Recovering after a scam: the weeks that follow

Start a scam folder and keep everything

Before anything else, make one place, digital or paper, that holds everything: the scam messages, receipts, bank case numbers, report reference numbers, names and dates from every phone call. Recovery involves several organisations over weeks, and the person with a tidy folder gets better outcomes from every one of them, because nothing gets asked twice and nothing gets lost.

Chasing the money, realistically

Follow up your bank's fraud case rather than waiting for it. Banks attempt recalls on scam transfers, and the outcome depends heavily on how fast the report was made and whether funds are still sitting in the receiving account. Ask for the case number, ask what was recovered, and ask what the bank's final position is in writing.

1. Card payments: ask specifically about a chargeback, which is a different mechanism from a transfer recall and has its own timeframes.
2. Bank transfers: ask whether any funds were frozen in the receiving account and when you will have a final answer.
3. If you believe the bank itself handled the fraud poorly, you can complain to the bank first and then escalate to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority, which is free.

Rebuilding identity safety

If the scammer got identity details, your licence, Medicare card, passport or tax file number, this is the workstream that matters most, because identity misuse can surface months later. Call IDCARE on 1800 595 160. It is Australia and New Zealand's free national identity and cyber support service, and a case manager will build a response plan for exactly what was exposed.

1. Ask IDCARE about placing a credit ban with the credit reporting bodies, which stops new credit being opened in your name while things settle.
2. Replace compromised documents through the issuing agency, and note the replacement numbers in your folder.
3. Watch your accounts and your credit report over the following months for anything you did not open.

Finish the account clean-up properly

The first-hour response changes the passwords that were obviously involved. The weeks-after job is finishing it: work through your email, banking, government and shopping accounts checking sign-in devices, connected apps, forwarding rules and recovery details, because a scammer with brief access often plants a quiet way back in. Our guide on checking who has access to your accounts walks the full sweep in order.

Look after the person, not just the accounts

Being scammed is a genuine hit: to finances, to sleep, and to how much you trust your own judgement. That reaction is normal, and it fades faster when it is not carried alone. Tell someone you trust what happened. If the weight of it stays heavy, Lifeline is there around the clock on 13 11 14, and your GP is a good first door if the stress is affecting your health.

One thing worth internalising: modern scams are professional operations designed by teams to defeat careful people. Falling for one is not evidence that you are careless. Treating it as a crime that happened to you, rather than a mistake you made, is both more accurate and more useful.

Guard against the second wave

People who have been scammed once are often targeted again, sometimes months later, by callers who know details of the original scam: they pose as the bank, the police, or a recovery service picking up your case. Treat any unexpected contact about your scam as unverified: hang up, and call the organisation back on a number you find yourself. Our sixty second message checklist is a good habit to keep running for everything that arrives.