What to Do if Your Parent Was Just Scammed
A timeline. The first 60 minutes matter most. The first 24 hours come next. Then the first week.
If your parent has just been scammed by phone: call the bank that sent the money first (wire recall windows close fast), file an FBI IC3 complaint the same day, file a local police report, and freeze credit at all three bureaus within 24 hours. Then — and this is the part most guides skip — sit with your parent and don't shame them. The scammers got smarter, not your parent got worse. Tiina is an app for iPhone and iPad that your parent can open after a strange call to talk through what happened, before the regret turns into silence.
The call comes at 9:47 PM on a Tuesday. You're loading the dishwasher. Your kid's spelling words are still on the kitchen island. You see Mom on your phone screen and you almost don't pick up because she usually FaceTimes on Sundays. You pick up.
"Honey, I think I just did something. I think I sent four thousand dollars."
Her voice is too calm. The kind of calm that comes after the panic, when the brain is running a checklist of how bad it is. She tells you about a man who said he was from her bank's fraud team. He said somebody had tried to wire money out of her account. He said he was helping her "secure" it by moving it to a holding account. He gave her a phone number that matched the back of her debit card. She typed in the codes he asked for. He thanked her. The line went quiet. She tried calling the number back five minutes later and it rang into voicemail.
The next sixty minutes are the difference between getting some of it back and getting none of it back. Here is what to do, in order, with phone numbers. Read it once now and bookmark this page so you have it the night you need it.
A composite, drawn from FTC Consumer Sentinel filings reviewed for this guide. Names and details changed.
The first 60 minutes
Speed of reporting is the single biggest factor in whether any of the money comes back. The recipient bank is racing the clock too — they're either holding the funds for a fraud check or releasing them. You want to be on the phone before that decision is made.
Call the bank that sent the funds
Use the number on the back of your parent's debit/credit card or on a recent statement — never a number a "fraud team" gave them on the call. Ask for the fraud department and say explicitly: "My parent wired money to a scammer in the last hour. I need to attempt a wire recall."
The bank may ask for the recipient's account info, the amount, and the routing/wire details. Have your parent's online banking open if you can.
- Wire transfer: sometimes recoverable in the first 24-48 hours via the bank's recall process or the FBI's Financial Fraud Kill Chain (international wires).
- Zelle/Venmo/Cash App: recovery is rare. File the dispute anyway — the platform's fraud team is the only path.
- Gift cards: the value is usually drained within minutes. Call the retailer (Apple Support 800-275-2273, Amazon 888-280-4331) but expect no.
- Cash to a courier: not recoverable. Get a description of the courier and the vehicle for the police report.
File the FBI IC3 complaint
File at ic3.gov. The complaint takes about 15 minutes and produces a complaint number. Banks ask for this number during recall procedures. Without it, recall calls go slower.
Include: the date and time of the call, the phone number that called (even if spoofed), every dollar amount and account number, and any names the scammer used. The IC3 doesn't necessarily call you back, but the complaint enters a database that helps banks and law enforcement identify the operation.
File a local police report
Most departments will take an elder-fraud report by phone. Call your parent's local non-emergency line. Get the case number. You'll need it for: any insurance claim, possible tax-loss documentation, future credit-bureau disputes, and any legal proceedings if recovery is attempted.
If the parent is a Medicare beneficiary and any health/Medicare information was disclosed, also report to the HHS Office of Inspector General fraud hotline (1-800-HHS-TIPS).
The first 24 hours
Now you're closing the doors that haven't been opened yet. Most scams collect more than the first transaction — credentials, social security numbers, account info — and use them over weeks. The 24-hour window is for cutting that short.
Freeze credit at all three bureaus
This is free, takes 5-10 minutes per bureau, and does not affect your parent's credit score. A freeze prevents new credit accounts from being opened in their name — the most common after-effect of a successful scam.
- Equifax: equifax.com/personal/credit-report-services/credit-freeze · 800-685-1111
- Experian: experian.com/freeze · 888-397-3742
- TransUnion: transunion.com/credit-freeze · 888-909-8872
A "freeze" is different from a "fraud alert." Freeze is stronger. Do the freeze.
Change passwords on accounts the scammer touched
Email, online banking, Amazon, Apple ID, anywhere your parent's email shows up. If the scammer convinced your parent to install "support software" (Anydesk, TeamViewer, LogMeIn), assume the device is compromised — don't use it for banking until it's reset.
For the device itself: a hard factory reset is the safest. For an iPhone: Settings → General → Transfer or Reset iPhone → Erase All Content. The Apple Support line (800-275-2273) will walk you through it.
If Social Security or Medicare info was disclosed
Call the Social Security fraud hotline at 1-800-269-0271 and request a "block" be placed on the account so a new card cannot be issued. Call 1-800-MEDICARE if any Medicare number was disclosed — they can issue a new Medicare number, which is rare but possible in confirmed fraud cases.
