The unfortunate truth is that most scammers are nearly impossible to find. Fraudsters can hide their tracks behind fake online profiles, stolen SIMs, and anonymous cryptocurrency wallets.
Even uncovering a scammer’s true identity likely won’t bring the culprit to justice, as scammers almost always operate out of foreign countries, making prosecution nearly impossible. Individuals lost over $23 billion to identity fraud in 2023.
If you’ve been conned, it’s natural to want justice. But finding the person who scammed you is not only difficult; it can be dangerous — especially if you don’t protect yourself first.
Before You Do Anything: Secure Your Identity and Report the Scam
If you’ve been scammed, you no doubt feel angry, violated, and scared. While your gut reaction may be to take action against the scammer, you need to protect yourself and your family first. Nearly 70% of all identity theft and fraud victims are repeat victims. Before you try to take action against scammers, make sure they can’t do any more harm to you.
- Update and secure your online accounts. Change your passwords immediately, and enable two-factor authentication (2FA) to prevent unauthorized access to your accounts.
- Close any compromised bank and credit card accounts. Disable your accounts and cards by using your mobile banking app or calling the bank. Make sure you contact the bank directly — never use phone numbers found in texts or emails.
- Scan your devices for malware and other viruses. Online scammers may try to infect your device with malware, giving them easy access to your personal information.
- Contact the fraud department at any impacted companies. Request that they shut down bogus accounts and begin the process of recovering your money.
How To Track Down Someone Who Scammed You (and What To Do Next)
It’s tempting to take a vigilante approach to track down someone who scammed you. But your best chance of bringing a scammer to justice requires going through the proper channels. Here’s what to do:
1. Collect evidence of the fraud, and block the scammer
You can help law enforcement track down scammers by gathering details of your interactions and how the scam played out. Make sure you capture this information before you block the scammer:
- Contact details. Even fake names, accounts, and spoofed emails and phone numbers can help investigators track down scammers.
- Conversations. Take screenshots of texts and social media messages — especially anything that may help identify the scammer. List any phone numbers they used to contact you — ideally, include supporting notes about the conversation.
- Profile photos. Scammers use fake photos to create their profiles, but these images may help you find them (and warn other people). Save their profile photos, or do a reverse image search to discover where their photos were stolen.
- Specific details about the fraudulent activities. Scammers may ask you to transfer money, deposit checks, or buy gift cards. Document a step-by-step record, including dates, dollar amounts, bank locations, etc. The more details you can give the police, the better chance they have to track down someone who scammed you.
2. Don’t bother with “people finder” or phone number lookup services
Scammers are too smart to be tracked down via online phone number lookup services, email search tools, or “people finders” (like BeenVerified and Social Catfish) that share public records. In fact, scammers sometimes pose as these services in order to identify victims and steal personal information (this is called a “recovery scam”). Don’t waste your time or money on these tools.
What about private investigators? A PI may be able to find out more information about the scammer — but that’s the extent of what a PI can do for you. You’ll still be left dealing with your losses.
3. File a report with your law enforcement
In some cases, your local police will be able to help track down scammers — for example, if you’ve lost money or know anything about the scammer.
To file a police report, you’ll need:
- Personal identification in the form of a driver’s license, NIN, or passport
- Specific evidence of theft — such as text messages, direct messages (DMs), emails, bank and credit card statements, or collection letters
Get a copy of your police report, and make a note of when to follow up with the officers in charge of your case.
4. Check your insurance coverage (If you have any)
Some insurance policies help you recover from fraud and even cover financial losses, expenses, or missed work. Some insurance companies can cover up to $50,000 in eligible losses and expenses resulting from identity theft.
5. Try to recover any lost funds
If you’ve accidentally sent a scammer money, you may be able to recover your funds.
- Bank or debit card details. Contact the financial institution or credit card company. Instruct them to reverse any unauthorized withdrawals or charges and close your accounts.
- Gift cards. Contact the relevant gift card company (e.g., Target, Walmart, or Amazon), and share your receipt. Unfortunately, gift cards are nearly impossible to trace. Once they’re spent, it’s very unlikely that you’ll get the money back.
- Cryptocurrency. The crypto exchange probably won’t be able to get your money back, but it’s worth asking for a refund. Change the password to your account, and cancel any linked credit cards or bank accounts.
