How to Report a Dating Scammer and Protect Others

Reporting a dating scammer won't usually get your money back, but it does something important: it puts the scammer's identity, accounts, and methods into the databases that protect the next victim. This guide explains exactly where to report, what evidence to preserve first, and what to expect from each report.

1. Preserve the evidence before you report

Scammers delete their side of conversations and vanish the moment they sense trouble. Your records are the only evidence, so capture everything before you block or report.

• Screenshot every conversation, including the scammer's name, phone number, email, and username.
• Save all payment receipts, wire confirmations, crypto wallet addresses, and any account numbers they provided.
• Save their profile photos and any images they sent.
• Note any addresses, "company" names, "agents," or platforms they referenced.
• Write a timeline: when you met, what they claimed, when money was requested and sent.
• Keep the dating-app profile live long enough to report it through the platform — don't delete the match until you've reported.

2. Report to the dating platform

This is the fastest report and the one most likely to protect the next person in the scammer's queue.

• Use the in-app "report" function on the profile or conversation.
• Choose the "scam" or "fake identity" category if available.
• Attach the evidence you preserved.
• Block the profile after reporting so they can't contact you again.
• If the scammer contacts you from a new number or profile, report that one too — networks often rotate identities.

3. Report to U.S. law enforcement and fraud agencies

• FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) — ic3.gov. The primary U.S. report for internet crime, including romance and investment scams. File even if you're not in the U.S.; it feeds international coordination.
• FTC — reportfraud.ftc.gov. The consumer-fraud report that feeds law enforcement and consumer-protection databases.
• Your local police. File a report for the record and get a case number — your bank, insurer, or the platform may ask for it.
• U.S. Postal Inspection Service — uspis.gov. If mail or a package/customs scam was involved.
• IdentityTheft.gov. If the scammer used your identity to open accounts, this builds a step-by-step recovery plan.

4. Report to your financial institutions

• Call your bank or credit card fraud line and report the transactions as fraud; ask to dispute them.
• If you wired money or used Zelle, ask the provider about a recall within 24 hours.
• If you sent crypto, report the wallet address to the exchange and to IC3 — recovery is rare, but the address gets flagged.
• If you shared banking access, change passwords and revoke access immediately.
• Place a fraud alert with one of the three credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian, TransUnion) — it's free and alerts the other two.

5. Report the scammer's accounts and platforms

• Report the email address to the email provider (most have abuse-reporting forms).
• Report any phone number to your carrier's spam-reporting service.
• Report fake social profiles to the platform (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Telegram all have report flows).
• Report any fake "investment" platform to IC3 and to the domain registrar or hosting provider.

6. What to expect from reporting

Realistic expectations matter, because disappointment leads people to skip reporting — which is exactly what scammers count on.

• You usually won't get your money back directly from a report. Recovery, when it happens, comes through your bank or a coordinated law-enforcement action.
• You may not hear back individually. Reports are aggregated and used to map networks, build cases, and feed consumer-protection databases.
• Your report still matters. Every report adds a data point that helps the next person get warned and the next network get shut down.
• Reporting is free, and you can file with multiple agencies — they don't conflict.

7. Watch for the "recovery" scam

Once you've been scammed, your name may land on a list shared among fraud networks. Expect contact from people claiming they can recover your money for a fee — these are almost always secondary scams. Real law enforcement and legitimate recovery services do not charge upfront fees. See our guide on what to do after a romance scam.

8. Help protect others directly

• Warn friends who use the same dating apps about the specific script you encountered.
• Consider sharing your story (without identifying details that put you at risk) — public awareness is the scammer's biggest enemy.
• Encourage anyone you know who's been scammed to report — the underreporting of romance fraud is what lets it stay so profitable.

Reporting is the part that helps the next person

You can't undo what happened to you, but you can make it harder for the same network to do it to someone else. File the reports, preserve the evidence, and if you're starting to date again, run a VerifyMyDate report before you invest — every finding labeled by source and confidence, and the person you search never notified.