How to report a scammer to the police

Online fraud-reporting forms ask similar questions everywhere, and having the details ready before you start makes the form much faster to complete and produces a more useful report:

• Your own contact details, and whether you are reporting for yourself or on behalf of someone else.
• Dates, amounts and payment methods for every transaction: bank transfer, card, cash, gift card or cryptocurrency, including the account or wallet address the money was sent to.
• Any name, username, phone number, email address, website, or company name the scammer used, along with screenshots of messages, adverts or profiles.
• Copies of emails, including full headers if you have technical experience, since these can show the true sending server.
• A short, factual written account of what happened, in the order it happened.

Filing online through the official channels below is always free. No police force or national fraud centre charges a fee to take a report.

In the US there is no single national police portal; instead, several federal channels sit alongside your local police department. If you or someone else is in immediate danger, call 911 first.

• IC3 (ic3.gov): the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center takes reports of cyber-enabled fraud and scams through an online complaint form at complaint.ic3.gov. Anyone affected by a cyber-enabled crime can file, including reporting on behalf of someone else, and non-US residents can also submit a complaint. See our dedicated guide on how to report a scammer to the FBI for the full step-by-step process.
• FTC (reportfraud.ftc.gov): the Federal Trade Commission's ReportFraud.ftc.gov collects reports about scams, unwanted calls and shady business practices and feeds them into the Consumer Sentinel database, which is used by law enforcement across the country. The FTC states it cannot resolve an individual report but uses the volume of reports to detect patterns and support investigations.
• Local police: for a police report number, an in-progress crime, identity theft paperwork required by a bank, or a case involving a local, in-person scam, contact your local police department directly, either online through their non-emergency reporting page if one exists, or in person.

England, Wales and Northern Ireland report fraud and cybercrime through Action Fraud, the national fraud and cybercrime reporting centre, either using its online reporting tool at any time or by phone on 0300 123 2040, Monday to Friday, 8am to 8pm. Registering online lets you track the progress of your report and add information later; reporting as a guest means updates only arrive by email or post. If you or someone else is in immediate danger, call 999.

Scotland is not covered by Action Fraud for policing purposes: report fraud there to Police Scotland by calling 101, or 999 in an emergency.

Canada's national reporting system for fraud and cybercrime is run jointly by the RCMP's National Cybercrime Coordination Centre and the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC), and is available at report.antifraudcentre.ca. You can report as a victim, someone who was targeted, or a witness, and the system allows anonymous reporting if you want to share information without being identified. The RCMP is explicit that this national report does not replace a report to your local police: local police are responsible for investigating, so if you have lost money you should contact them as well as filing with the CAFC. If you are in immediate danger, call 911.

Australia splits fraud reporting between two official portals depending on the situation:

• ReportCyber (cyber.gov.au): the Australian Cyber Security Centre's ReportCyber portal is the way to make an official police report for a cybercrime, including scams where you lost money or had personal information stolen. Reports made here are treated as a police report and can be referred to the relevant police jurisdiction.
• Scamwatch (scamwatch.gov.au): run by the ACCC's National Anti-Scam Centre, the Scamwatch form collects details of scams to spot trends and warn the public, but Scamwatch itself states this is not an official police report. If you lost money, file the official report through ReportCyber as well as, or instead of, Scamwatch.

If there is an immediate threat to life or risk of harm, call 000.

German police reporting is organized by federal state (Bundesland). The central portal at portal.onlinewache.polizei.de directs you to the correct Onlinewache (online police station) for your state based on where the incident happened, or your place of residence if the incident happened abroad or online and its location is unclear. The Onlinewache lets you file a Strafanzeige (criminal complaint) for offences such as fraud (Betrug), including internet fraud and misuse of accounts or data, through an online form. The range of offences and exact forms available varies by state. Traffic accidents, offences involving violence, and cases with complex facts should be reported directly to the nearest police station or, in an emergency, by calling 110.

India's National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal, at cybercrime.gov.in, is a Ministry of Home Affairs initiative that lets victims report cybercrime online, including online financial fraud, cryptocurrency crimes, hacking and social media crimes. The portal also has a separate option for reporting complaints related to crimes against women and children, including an anonymous reporting path for sexually explicit content. Alongside the portal, the 1930 helpline is the national cybercrime helpline number used for reporting financial fraud, intended to support fast action on incidents involving payments. The portal also offers a "Suspect Repository" search and a "Report Suspect" feature to flag phone numbers, UPI IDs, URLs and other identifiers linked to reported scams.

Across all of these channels, a few things hold true. Filing a report is not the same as opening a guaranteed investigation: most agencies are explicit that they cannot investigate every report, that you may not receive individual status updates, and that reporting does not guarantee any recovery of money, any arrest, or any particular outcome. What these portals do is centralize evidence, help authorities identify patterns across many victims, and create an official record you can use with your bank, employer or insurer.

You should still go to a local police station in person, or call your local non-emergency line, when: you need a report reference number quickly for a bank dispute or insurance claim; the incident involves a threat of violence, is ongoing, or affects a child's safety; the case involves someone you can physically locate, such as a local trader or in-person scam; or a national portal directs you to local police as the next step, as several of the channels above explicitly do.

Fraudpol is a reporting platform for building a case file against a specific individual or group, not a substitute for the official police or fraud-reporting channels above. If you have identifying details about the person or group behind a scam, such as a name, phone number, account, wallet address or profile, you can submit them for manual review. Fraudpol does not recover money, never charges a fee to victims, and never contacts victims unsolicited asking for payment. It is not a government agency or law enforcement body, and filing with Fraudpol does not replace reporting to the police or your country's fraud-reporting centre.

Last checked: September 2026.

• IC3.gov complaint form (FBI)
• ReportFraud.ftc.gov (FTC)
• Action Fraud: how to report fraud and cyber crime
• Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre / RCMP: Report Cybercrime and Fraud
• ReportCyber (Australian Cyber Security Centre)
• Scamwatch: report a scam (ACCC)
• Onlinewachen der Polizeien der Länder
• National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (cybercrime.gov.in)