How to prepare a clear report for cyber-enabled fraud, phishing, and online extortion. This guide gives you a calm process to follow when a message, call, listing, or online contact feels urgent, exciting, frightening, or confusing.
What the scammer wants
Most scams in this category are built around control. The scammer wants you to move from normal decision-making into panic, secrecy, or excitement. In a reporting situation, the safest first move is usually not to prove anything to the caller or sender; it is to slow the conversation down and verify through a separate channel.
- They may ask you to act before you can think clearly.
- They may say the situation is confidential or that you should not tell family, staff, police, or your bank.
- They may move the conversation to text, WhatsApp, Telegram, email, remote-access software, cryptocurrency, wire transfer, or gift cards.
The simple verification routine
Use a three-part routine: stop, separate, verify. Stop means do not click, pay, reply, or install anything while emotions are high. Separate means leave the message or call and use a trusted phone number, app, bookmark, or official website you find yourself. Verify means ask a real person or official support channel whether the request is real.
- Do not use phone numbers, links, QR codes, or attachments provided in the suspicious message.
- If money is involved, call your bank using the number on the back of your card or inside your banking app.
- If a family emergency is claimed, contact the person through another number or ask a pre-arranged family code word.
Warning signs to watch for
One red flag may not prove a scam, but several red flags together should make you stop. Look for pressure, unusual payment methods, secrecy, poor contact details, domains that almost match real websites, and stories that change when you ask basic questions.
- A request for gift cards, crypto, wire transfer, e-transfer to a stranger, cash pickup, or courier pickup.
- A claim that you will be arrested, lose money, miss a deal, or lose access unless you act immediately.
- A request for one-time codes, passwords, remote computer access, bank screenshots, SIN details, or ID photos.
What to do if you already responded
Do not be embarrassed and do not keep negotiating with the scammer. Save screenshots, transaction IDs, usernames, websites, phone numbers, and email headers if you can. Contact your bank or payment provider quickly and ask what can be blocked, reversed, frozen, or monitored.
- Change passwords from a clean device if you shared login details or installed software.
- Report the scam to the proper fraud reporting centre in your country.
- Warn people close to you if the scammer has your contacts or social media account.
A prevention habit to keep
Make a personal rule that any unexpected request involving money, identity documents, account codes, or remote access requires a cooling-off period. A legitimate organization can wait while you verify. Scammers are the ones who need you to skip verification.
Source to review: IC3