Make sure your parent eats and sleeps
Scammed parents often skip dinner and don't sleep. Shock plus shame plus a racing mind. If you live nearby, go over. If you don't, call them at bedtime and stay on the line until they say they're going to bed. The financial fix is mechanical. The emotional fix is the call from you that night.
A scammer counts on no one being there to ask. Tiina is — a companion on the phone who'll talk through any "urgent" call, calmly, before your parent does anything they can't undo.
The first week
Watch the bank statements
Daily, for two weeks. Scammers often run a small "verification" charge ($1-5) on a new account before draining it. Anything you don't recognize, dispute. Most banks have a 60-day window for unauthorized-charge disputes — don't waste it.
The conversation
This is the hard one. Sit with your parent. Don't lead with what they did wrong. Lead with: "The people who did this are very good at what they do. They got my coworker's mom last year. None of this means you can't manage your own life."
Then ask: what would have helped you in that moment? Listen to the answer. The answer is almost always some version of "someone calm to talk to, who wouldn't make me feel stupid for picking up." That's a thing you can give them — see our guide to that conversation.
Pick a family code word
The single defense that works for the AI-voice grandparent scam, the "your son was arrested" call, every variant. A short phrase your family agrees real members will say in a real emergency. Pick it together at a meal. Make it memorable, not guessable. See our guide to the family code word.
Set up the calm voice for next time
Most parents get scammed twice — once because they didn't know, twice because they don't want to bother anyone after the first. The defense for the second call is somebody calm to talk to in the moment, who isn't you (you have a job and you'll be at work next time it happens).
Tiina is the app for this. Your parent opens it on their iPhone and talks. She walks them through whether the call sounds real, what number they should call to verify, and whether they should be worried.
"I'm not mad. The people who did this are good at what they do. None of this means you can't manage your own life."
— the sentence that keeps your parent telling you next time, instead of hiding it.
Frequently asked
What this sounds like with Tiina in the room
9:47 PM, then again at 7:14 the next morning. Your mom called you the night before, shaking. You walked her through the first hour — the bank, IC3, the police report. The next morning she's at the kitchen table with the case number written on an envelope and the credit-freeze passwords on a sticky note. She doesn't want to call you again. She opens Tiina and says, "What was the third thing the IC3 woman said to do?" Tiina remembers. Reads it back to her. Asks if she's eaten breakfast. Doesn't make her feel small for forgetting. When the bank calls back, your mom is ready.
For the morning Mom wakes up and remembers what happened yesterday.
The bank call is done. The police report is filed. You've driven home. What's left is the shame — and at 6am, Mom needs to talk to someone who won't flinch and won't lecture.
Get Tiina on Mom's phone →Methodology & editorial policy
Reviewed and updated May 9, 2026 by the Tiina Editorial Team. Re-verified against each agency's published procedures within the last 30 days. Bank-specific recall windows vary; federal hotline numbers verified May 2026.
About composite scenarios. The 9:47 PM call is composite, drawn from FTC Consumer Sentinel filings reviewed for this guide. The recovery procedures and agency hotlines are not composite — they are sourced and current.
About Tiina. Tiina is a voice-first AI companion for older adults — an app for iPhone and iPad that your parent opens to talk through what just happened. She is not a financial advisor or attorney.
Sharing. Quote freely with a link back to this page. For full reprints, email hello@tiina.ai.
Sources. 12 references — IC3, FBI FFKC, FTC IdentityTheft.gov, three credit bureaus, SSA, HHS, CFPB, IRS Pub 547, AARP.View all
- FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center — ic3.gov. Same-day complaint portal; the complaint number is what banks ask for during recall.
- FBI — Financial Fraud Kill Chain (FFKC) procedures for international wire recall, applied through your bank.
- FTC — identitytheft.gov. Federal recovery-plan generator.
- Equifax — Credit Freeze. equifax.com · 800-685-1111.
- Experian — Security Freeze Center. experian.com/freeze · 888-397-3742.
- TransUnion — Credit Freeze. transunion.com/credit-freeze · 888-909-8872.
- SSA Office of the Inspector General — Fraud Hotline. oig.ssa.gov/report · 1-800-269-0271.
- HHS Office of Inspector General — Medicare/Medicaid fraud reporting. oig.hhs.gov/fraud/report-fraud · 1-800-HHS-TIPS.
- CFPB — What is a wire transfer? Can I cancel one? consumerfinance.gov.
- IRS Publication 547 — Casualties, Disasters, and Thefts. irs.gov/publications/p547.
- FTC Consumer Sentinel Network — Data Book 2024. ftc.gov.
- AARP Fraud Watch Network Helpline — 877-908-3360.
