Sending money safely: scams to avoid

Scammers don’t need clever technology. They need you to be rushed, a little scared, and willing to send money in a way that can’t be taken back. That’s the whole business model.

So this guide is mostly about habits. A few rules, followed every time, beat a lot of cleverness. Memorise the rules. Skip the paranoia.

The four signs, in plain terms

The US Federal Trade Commission lists four signs of a scam on its consumer site. They are worth knowing by heart because they fit almost every scheme you’ll meet.

One: someone is pretending. They claim to be a government agency, a utility, a tech company, a charity, or someone you know. The FTC points out that caller ID can be faked, so the name and number on your screen prove nothing.

Two: there’s a problem or a prize. You owe money, you’re in legal trouble, a relative has an emergency, your account has an issue. Or you’ve won something, but you must pay a fee first.

Three: you must act now. They rush you. They may tell you to stay on the phone. They may threaten arrest, lawsuits or the loss of a licence.

Four: they want payment in a strange way. Cryptocurrency, a wire transfer service, a payment app, gift cards. Or they send you a cheque, tell you to deposit it, and ask you to send some money back. The cheque is fake.

One sign alone might be nothing. Two together is a reason to stop. Three means hang up.

Rules you never break

Short list. Follow it every time.

Never send money to someone you’ve only met online and never met in person, however good the story is.
Never send money because a caller told you to stay on the line. Hang up, then phone the organisation using a number you found yourself.
Never pay a “fee” to release a prize, a loan or a parcel.
Never deposit a cheque and send part of it back.
Never act on payment details that arrive by message or change at the last minute. Confirm them by a second route you already trust.
Never let anyone talk you into moving money to a “safe account”. The FTC says it will never threaten you, demand that you transfer money to “protect” it, or tell you to withdraw cash.

Those rules sound obvious. They stop being obvious at 11 p.m., when a message says your cousin is stuck at an airport.

How the fake-cheque trick adds up

Here’s a made-up example, because the arithmetic is what makes people understand it.

Say you’re selling a camera for $400. A buyer says they’ll pay by cheque, and sends one for $2,400. Oops, they say, a mistake. Please deposit it and send back the $2,000 difference by money transfer. They’re in a hurry. They sound embarrassed. Nice, even.

Your bank may show the money in your account within a day or so. That doesn’t mean the cheque has cleared. When the cheque is found to be fake, the deposit is reversed. By then you’ve sent $2,000 of your real money through a transfer, which is hard to reverse, and you may have posted the camera. Total loss: $2,000 plus a $400 camera, so $2,400. The scammer’s cost: a piece of paper.

FTC guidance names the same pattern: the cheque is fake, and you’re asked to send money back. A genuine buyer pays the right amount. If a buyer overpays and wants a refund, say no, and ask for a new payment of the correct amount.

The “too good to be true” exchange rate

Currency has its own scams. Someone offers you a rate far better than the market’s, usually through a social media contact or a stranger on a messaging app. Or an unknown website promises zero fees and a rate above the one you’ve seen anywhere.

Check any rate against the mid-market rate for the pair, such as USD to PHP. Rates refreshed hourly. Real providers sit slightly below it, because that’s how they earn money. If an offer sits above the mid-market rate, nobody is giving away free money. Something else is going on.

Also check who you’re dealing with before you hand over a cent. In the UK, the Financial Conduct Authority says almost all financial services firms must be authorised or registered, and tells you to look the firm up on its Firm Checker, typing the address in yourself rather than clicking a link. It also warns that some scammers pretend to be authorised firms, so use the contact details on the register, not the ones the firm gave you. The FCA publishes a Warning List of firms running scams or operating without authorisation. If you’re outside the UK, find your own country’s financial regulator and do the same. This is general guidance, not a guarantee that any firm is safe.

Family emergency scams, and what to do about them

This one hits migrants and their families especially hard, because sending money home is routine and everyone’s phone is full of relatives. A message arrives from an unknown number: “Mum, I lost my phone, this is my new number, I need money for a bill today.” Or a call: “Your nephew is in trouble, send money now, don’t tell anyone.”

A family emergency is among the common made-up problems the FTC lists. The fix is dull and reliable. Hang up. Call the person on the number you already have. Ask a question only they would know. Ask another relative. A real emergency survives a five-minute check. A scam does not.

If someone tells you not to tell anyone, do the opposite. Talk to someone you trust before you act. The FTC advises exactly that.

You’ve already sent it: what to do, in order

Speed matters more than shame. Do these steps in this order.

Contact the company you paid with, right away. The FTC says if you paid a scammer, contact the company or bank immediately and ask them to reverse the payment. For a wire or money transfer service, report it, say you were tricked by a scammer, and ask for a refund. For a bank transfer, call your bank’s fraud line using the number on your card or statement. For a card, ask for a refund.
Check for a cancellation window. In the US, the CFPB says you can generally cancel an international money transfer within 30 minutes after it’s sent, for free, unless the money has already been picked up or deposited. Other countries differ. Ask your provider whether any window applies to you.
Change passwords if you gave away login details, and turn on two-factor authentication. Do it on any other account that used the same password.
Write down what happened, with dates, amounts, account details, names, messages and screenshots.
Report it to the authorities listed below.

One thing the FTC is blunt about: cryptocurrency has fewer protections, so recovery can be hard. Gift cards, same urgency. Contact the issuer and say a scammer has the card number.

Where to report

Only official channels we could verify are listed here. Your country may have others, and your own bank or provider should always be your first call.

United States. The FTC asks people to report scams at ReportFraud.ftc.gov. If that page shows a notice that reporting is paused or unavailable, contact your bank or provider first and try again later. We haven’t listed a phone number for the FTC because we couldn’t confirm a current one.

England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Action Fraud has been replaced by a service called Report Fraud, run by the City of London Police, at reportfraud.police.uk, phone 0300 123 2040. The City of London Police said the new service went live on 4 December 2025, with a full public launch in January 2026. For Scotland, Police Scotland says to call 101. Which? reported in January 2026 that Scotland was expected to join Report Fraud later in 2026, so check the current position when you read this.

The FCA consumer helpline for checking a UK firm whose details don’t appear on the Firm Checker is 0800 111 6768, according to the FCA.

Reporting doesn’t guarantee you’ll get your money back. It does help police and regulators see patterns, and the FTC says reports help it build cases and spot trends. It also gives your bank something to point to.

One last habit

Before any transfer to someone new, send a small test amount, and confirm with the recipient through a second channel that it arrived. A test only helps if the person is real, but it does catch typos in account numbers. If you’re doing a regular route like GBP to NGN, save the recipient’s details once you’ve checked them, and be suspicious of any message saying they’ve changed.

Not legal or financial advice. If you’ve lost money, speak to your bank and the relevant authority as soon as you can.

Sources

Checked: November 2026