the door, but it can take the evidence with it. Screenshot the messages, the profile or website and the payment receipt first, and keep the transaction reference. Then write down what happened, when, where it happened and what you did about it.

Here's a made-up record from Hugo, who paid $300 for two concert tickets that never arrived.

It doesn't need to be neat. A note like Hugo's means you tell the story once, with the times and amounts right, instead of from memory on every call.

Report it, and know what a report can do

With the accounts safe, two reports are worth making. If you lost money or shared personal information through an online scam, or someone got into your accounts, ReportCyber sends your report to the police. It takes 10 to 15 minutes and you can save it and come back. A Scamwatch report helps warn other people and, with your consent, get scam websites and ads taken down.

Police review the reports that come in but may not be able to reply to each one, and ReportCyber can't recover money. Any chance of getting money back runs through your bank, which is why it came first. If you're unhappy with how the bank handles it, make a complaint to the bank, and if that doesn't resolve it, the Australian Financial Complaints Authority is free and independent.

Watch for the second approach

One in three scam victims has been scammed more than once, and the second approach often looks like help: someone offering to get your money back. Treat any offer like that as a new scam, however official it sounds, until you've checked it with the organisation on a number you found yourself.

Rework the fortnight after the loss

Once the urgent part is done, the money that went may have been rent or this fortnight's food. Work out what the account holds now and what it still has to cover before the next pay, rather than waiting for payday to find out. Clova shows what's left until your next payday, so the rest of the fortnight is planned from the money you actually have. Our guide to money left before payday walks through the same sum by hand.

If the loss has left you behind on bills or looking at credit to cover them, a free financial counsellor can help you decide what to pay first. The National Debt Helpline is on 1800 007 007.

Putting the money back can take a while, and that's fine. In Clova, a savings goal can hold the rebuild, so it gets a share of each pay without crowding out rent.

You don't have to carry it alone

Telling the people around you helps twice: they can watch for the same scam, and you stop holding it on your own. If it's weighing on you, Lifeline on 13 11 14 and Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 are there day and night.

What happened says more about how convincing scams have become than about you. With the bank told and the reports made, the most urgent part is done.

A note from us

Asking your bank "is this real?" should never feel like an overreaction. Clova connects to your bank through open banking and never sees your banking password, so a request for one, from anyone, is a good reason to make that call.