- 1). Contact the Federal Trade Commission. The FTC is a good place to begin reporting fraud because they will not only investigate the fraud, they may also put you in contact with additional government agencies to help with your fraud case. You can contact the FTC through its website at www.ftc.gov or its telephone helpline at 1-877-FTC-HELP.
- 2). Collect as much evidence and information pertaining to the fraud before you call the government to file a complaint. If someone contacted you by phone and offered a prize or other services that were not provided, make sure you remember as much about the phone sales pitch as possible, including any company names or names of individuals to whom who you spoke. If you wrote a check to someone for services that were not rendered, locate all the check information, such as date, number and amount.
- 3). Fill out an online form provided by the National Consumer League’s (NCL) Fraud Center. After you have contacted the FTC, which will investigate your fraud claim, you can take further steps to report fraud. The NCL deals with scams that have happened on the telephone or Internet, which is the case for a majority of scams today in the United States and Canada. Like with reporting fraud to the FTC, make sure you gather together as much evidence as possible before filling out the complaint form.
- 4). Call your local law enforcement office to file a complaint if you have been a victim of check fraud or fraud where you know the individual who has perpetrated the fraud against you. You can also call the Attorney General’s office in your state to file an official complaint and let the office know an individual is defrauding people in the state.
- 5). Contact the National Check Fraud Center at 843-571-2143 if you have been a victim of check fraud. Like all other reporting agencies, you will need to provide the center with as much information as you can about the fraud or the individual who perpetrated the fraud.
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