If you think you have been caught
A clear order of things to do, the numbers to ring, and the one piece of knowledge that matters most: this is recoverable, and it was not your fault.
If you are here because it has already happened, you are not the first person to open this page today. The useful part is next.
Call your bank now, on the number on the back of your card. Money that has not yet moved on can very often be stopped, and every hour matters. Everything else on this page can wait until after that call.
Key points
- Call the bank first, on the number on the back of your card. Everything else waits
- Disconnect the computer before changing passwords, and change them elsewhere
- A charge you never made is usually put right; money you were talked into sending is harder — call fast either way
- Report to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov, and tell one person the same day
- If they have your name, address and date of birth — freeze your credit at all three bureaus, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. It is free by law, it takes about ten minutes each, and it stops an account being opened in your name. Then report it at IdentityTheft.gov, which writes you a recovery plan.
What to remember
- The number on the back of your card reaches your own bank and cannot be faked, because you read it off your own card. Put it in your phone tonight.
- Call anyway, describe what happened plainly, and ask what can be recalled. The answer is sometimes yes, and it is never yes for somebody who did not ask.
- Talk to somebody. Being taken in is not a thing to carry on your own, and the people who deal with this for a living have heard it many times before.
Try this
Save your bank’s number and ReportFraud.ftc.gov in your phone tonight. Then agree one sentence with the people you live with: if either of us is ever caught, we say so the same day, and nobody makes a face about it.
Practice: If you think you have been caught. Your first lesson is free, with no account or card; the rest are part of a Lantern plan. Interactive lessons require JavaScript.