Imagine you’re a business owner and you receive an email with an invoice from one of your overseas suppliers. You transfer them a large sum of money to pay for the invoice, only to realize sometime later that the email was really from scammers impersonating your suppliers and you’re not going to receive any goods for the money you transferred.

This type of “invoice scheme” is just one of the multitude of ways online scammers try to trick unsuspecting people out of their hard-earned money. Phishing attacks, data theft, CEO fraud, romance scams, investment fraud, and Bitcoin scams are some other high-profile tactics that scammers use.

Finding out you’ve been victimized by some type of internet fraud can be devastating. Your first thought is often “I’m never getting my money back after being scammed.” But, here’s the good news: you CAN recover money from a scammer. Keep reading to find out how to get money back after being scammed online.

What NOT to do after being scammed online:

• Don’t panic — there are steps to take to get money back after a scam
• Don’t reply if the scammer continues to contact you
• Don’t make any more payments to the fraudulent parties in an attempt to recover funds
• Don’t keep your passwords/logins the same if you think they have been compromised
• Don’t wait to take appropriate actions to recover your funds

4 ways to get your money back after being scammed online

Chargebacks for card payments

If you made a payment to scammers via your credit or debit card, you may be able to get your money back through a chargeback. For the best chances of success, start this process right away when you realize you’ve been scammed. In fact, most card issuers provide a 120-day window for chargebacks from the time you suspect you’ve made a card payment to fraudsters.

To start the process, write a letter to your card issuer explaining all the details of the scam, including the dates and sums of all the payments you want to charge back to your card. Provide any supporting evidence you have, such as emails from/to the scammers, URLs of scam websites, and anything else that can be used as evidence for your case.

This should only take you a day or so to get together, and after that all you have to do is wait for your card company to approve the chargeback. Card issuers take an average of 30 days to review your case. This makes chargebacks one of the easiest and quickest ways to get money back from a scammer.

Bank refunds for bank transfers

Another common way scammers receive funds is through direct bank transfers. If you’ve transferred money to scammers from your bank account, you might be wondering “will my bank refund me if I get scammed?” Well, as long as you notify your bank immediately, they may be able to reverse the transfer.

When you realize you transferred funds from your account to a scammer’s account, inform the bank about what happened and give them the number of the account you transferred to and the exact sum of the money you transferred. 

Many banks have voluntarily signed agreements to take certain steps to protect and reimburse customers when they are the victims of bank transfer scams, also known as authorized push payment scams.

If your bank decided to refund you based on the evidence, you can have the funds back in your account in as little as 0-3 business days.

Hiring fund recovery specialists

If you’re unsuccessful in getting money back through a chargeback or refund, or if you made a payment via another platform (like a cryptocurrency exchange or a fraudulent trading broker), there are still ways to recover your funds. The best way to do so is to contract a scam fund recovery specialist (like WestingHouse) immediately. 

Scam fund recovery experts are financial industry professionals and cybercrime specialists who know how to track down online scammers (nobody is truly anonymous online) and hit them in ways that pressure them to return your funds. These experts also have experience in recovering non-traditional funds, such as Bitcoin.

Reporting and flagging scams

This isn’t really a way to get your money back after being scammed online, but it can help protect you and others from future scams. If you were scammed by an ad on social media, you can flag the fraudulent ad by clicking on the three dots in the top right-hand corner (on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram) and selecting the “report” option.

If you’re unable to find the ad that led to you being scammed, you can also report it directly through the relevant platform’s help center.

For any type of scam, there are specific government agencies that receive reports. For example, in the US, you can report scams to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) at: ReportFraud.ftc.gov. In the UK, you can report phishing email scams to the National Cybersecurity Center via an email to [email protected].

These agencies are different in every country, but you can easily find out who to report scams to in your country with a quick Google search.

No matter where you’re located, you should report scams as soon as you realize you’ve been targeted. Showing evidence that you’ve reported a scam may also help you recover money from a scammer through a chargeback or bank transfer refund.

What is the safest way to get your money back?

The safest (and quickest) way to get money back from a scammer is always directly through your financial institution. In other words, through a chargeback from your card issuer or a refund from your bank. 

However, these options don’t work 100% of the time, in which case the safest way is to hire scam fund recovery experts who know what they’re doing and have extensive experience with all types of scams.

Can you always get your money back?

Unfortunately, no. If you make a cash payment, including through a wire transfer service like Western Union or MoneyGram, you’re much less likely to get your money back. But, for other types of payments, you have very good chances of recovering funds from scammers.

How long does the recovery process take?

If you’re attempting to recover your funds through a chargeback, the case review process may take from 2-6 weeks, or in some cases longer. It can take months to actually see the money put back on your card.

For bank transfer refunds, the recovery process length varies depending on the bank, but refunds are typically processed within 5 days max, and usually less than 3.

When you contract the services of a scam funds recovery company, their team of professionals get on your case right away. The amount of time it takes to get your money back varies from case to case, but the specialists always aim to recover your funds as quickly as possible.

If you suspect you’ve been the victim of an online scam, contact WestingHouse today. Our team will look at all the evidence and determine the fastest way to get your money back from scammers.