Stop Payment After Fraud and Avoid Recovery Scams

When this applies

Use these steps if you are a sole trader or small firm that paid a fraudster, then received an unsolicited offer to recover the money. Recovery-room criminals may pose as government, legal or consumer-protection representatives and contact you by phone, email, social media or a website. A typical message says: “We can recover your previous loss, but you must first pay a retainer, processing fee, administrative charge or tax.” It may then request bank details or identity information.

Decision steps in order

1. Contact your bank or payment provider immediately using the number on your card, statement or official website. State that the payment resulted from fraud and ask for a stop, recall, reversal or dispute, depending on the payment method.
2. Give the provider the payment date, recipient, amount and transaction reference. Ask whether the payment is pending, record the case number and obtain written confirmation of the next steps.
3. Refuse any recovery service that requires another payment before funds are returned. Do not send a retainer, processing fee, administrative charge or supposed tax to release recovered money.
4. Verify every claimed organization independently. Type consumer.ftc.gov or www.fca.org.uk directly into your browser as relevant; do not use links, telephone numbers or credentials supplied by the recovery contact.
5. Restrict business account access while you review the incident. Remove unnecessary admin permissions, change exposed passwords and require a second person to approve payments where your banking setup supports it.
6. Preserve emails, call details, website addresses, social messages, invoices and payment records. Keep this evidence separate from shared inboxes where a compromised administrator could delete it.

What to do if you already responded

• If you paid a recovery fee, contact the payment provider again and identify it as a second suspected fraudulent transaction.
• If you disclosed banking credentials, secure online banking and ask the bank to check for unauthorized changes or payments.
• If you shared identity information, follow the identity-protection guidance provided by the relevant official authority.
• If business or customer data was exposed, document what was disclosed and assess your notification obligations before customer trust is further damaged.

Most common warning signals

• An unsolicited caller, email, website or social account claims it can recover money lost in an earlier fraud.
• The contact impersonates a government, legal or consumer-protection organization.
• You must pay a retainer, processing fee, administrative charge or tax before money can be recovered.
• The recovery contact requests banking credentials or identity information.
• The contact directs you to use its own link, telephone number or payment instructions rather than independently verified details.

What to do now

1. Call your bank or payment provider through an independently verified number and request a stop, recall, reversal or dispute.
2. Do not pay any recovery fee or supposed tax.
3. Secure exposed banking credentials and review account access permissions.
4. Remove unnecessary administrator access and require additional payment approval where available.
5. Preserve messages, website addresses and transaction records.
6. Report the recovery attempt through the relevant official consumer-protection or financial-authority channel.

Sources

• consumer.ftc.gov
• consumer.ftc.gov
• consumer.ftc.gov
• www.fca.org.uk
• www.fca.org.uk

Further reading

• Account and Payment Recovery After Tax Refund Phishing
• Account and Payment Recovery Scam Defense Guide
• Scam Trend Analysis: u04.me Prize Phishing

FAQ