How to Report Email Scams & Fraud

According to the FBI and the U.S. Secret Service, consumers lose millions of dollars annually to various kinds of email scams and online fraud. There are Nigerian bank scams, personal information scams, sweepstakes, lottery and prize scams, pyramid schemes, Ponzi schemes, chain mail and multilevel marketing (MLM) schemes. If you have been a victim of an email scam or online fraud, you have several options for reporting it.

Instructions

How to Report Email Scams and Fraud

1. Contact your credit card company, bank and other service providers if you have been a victim of fraud.

2. Call your local authorities and request to talk to the fraud department. There will be a detective who deals specifically with email and online scams and fraud.

3. Report it to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission by forwarding the email you receive to [e-mail]. The FTC will place the email in a database. The email will be combined with existing information and used to track down and prosecute the scammer. For more information, log on to the FTC website at ftc.gov.

4. Report the scam to the Internet Crime Complaint Center at IC3.gov. This site is maintained by the FBI in partnership with the National White Collar Crime Center and the Bureau of Justice Assistance. According to the Crime Complaint Center website, "IC3 accepts online Internet crime complaints from either the person who believes they were defrauded or from a third party to the complainant." You can file your complaint online via their website.

References

• Internet Crime Complaint Center

Resources

• Internet Crime Complaint Center
• Federal Trade Commission