How to report a crypto scam in the United States

If you were scammed out of cryptocurrency in the United States, do two things today: file a report with your local police department and with the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center, and record the wallet addresses publicly.

The reports put your case in front of investigators. The public record works immediately — the address becomes visible to exchange compliance teams and to the next person about to send money to it.

The first hours decide most of it. The sooner the addresses and hashes are written down, the better the chance an exchange freezes the funds.

Key takeaways

• File with your local police department and with the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) at ic3.gov. You want both.
• IC3 does not investigate and will never contact you. Its FAQ says it outright: "You will not hear from the IC3." Anyone claiming to be IC3 is running the second scam.
• Print or save your IC3 complaint on the confirmation screen. That is the only copy you will ever get.
• Only your local police department works your case — which is why IC3 tells time-sensitive victims to call it directly, and why its report is the one other institutions ask to see.
• The FTC's ReportFraud.ftc.gov is worth five minutes, but the FTC states plainly it "can't resolve your individual report."
• Your local U.S. Secret Service field office runs a Cyber Fraud Task Force. The SEC and CFTC take tips.

What to do in the first hours

Stop sending money. Almost every victim makes one last payment because a "tax," a "release fee," or a "verification deposit" is supposedly all that stands between them and their withdrawal. That money never comes back.

If you installed remote-access software — AnyDesk, TeamViewer — so an "advisor" could set up your account, uninstall it now and change your passwords.

If you handed over a seed phrase, recovery phrase, or private key, every wallet it controls is theirs. The FBI describes a private key as functioning "like a password or a PIN": whoever holds it can move funds from anywhere. Move what is left to a wallet you set up yourself.

Then, in this order:

1. Copy the destination address and the transaction ID (TXID) for every transfer, from your wallet history or your exchange's transaction log. The FBI says outright that transaction details are the most important information you can provide.
2. Screenshot everything before it disappears. Full Telegram, WhatsApp, and dating-app threads, uncropped. The profile, the platform's website, the dashboard showing your fake gains. These sites go dark in days.
3. Call your bank, credit union, or card issuer if any of the money moved by ACH, wire, or card. Ask for their dispute deadline.
4. Notify the exchange you sent from, so they flag the receiving address and preserve their records.
5. File the reports — local police first, then IC3.

Where to report

Your local police department or sheriff's office

Start here, in person or on your department's non-emergency line. This is the filing that puts a person on your case — IC3's own FAQ tells you to "contact local law enforcement directly if you believe your matter is time sensitive," which for crypto means always.

The Comptroller of the Currency's consumer site tells fraud victims to file a police report and submit a copy to "creditors and others that may require proof of the possible crime."

Bring the documentation printed or on a drive. "I got scammed online" supports nothing.

FBI — Internet Crime Complaint Center, ic3.gov

IC3 is the FBI's central repository for cyber-enabled crime complaints. Filings are "analyzed and may be referred to federal, state, local or international law enforcement and partner agencies for possible investigation."

Two things nobody tells you until it is too late. Print or save the complaint on the confirmation screen — IC3's FAQ is explicit that "this is the only time you will be able to retain a copy of your complaint — we will not email or send an electronic version of this file." And IC3 "does not collect evidence regarding complaints, nor do we accept attachments," so your screenshots stay with you until an agency asks.

Give IC3 the detail it asks for — addresses, amounts and asset types, transaction hashes, dates and times, then how you met the person and where. If you have no transaction records, file anyway.

If you or the victim is 60 or older, the National Elder Fraud Hotline at 833-372-8311 helps with filing.

Your local U.S. Secret Service field office

The Secret Service investigates cyber-enabled financial crime, including money laundering that mixes fiat and cryptocurrency. Most field offices also have a Cyber Fraud Task Force, and the instruction is direct: report crimes to your local field office, listed at secretservice.gov/contact/field-offices. Worth a call when the loss is large.

Your state attorney general's consumer protection division

The FTC tells you to do this itself: you can also report "to other agencies, including your state attorney general or local consumer protection agency."

What documentation to gather

• Every destination wallet address, and the TXID for each transaction with date and time
• Amounts and the exact asset — USDT on Tron is not USDT on Ethereum
• Uncropped screenshots of the full conversation, first contact to last
• The exact URLs of the platform, the ad, and the profile
• Bank statements, wire confirmations, exchange receipts
• Names, phone numbers, emails, and handles the scammer used
• A written timeline, and your police report number once you have it

Check before you pay — federal lookups

• Investor.gov — type a name into the SEC's "Check Out Your Investment Professional" box and it searches registration and disciplinary history. The SEC's reason for featuring it: "Unlicensed, unregistered persons commit much of the investment fraud in the United States."
• The CFTC's RED List — foreign entities soliciting U.S. investors while unregistered, alongside the other registration checks at cftc.gov/check.

