How to report a cross-border or international scam

Official-source review: October 15, 2026. ScamMark provides independent guidance and links to official services. ScamMark is not a police, regulator, financial institution, reporting portal or fund-recovery service.

First: stop the immediate damage

If a payment was made or an account may be compromised, do not wait for an international agency to respond:

1. Contact your bank, card issuer, payment app, exchange or transfer provider using its independently verified contact details; ask about disputes, recall, account security or fraud response as applicable. No reversal is guaranteed.
2. Change exposed passwords from the real service or app; revoke suspicious sessions and enable multifactor authentication where available. Contact the affected platform if a profile, listing or account was abused.
3. Keep original messages, URLs, payment references, timestamps, screenshots and case numbers. Do not share passwords, one-time codes, full payment credentials or recovery phrases in a report.
4. If you face an immediate threat or crime in progress, contact your local emergency service or police.

See immediate recovery steps and how to preserve evidence.

Where should you report an international scam?

Choose the starting point that fits your location and incident, rather than where the alleged scammer says they live:

• United States — consumer fraud: FTC ReportFraud and relevant local authorities. This does not guarantee a police investigation or repayment.
• Cyber-enabled crime involving any country: FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3). The IC3 FAQ says a non-US citizen or a person reporting a subject in another country may file. Filing does not guarantee a response or an individual investigation.
• Canada: Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre / RCMP and local police. The national system receives reports; local police investigate individual cases.
• Australia: Scamwatch, with police/ReportCyber when applicable. A Scamwatch submission is not an official police report.
• European country: Europol's directory of national cybercrime reporting services. Report through your national authority, not Europol as a general public complaint desk.
• Cross-border consumer scam: econsumer.gov (FTC/ICPEN) in addition to applicable national routes. Complaints help detect patterns; the service cannot promise to recover money.
• Other country: Your local police, national cybercrime service, consumer agency or relevant financial regulator; verify the actual authority and eligibility using official sites.

Several reports may be appropriate because a bank, hosting platform, regulator and police handle different functions. The country where a scammer claims to live does not automatically decide where you should report. Start with your own location, your payment/account provider and the incident type.

When econsumer.gov helps — and when it does not

The FTC describes econsumer.gov as a way to submit international consumer fraud complaints through the International Consumer Protection and Enforcement Network (ICPEN). It can be useful for scams involving cross-border online shopping, jobs, prizes or other consumer transactions. A complaint may contribute to investigations and trend analysis, but the service is not a customer-support hotline, guaranteed investigation, criminal emergency line or fund-recovery firm.

If you need to report a crime you think originated overseas, INTERPOL explicitly directs people to their local police. National authorities can coordinate internationally when needed. Do not send fees to an unsolicited contact claiming to be an INTERPOL agent recovering your money.

What to include in an official report

• Your location and the type of incident (consumer purchase, impersonation, account takeover, investment, extortion or another category).
• A concise timeline with original dates, messages, communication accounts and exact website or profile addresses.
• Financial provider, payment channel, transaction/reference number and amount without revealing passwords or complete confidential credentials.
• Screenshots and original evidence, plus steps taken and provider/police case numbers.
• The countries you know are involved; distinguish these from a scammer's unverified statements about their location.

Keep copies of confirmations. Agencies differ in form fields, evidence attachment rules and follow-up procedures; the official form controls.

Looking for an international scam report with statistics instead?

“International scam report” can also mean an annual report or research publication, not filing a complaint. For official country-specific data and explanations of whether reported scams are increasing, open Are scams rising in my country?. For international research spanning additional jurisdictions, see global scam signals. These resources do not treat complaints as proven total incidence or combine incompatible national figures into a global ranking.

If someone offers to recover money for an upfront fee

Treat an unsolicited “recovery agent,” fee demand, guarantee or supposed release tax as a potential second scam. Verify any authority through independently located official channels, not numbers or links the person sent. Read recovery scam warning signs.