1. Contact your bank or card provider
Use the number in your banking app, on your card or on the official website. Do not use a number from the suspicious message.
Do these before debating the details
2. Stop further access
Freeze cards if possible, change passwords starting with email, turn on two-step verification and run a device scan if software was installed.
3. Preserve evidence
Keep screenshots, emails, texts, payment references, account names, phone numbers, websites and the exact timeline.
4. Report the channel
Forward suspicious emails to report@phishing.gov.uk and suspicious texts to 7726. If money was lost, report the crime too.
Which page fits?
| Problem | Start here |
|---|---|
| You sent money by bank transfer to a scammer | APP scam refund checker |
| You are being pushed into an investment | Investment scam checklist |
| You shared personal details or see unknown accounts | Identity theft response plan |
| You paid by card for something that failed | Section 75 and chargeback guide |
| Your bank rejected the complaint | Complaint escalation planner |
The universal first moves for any scam
Whatever the scam type, the first ten minutes are the same. Stop further loss: contact your bank using the number on your card or its official app and ask it to halt payments and attempt a recall. Secure the accounts that were exposed — change reused passwords and turn on two-factor authentication before anything else, because a compromised email is a master key to the rest. Then report it: Action Fraud for the crime record, your bank for the money, and forward scam texts to 7726 and suspicious emails to report@phishing.gov.uk. Keep evidence — messages, screenshots, dates, names and reference numbers — before you delete anything.
How money can and cannot be recovered
The route depends entirely on how the money left you, which is why the table above sends each situation to a different page. Money sent by bank transfer because you were tricked may be reimbursable under APP fraud rules — start with the APP scam refund checker. Money paid by card may be recoverable through chargeback or Section 75, covered in the Section 75 and chargeback guide. In both cases the bank decides first; if it refuses, the Financial Ombudsman is free and independent, and the complaint escalation planner structures that next step. Recovery is realistic but time-sensitive, never guaranteed, and never something you should pay a third party an upfront fee to pursue.
What is the 159 service and when should I use it?
159 is a secure short number that connects you to your bank's fraud line, run through Stop Scams UK by most major UK banks. Use it the moment you suspect a scam call — hang up, wait, then dial 159 yourself. Because you initiate the call to a number you can trust, it defeats the common trick where a fraudster stays on the line pretending to be your bank. It is the safest way to check whether a call claiming to be from your bank is genuine.
Sources and useful links
The UK scam landscape, and how to think about it
Modern scams do not rely on you being careless — they rely on you being human. They manufacture urgency, fear or hope so that you act before you think. Understanding the main categories is the best defence, because once you can name what is happening, the pressure loses much of its power. Falling for one is not a sign of stupidity; the most convincing frauds are professional operations designed to fool careful people.
The shapes today’s scams take
A few patterns account for most losses. Authorised push payment (APP) fraud is now the dominant form: instead of stealing your card details, the fraudster persuades you to send a bank transfer yourself — which is exactly why it is so damaging, because the payment looks authorised. Impersonation scams are the most common entry point: a message or call pretends to be your bank, HMRC, a delivery firm, the police or even a family member, and pushes you to “verify” details or move money to a “safe account” (no genuine bank ever asks you to do that). Investment scams dangle returns that are too good to be true, often using cloned versions of real, regulated firms or fake crypto platforms. Romance scams build trust over weeks or months before a financial “emergency” appears. And cruelly, recovery-room scams target people who have already lost money, posing as someone who can get it back — for an upfront fee that simply disappears.
How to verify who is really contacting you
The single most useful habit is this: never use the contact details supplied in the message itself. A scammer controls the number, link and email address they send you, so calling them back “to check” just connects you to the same fraudster. Instead, find the organisation independently — the phone number printed on the back of your bank card, the official app, or a web address you type yourself — and contact them through that. Treat any unexpected pressure to act immediately as a warning sign in its own right: genuine organisations are content for you to hang up, take your time and call back. This is the no-pressure rule, and it defeats the majority of phone and message scams on its own.
Where to report and check
Reporting matters both to recover money and to protect others. If a scam call claims to be from your bank, hang up and dial 159 — a secure short number, run through Stop Scams UK and supported by most major banks, that connects you safely to your own bank’s fraud line. Report the crime to Action Fraud (Police Scotland in Scotland), and contact your bank’s fraud team the moment any money has moved. Before investing, check the FCA Register to confirm a firm is genuinely authorised and the FCA Warning List for known problem firms, and use the FCA’s ScamSmart service to sanity-check an offer. Forward suspicious texts to 7726 and dodgy emails to report@phishing.gov.uk so the networks can act on them.
Building everyday resistance
Day-to-day protection comes down to a handful of reliable habits. Slow every unexpected request for money or details right down — urgency is the scammer’s most important tool, so removing it removes most of their advantage. Never move money to a “safe account”, share a one-time passcode, or grant remote access to your device on the strength of an incoming call. Keep your email account especially well secured with a strong, unique password and two-factor authentication, because it is the master key to resetting everything else. And remember that nobody legitimate will ever ask for an upfront fee to recover money you have lost — that offer is itself the next scam. Calm, independent verification beats every script a fraudster can read.
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