Money lost, account accessed or fraud completed
Contact your bank or payment provider first if money, card details or online banking may be at risk. Then use the police reporting route for where you live.
Official UK reporting routes
Report the right thing, to the right place.
Limit any immediate harm first. Then use the route that matches what happened. You do not need to report the same incident everywhere.Start with urgent stepsUse this order
Protect first. Preserve evidence. Report next.
- Stop further lossContact the bank, payment provider or affected service through a trusted route.
- Secure affected accountsRecover access, change reused passwords and turn on two-step verification.
- Keep useful evidenceSave messages, numbers, dates, amounts, payment references and screenshots.
- Make the relevant reportChoose the official route below that fits the incident and your location.
Choose what happened
Official reporting directory
These links go to government, police, regulator or national cyber-security services.Suspicious email
Forward the email to the National Cyber Security Centre. You can do this even if you are not certain it is a scam.
Suspicious text, mobile call or app message
Forward an SMS text or suspicious mobile number to 7726 free of charge. For WhatsApp, iMessage and similar services, also use the app’s own block and report controls.
Suspicious website or online advert
Do not reopen a suspicious link simply to report it. Copy the address carefully from the message or browser history and use the relevant official form.
After the immediate response
Protect accounts and identity details
Use the tools that match what was exposed. More products do not automatically mean more protection.Recover and secure online accounts
Check recovery details and email forwarding rules, change affected and reused passwords, sign out other sessions and turn on two-step verification.
NCSC account-recovery guidanceCheck your credit information
If identity details may have been stolen, check for unfamiliar searches, accounts or addresses. A statutory credit report is available without buying a monitoring subscription.
Experian statutory credit reportConsider Cifas Protective Registration
This optional paid service adds a warning flag so participating organisations make extra identity checks. It can make genuine applications take longer and is not insurance.
Cifas Protective RegistrationSources checked
- Report Fraud — who should report and where
- GOV.UK — suspicious emails, texts, websites and adverts
- Ofcom — suspicious calls and messages
- NCSC — recovering a hacked account
- Cifas — Protective Registration
Reviewed 29 August 2026. Next planned review 29 November 2026. Follow the source organisation’s current instructions where they differ.