Many people don’t even realize that they’ve been scammed by a fake prize raffle, a charity drive that is phony, a fraud business opportunity, and any other scam that occurs. If you have given money unknowingly to any of these scams, then your name is on a list that fraudsters share. The list would include your name and address along with your phone number and other important information such as the money that you have donated to scamming offers. You may not realize it, but there are fraudsters that purchase and sell these lists, because they believe that once a person has been scammed in the past will willingly be scammed in the future.

Wouldn’t you like to know what to do when you’ve been scammed?

Tips are provided here to help prevent you from losing money to any recovery scam:

1. If anyone informs you that they are working with a government agency, then they ask you for money to pay for an investigation, then this is a scam. If they also ask you to send money via a wire transfer, then beware as this is always a scam.
2. If you are contacted by anyone that says they can recover money, prizes, or merchandise that you never got, then the caller says in order for them to help you recover these type of things that you will need to pay money in advance. Anytime you receive a call and the caller claims to represent a government agency in the United States that will assist you in recovering any money, prizes, or merchandise for a price, then you should immediately decline, then report this call to the proper authorities.
3. Before you decide to hire a company to recover money, merchandise, or prizes, you should ask the company what specific services that they can provide and what each of these services can cost. You should research the company with all consumer agencies and your local government law enforcement along with searching for them with the Better Business Bureau (BBB).
4. You should never give out your checking account, savings account, and credit card numbers to a company that will recover any prize, money, or merchandise for you.

 

The individuals who operate these companies are scam experts. They have been scamming people for a very long time, and they know every trick and science to scam innocent people. What can you do if you have been a victim to one of these scams? Continue to read below to find out:

• Call your local police department. The police may not be able to do a lot of you, but you will be able to file a report and this is a legal record.
• Contact your state’s attorney general to report the scam and if you are in Canada, then you should contact the Office of Consumer Affairs or RCMP.
• Contact the FBI or the IC3, which is partners with the National White Collar Crime Center and the FBI.
• Contact the United States Marshals Service Agency.
• Contact the Interpol – United States Central Bureau for all scams that are international.
• Start sharing your scam experiences on forums that focus on frauds and scams and this will let others know about the company that scammed you.

 

The above authorities are just a few of the main ones that you should contact to report the scam. Contacting the authorities will probably not help you get any of your money back, but it could assist in stopping the scammers and getting them arrested. When you report the scam it will bring light to the problem, which is a good thing!