Where a report
actually goes.
Every country routes fraud differently. Filing with the wrong body is the most common reason a case quietly stops moving.
Below is the official channel for each country, what that agency does with what you send, and how long it usually takes to hear back. If you are not sure which applies to you, the report kit works it out from six questions and drafts the statement for you.
Official channels by country
Report where you are, not where the scammer claims to be. Jurisdiction follows the victim.
| Country | Where to file | What it does | Reply? |
|---|---|---|---|
| United States | ReportFraud.ftc.gov 1-877-382-4357 IC3 as well if money was lost |
Feeds the FTC's Consumer Sentinel database, shared with thousands of law enforcement agencies. IC3 routes to the FBI and can trigger the Recovery Asset Team on large, recent wire transfers. | Rarely on individual cases |
| United Kingdom England, Wales, N. Ireland |
Action Fraud 0300 123 2040 |
Passes reports to the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau, which decides whether there is enough for a police force to investigate. You get a crime reference number immediately. | Yes — reference number |
| Scotland | Police Scotland — call 101 | Action Fraud does not cover Scotland. Fraud goes directly to Police Scotland, which handles the investigation itself. | Yes |
| Canada | Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre 1-888-495-8501 |
Central intelligence collection for Canadian fraud. Also report to your local police force — the CAFC does not investigate individual cases. | Rarely |
| Australia | Scamwatch and ReportCyber | Scamwatch collects for the National Anti-Scam Centre and issues public warnings. ReportCyber is the police-facing route and is what generates a referral to law enforcement. | ReportCyber gives a reference |
| Ireland | Your local Garda station | There is no national online portal. Fraud is reported in person; bring printed evidence and ask for the reference number. | Yes |
| EU member states | Europol reporting directory | Europol does not take reports from the public. This page routes you to the national portal for each member state. | Varies by country |
Why "rarely" is not the same as "pointless." Most agencies will not update you on your own case, which people read as the report being ignored. What actually happens is that individual reports are matched against each other: one report describing a single fake platform is noise, forty describing the same one is a case. Your report is the evidence someone else's investigation needs.
Step-by-step guides
Written for the moment after you realise what happened, when the order you do things in still changes the outcome.
How to report a scam website
Six places to report it, in order of how fast each one takes a site offline — and who actually has the power to do it.
PhishingHow to report a phishing email or text
The forwarding addresses that get links taken down, and what to do in the first hour if you clicked.
ToolBuild your own report
Six questions, and you get the right channels for your country plus a structured statement to paste into the form.
Before you file
Three things that decide whether your report is usable.
Capture the evidence before it disappears
Scam sites, profiles and payment accounts are frequently deleted within days of a wave of reports. Screenshot everything, including the full address bar and the sender's real email address, and save it somewhere other than the affected device.
Get the money identifiers exactly right
The receiving account number, IBAN, wallet address or payment handle is the most actionable line in any fraud report. It is what links your case to the twenty others filed against the same operation, and it is what a bank needs to attempt a recall.
Write the narrative as a timeline, not a story
Free-text fields on official forms are read quickly. Dates, amounts and identifiers in a fixed order get processed; a paragraph of context does not. The report kit lays it out in the order investigators read it.