Right now —
do these things.
The first 24 hours after a scam matter more than the next 24 weeks. Wherever you are on the spectrum — suspicious, certain, or somewhere in between — start here.
I'm in contact with them,
and something feels off.
You haven't transferred money — or you're about to — but the situation isn't adding up. Treat this stage like a fire drill: the few minutes you spend here can save the entire situation. Urgency is the scammer's main tool. Patience is yours.
Stop and breathe before any payment.
Don't transfer anything. Don't click any link they sent in the last 24 hours. Don't share any login code, even one they say is "just for verification". Anything that's actually legitimate will still be legitimate in two hours.
Check them out, independently.
Don't use the phone number or links they gave you — those go to them. Search for the real bank, platform or exchange. Call the number on the back of your card. If they mentioned a regulator or company, look it up on the official public registry.
Get a second opinion before you act.
Tell one trusted person what's happening — a family member, your bank's fraud team, or a service like refundv.com. Scammers count on isolation. A 10-minute conversation is the cheapest insurance policy you'll ever buy.
I paid, and now
they've gone quiet.
Time is the variable that matters most. Chargeback and recall windows can close inside 24 hours for some payment types. Work through these four actions in parallel, not in sequence — every hour counts.
Call your bank or payment provider — now.
Domestic transfers and card payments have recall procedures with tight windows. For crypto, contact the exchange where your funds were sent and ask about freeze and KYC procedures. Get a case reference number on every call.
Lock everything they might have touched.
Change passwords on your email, bank, and any service they asked about — start with email, because that's the recovery channel for everything else. Turn on two-factor authentication. If they ever had remote access to your device, run a scan and consider a factory reset.
Save the evidence before it disappears.
Screenshot the full conversation thread, profile pages, the platform they used, any "dashboards" showing fake balances. Save everything locally — don't rely on the messaging app or platform to keep history. Note URLs, usernames, timestamps.
File the formal reports.
In Australia: report to your state police and to Scamwatch (ACCC). For crypto: report to the exchange and to AUSTRAC if amounts are significant. Reports trigger formal record-keeping by authorities, which matters later for chargebacks, court action, and insurance.
You don't have to do any of this alone.
refundv.com — 24-hour initial responseI'm not sure if what
just happened was a scam.
When something feels wrong but you can't put your finger on it, treat it as if it is. The downside of acting on a false alarm is small. The downside of dismissing a real one is your entire savings — and sometimes a lot more.
Pause anything that's still pending.
Hold off on transfers, sign-ups, or sharing further information until you've had a chance to check. If you're mid-transaction with someone, pause it. You can resume in an hour if it turns out to be legitimate.
Secure the basics — even just in case.
Change your email password. Change your bank password. Turn on two-factor authentication on both. The cost is ten minutes; the protection is real, whether or not this turns out to be a scam.
Document what you can, while you can.
Screenshots, names, URLs, transaction references. Even if it turns out to be nothing, you've lost nothing by recording it. And if it turns out to be something, you'll be deeply grateful you did.
Run it past a specialist.
A short conversation with a fraud specialist takes ten minutes and tells you whether your gut is right or wrong. refundv.com runs no-commitment initial check-ins — the right answer might be "you're fine, that's not a scam", and that's worth knowing too.
Talk to a specialist —
at no charge.
An initial conversation with refundv.com costs nothing and gives you a clear-headed read on what's happening, what's recoverable, and what to do first. We respond within 24 hours — usually faster.
Get help now