How to Report a Dating Scammer and Preserve Useful Evidence

Stop contact and payments, preserve the records you can access, notify any payment provider, report the account to the dating service, and file the applicable U.S. fraud reports.

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A hand places a payment card, a gift card, and a small evidence sleeve into separate compartments of a tan archival tray on a home office table

Published by Dating for Busy Professionals

Stop the loss before investigating further

A red padlock snaps shut on a small metal cash box beside plain cut payment cards, showing an immediate stop to financial loss

Stop replying, sending money, or sharing information. Do not warn the suspected scammer that you intend to report them, and do not continue the conversation to seek a confession.

If a transfer is pending or recent, contact the bank, card issuer, wire service, cryptocurrency platform, gift-card issuer, or other payment provider immediately. Ask about cancelling or reporting the transaction before completing nonurgent report forms.

If you shared passwords, authentication codes, or account access, recover affected accounts from a trusted device and change exposed credentials. If the person is threatening, extorting, stalking, or creating immediate danger, preserve the threats and contact the appropriate emergency or local law-enforcement channel.

FTC: What To Know About Romance Scams

Preserve what the reports will need

  • The dating profile URL or identifier, profile name, username, and any linked social-media account details.
  • Phone numbers, email addresses, payment handles, bank details, cryptocurrency wallet addresses, or gift-card instructions used by the person.
  • Message history, voicemails, images, and copies of threats. Keep the original conversation available when possible and save copies without altering it.
  • A timeline of relevant dates, including first contact, requests for money or information, payments, account-access events, and threats.
  • Payment receipts, transaction confirmations, account statements, and case or confirmation numbers from any reports already submitted.

File reports with the channels that have different roles

  1. Use the dating service’s current reporting process for the profile or conversation, then block the account. A platform report addresses activity on that service; it does not notify your bank or government agencies.
  2. If money, payment details, or account information were exposed, contact the bank, card issuer, wire service, cryptocurrency platform, gift-card issuer, or other payment provider immediately. Address a pending or recent payment before completing nonurgent report forms.
  3. Submit a fraud report through the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov. File a complaint with the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) for suspected internet-facilitated crime.
  4. If the person is threatening, extorting, stalking, or creating an immediate safety risk, preserve the threats and contact 911 or local law enforcement. Keep each submission confirmation or reference number with your records.

Confirm that the exposure has been contained

Keep the evidence and every report confirmation or reference number in a secure place. Record the platform report, payment-provider case, FTC report, IC3 complaint, and any local law-enforcement report that applies.

Confirm that exposed passwords have been replaced everywhere they were reused and that affected email, dating, financial, and mobile accounts are secured. Monitor affected financial accounts through the provider's official channels.

If identity documents, Social Security information, or other identifying details were disclosed, use identity-theft recovery resources and take credit-report precautions that match the information exposed.

References