How to Report Deepfake Fraud: Where to Report and What Evidence to Include

Where do I report deepfake fraud?

Report deepfake fraud in three places: the financial institution that sent the money, the national fraud or cybercrime reporting service, and the platform where the scam happened. The bank can try to recall or freeze funds. The national service records the crime and shares data with investigators. The platform can remove the account and warn other users.

Each country has its own route. The table lists the main ones for the largest English-speaking markets and India. If you are elsewhere, your national police website usually links to the right service, and your bank's fraud team can tell you where to file.

When you report to the platform, choose the most specific category it offers, such as impersonation, fraud or scam, and include the profile link or ad URL. Report the scammer's phone number to your mobile carrier as well; in the US you can forward scam texts to 7726. If the scam used a fake website, the domain registrar and hosting provider usually have abuse forms that can take it offline faster than a police report.

What to do in the first hour

Call your bank or card issuer using the number on your card or the official website, say the payment was fraud, and ask for a recall or freeze. Transfers can sometimes be stopped if the bank acts before the money moves on. Crypto transfers are much harder to reverse, but report the wallet address anyway.

Secure your accounts next. Change passwords starting with email, turn on stronger sign-in such as a passkey or an authenticator app, sign out of other sessions and tell any service whose one-time code you shared. Stop all contact with the scammer, but do not delete the conversation.

• Call the bank or payment provider and ask for a recall or freeze.
• Change exposed passwords from a trusted device and revoke other sessions.
• Stop replying to the scammer without deleting the messages.
• Warn family or colleagues the scammer may contact next.

What evidence to include in a deepfake fraud report

A useful report is factual and complete. Record who contacted you and how, the phone numbers, usernames, email addresses and websites used, the dates and times, what was asked for, what you sent or disclosed, and every transaction with amount, date, method, recipient account or wallet address and reference number.

Explain the deepfake element plainly. Say that the caller sounded like your son, that the video call showed your manager's face, or that the investment ad used a well-known person. Investigators track AI-enabled schemes, and the FBI's December 2024 alert I-120324-PSA describes exactly these uses of generated text, images, audio and video.

Keep originals. Save voice notes and videos as files rather than only screenshots, export chat histories where the app allows, and note the URL of any website or profile. Many reporting portals do not accept attachments, so keep the files ready for when an investigator asks.

Write the timeline down while you still remember it. Note when the first contact happened, when the story changed, when money moved and when you realized it was a scam. A clear timeline helps the bank, the police and any later insurance or dispute process, and it is easier to write on the first day than a month later.

Why reporting matters even when money is unlikely to come back

Reports are how agencies see patterns. The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center received 859,532 complaints in 2024 with reported losses of $16.6 billion, a 33% rise on 2023, according to its 2024 annual report. In the US, the FTC separately reported $12.5 billion in consumer fraud losses for 2024. These datasets drive warnings, takedowns and prosecutions, and each report links your case to others involving the same accounts or wallets.

Reporting also protects you later. A police or IC3 reference helps with bank disputes, insurance claims and, where identity was stolen, credit agency disputes. Keep every reference number.

How companies and banks should report deepfake fraud

Organizations have extra duties. US financial institutions should file suspicious activity reports where required and, following FinCEN alert FIN-2024-Alert004 of 13 November 2024, include the key term FIN-2024-DEEPFAKEFRAUD so the reports can be grouped. Listed companies should check whether a large fraud is material for SEC disclosure. Every organization should brief its insurer, preserve logs and media, and notify affected customers or staff through known channels.

Corporate reports are stronger with documented analysis of the media. Neural Defend's NeuroDetect lets a fraud or security team upload the authorized voice notes, recordings, images and documents from an incident into one case, review heatmaps and attention views down to frames and audio segments, and export a forensic report covering observations, uncertainty, provenance, model context and analyst notes. That report can travel with the SAR, the police complaint or the insurance claim. The analyst, not the model, makes the final call.

Avoiding recovery scams after you report

Fraud victims are targeted again. The FBI warned on 24 June 2024 that fake law firms were contacting cryptocurrency scam victims and offering to recover funds, and that victims reported more than $9.9 million in losses to this tactic between February 2023 and February 2024. Some claim to work with the FBI or another agency.

Government agencies do not charge fees to recover money, and real lawyers do not cold-call victims through social media. Do not pay anyone upfront, do not share bank details or remote access, and report the approach to the same service you used for the original fraud.