Absence from a warning list proves nothing. But when a firm claims to be registered and the search cannot find it, that settles it.

Why the FTC, the SEC, and the CFTC are not where your case gets worked

This is where a lot of people lose weeks.

Filing at ReportFraud.ftc.gov is worth five minutes: your report goes into Consumer Sentinel, "a database available to federal, state, and local law enforcement across the country," shared with over 2,000 law enforcers. But the FTC says it "can't resolve your individual report," and it means that literally.

The SEC takes reports through its Tips, Complaints, and Referrals system; the CFTC through forms.cftc.gov and 866-366-2382. Both bring enforcement actions, and courts sometimes order money returned to investors. Neither claws back your payment — the CFTC's one victim-facing forum, Reparations, hears complaints against registered futures professionals only. If the platform was purely crypto, they may have no jurisdiction at all.

Supplements to a police report, then. Not replacements for one.

Can I get my money back?

Sometimes. Far less often than the ads suggest.

It turns on one question: do the funds reach a service with compliance obligations — a centralized exchange, a payment processor, a stablecoin issuer — before they scatter? If they do, and a report is on file, there is a path. Through mixers, or into chains where nobody cooperates, it narrows to almost nothing.

Nobody can quote you odds honestly. Someone who does it over the phone, without looking at a transaction, is selling you something.

Beware of "fund recovery" offers

Weeks after the loss, someone gets in touch offering to recover it. This is the FBI's most repeated warning to crypto victims, in two documented shapes.

The first is impersonation of IC3 itself. PSA I-072026-PSA, dated 20 July 2026, describes fake FBI profiles and AI-generated videos promoting a spoofed IC3 site. The tell the FBI gives for that fake site is the opposite of how the real one behaves: on submission it "gives a reference number and indicates that someone will be in touch with the submitter." The Bureau's own line is worth memorizing: "IC3 will never ask for payment to recover lost funds, nor will IC3 refer someone to a company requesting payment for recovering funds."

The second is fictitious law firms. PSA I-062424-PSA describes operators posing as attorneys who claim they got your case from the FBI or the CFPB, ask you to verify your identity with banking details, then bill you for fees and back taxes. Victims reported more than $9.9 million in such secondary losses in one year.

The signs do not change:

• They contacted you
• They want money before doing anything
• They guarantee the outcome
• They claim inside contacts at an agency or an exchange

Filing a report is free. As the FBI puts it, law enforcement does not charge victims a fee for investigating crimes, and no government agency asks for an advance payment to return your funds.

Why record the address publicly

A criminal case moves at the speed of a criminal case. A public record works the moment you post it.

Record the address, the transaction hash, and the website on Chainabuse and that entry is visible to exchange compliance teams, to investigators, and to anyone who searches that name or address before sending money. It is free, and it aggregates reports against the same address — so isolated cases turn into a visible pattern.

Often the person who benefits is not the one who reported. It is the one who searches two weeks later and finds the warning.

Frequently asked questions

1. Where do I report a crypto scam in the United States?

File a report with your local police department and a complaint with the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov. Depending on the case, also contact your local U.S. Secret Service field office and your state attorney general's consumer protection division.

2. Does the FBI investigate every IC3 complaint?

No. IC3 collects and analyzes complaints and may refer them to federal, state, local, or international agencies, but it does not investigate and cannot tell you the status of yours. Whether a case opens is up to the agency that receives it.

3. Will IC3 contact me after I file?

No. IC3's FAQ states "You will not hear from the IC3," and the terms you accept before filing say the same. If you do need contacting, it will be by FBI employees from a local field office or other law enforcement officers. Any call, email, or message claiming to be IC3 is a scam.

4. Is an IC3 complaint the same as a police report?

No. IC3 is a federal complaint repository, not a police department: it does not investigate, accepts no evidence, and never contacts you. Your local police department works the case, and its report is what banks, card issuers, and insurers generally ask to see. File both.

5. Can the SEC or the CFTC get my money back?

Not for you individually. Both take tips and bring enforcement actions, and courts sometimes order money returned to investors as a result. Neither represents individual victims or recovers a specific transfer.

6. What information do I need to file a useful report?

Transaction details above all: destination addresses, the amounts and types of cryptocurrency, the transaction hashes, and the date and time of each. Add uncropped screenshots of the full conversation, the platform's exact URLs, bank and exchange records, and a written timeline.

7. Does reporting on Chainabuse replace filing with the police or the FBI?

No — do both. The police report and the IC3 complaint put your case into law enforcement channels. The Chainabuse report makes the address immediately visible to exchanges and investigators worldwide, which is what stops the next transfer.