A Pew Research Center survey indicates that about 73% of U.S. adults have been victims of online scams or attacks. Scammers target everyone, from college students to Social Security recipients. Not everyone who has been scammed has reported it. However, they should. In fact, if you've been the victim of a scam, the first thing you should do is report it.
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Steps to take if you've been scammed
When you've been scammed, it's essential to act quickly to minimize the damage and protect your savings. Take these steps:
Contact your bank
Your first call should be to your bank. The moment you realize there's something off, make contact. Here are some of the signs you may be getting scammed and should contact your bank:
- You notice unfamiliar charges to your bank account. For example, thieves often make small purchases of less than $1 to see if you'll notice. If nothing happens, they begin making larger purchases.
- You notice duplicates of payments that appear to be legitimate. Let's say you see two Netflix charges within days or weeks of each other. One is yours; the other may be a scammer testing the waters.
- Bank and credit card statements are missing from your mailbox.
- You see charges in foreign currencies.
- Someone other than you changed your password information.
If you report unauthorized payments from your bank account within two days, your liability is limited to $50. However, if you don't find them until later, you're not entirely out of luck because liability for unauthorized transactions is limited to $500 between two and 60 days. Failure to report the transaction by then may make you responsible for all the funds taken from your account.
Once you make a report, your bank will do everything it can to recover the funds. It's also likely that the bank will freeze your account to prevent further losses.
Notify credit card companies
Check your account statements often enough to ensure you recognize all charges. If there's a charge you don't recognize, even if it's a charge for a few cents, call the bank that issued the card.
If someone steals your card and uses it, the most you're responsible for is $50, although some credit cards won't hold you responsible at all. If you haven't lost the physical card but someone steals and uses your account number, you generally have no liability. While there's no deadline for reporting credit card fraud, waiting gives scammers more time to use your credit card to buy what they want and damage your credit report.
Once you've made a report, the card issuer's fraud department will put a hold on all charges until the issue has been resolved.
Make a report with one of the "big three" credit bureaus
Reach out to Equifax, Experian, or TransUnion. The agency you contact will let the others know. A fraud alert will be placed on your credit report to make it more difficult for scammers to access your credit.
Report the incident to the Federal Trade Commission
Not every scam is huge, like taking out a home equity loan in your name. No matter how minor the scam may seem at first, it's important to make a report to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Once you've let the FTC know what's happened, your report is shared with over 2,800 law enforcers. The FTC can't resolve your individual case, but your report could lead to an arrest and prosecution. Chances are, if someone scammed you, they've scammed many others.
You can file a report directly from the FTC website.
Scams tend to start small, so small that you don't notice. The best way to protect your net worth is to keep an eye out for suspicious activity and, when you find it, report it.
