Editorial note: This guide draws on reporting guidance from the FTC, the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, and the AARP Fraud Watch Network. U.S. consumers lost approximately $1.48 billion to romance scams in 2025, a 22% increase over the prior year. About 1 in 6 adults over 50 say they or someone they know has lost money to a romance scam. This is not legal advice. For the full recovery process beyond reporting, see our complete recovery guide. For a time-urgency checklist, see the scam recovery checklist.

Why Reporting Feels So Hard — And Why It Matters Anyway

You already know you should report it. The tab may have been open for days.

The difficulty is not the form. The form takes twelve minutes. The difficulty is that filling it out means typing a description of what happened — how long the conversations lasted, what you believed, what you sent — and submitting it to a stranger at a government agency. That act makes the situation official in a way that private acknowledgment does not. It converts something you might still rationalize as a misunderstanding into a filed complaint with your name attached.

A 64-year-old reader from outside Richmond described the specific sticking point: “I got as far as the dropdown menu where it asks what type of fraud. Selecting ‘romance scam’ felt like putting my name on a list of gullible people. I closed the browser three times that week. On Thursday my sister called about something unrelated and I just told her, mid-sentence, no preamble. She didn’t react the way I’d feared. She mostly asked practical questions. I filed the FTC form that evening while she stayed on the phone. I don’t know if I’d have done it alone. I’d like to think so but I genuinely don’t know.”

That hesitation is not weakness, and it is not yours. It is the final stage of the scam itself. The operation depends on your silence afterward as much as it depends on your trust beforehand. Shame is the mechanism that protects the scammer after the money is gone. Reporting breaks that protection.

“The scammer’s best asset after the money is gone is your silence. Reporting costs them that.”

Here is the part most guides leave out: reporting a romance scam is rarely about recovering your specific money. For most victims, the funds are gone. What reporting does is contribute your case to a pattern. The FBI’s IC3 builds prosecution cases by linking individual complaints — your $3,000 loss joins twelve other losses that trace to the same overseas IP cluster, the same payment routing, the same language patterns. Below a certain volume, enforcement agencies cannot act. Above that threshold, they can freeze accounts, issue warrants, and shut down operations.

One number that surprised me while researching this article: the FBI’s Recovery Asset Team reports a 74% success rate on freezing fraudulent wire transfers, but only when the report arrives within 72 hours. After that window, success drops to nearly nothing. Most victims report weeks or months later. The gap between what is possible and what actually happens is almost entirely a gap of speed, not a gap of capability. Your report may be the one that tips an active investigation past the threshold where action becomes possible. Or it may join a pattern that enables action six months from now.

What to Gather Before You File

You do not need a perfect evidence file to report. An incomplete report filed today is more useful than a complete report filed never. But if you have the energy to gather materials first, the following list covers what enforcement agencies actually use.

Screenshots of the profile and conversations. The full conversation history if possible, especially early messages (which often contain scripted patterns agencies can match across complaints) and any messages where money was discussed. If you already deleted or blocked the account, report what you remember. The agency would rather have your approximate recollection than nothing.

Financial transaction records. Bank statements, wire transfer confirmations, gift card receipt photos, cryptocurrency wallet addresses, payment app screenshots. Include dates, amounts, and destination identifiers. If you paid through multiple methods, list each one separately, because different payment types route to different recovery processes.

There is a particular difficulty here that is worth naming. Gathering evidence means re-reading the conversation. It means scrolling back through messages you now see differently, past the parts where you were hopeful, past the parts that now embarrass you. Some people find it helps to have someone else in the room. Others do it in short sessions, ten minutes at a time, over several days. There is no version of this that feels pleasant. The practical goal is to get through it once so you never have to go back.

Beyond financial records, collect any identifiers the scammer used: phone numbers, email addresses, secondary social media accounts, links to websites or crypto platforms they directed you to, names they used (real or not). These identifiers are what link your report to others. Also write down a rough timeline of the relationship: when contact started, when it moved off the dating platform, when money was first requested, when you realized something was wrong. Enforcement uses timelines to establish operational patterns, because a scammer running the same playbook across victims often follows the same scheduling.

If you cannot gather all of this, file anyway with what you have. You can supplement a report later. The FTC and IC3 both allow follow-up submissions to an existing complaint number.

Your Reporting Roadmap: Where to File and What Each Agency Does

Not every agency does the same thing with your report. Filing in one place does not mean you are covered everywhere. Here is what each destination handles.

Quick diagnostic — where to start first:

Did money leave your account (wire, gift card, crypto, payment app)? → Start with IC3 (ic3.gov). They handle financial cybercrime and can trigger faster inter-agency coordination when money movement is involved.

No money sent, but you were targeted or gave personal information? → Start with FTC (ReportFraud.ftc.gov). They track fraud patterns and feed data to over 3,000 law enforcement agencies nationwide.

Then file with the remaining agencies below regardless of which you started with. The order after your first filing does not matter — what matters is filing with all relevant ones within the first two weeks.

The five places to file:

  1. FTC — ReportFraud.ftc.gov | What it does: feeds the Consumer Sentinel database used by 3,000+ law enforcement agencies for pattern matching | Time: 10–15 minutes | Anonymous filing allowed
  2. FBI IC3 — ic3.gov | What it does: investigates internet-facilitated crime, especially when money crossed state or international lines | Time: 15–25 minutes | Requires your identity
  3. Your local police department | What it does: creates an official police report number (often needed for bank disputes and insurance claims) | Time: varies — call non-emergency line first
  4. The dating platform where contact occurred | What it does: removes the profile, flags associated accounts, may preserve evidence for law enforcement requests | Time: 5–10 minutes through in-app reporting
  5. Your state attorney general | What it does: tracks consumer protection violations at state level; some states have dedicated elder fraud units | Time: 10–15 minutes through state AG website

Filled example — what one week of reporting looks like:

Monday: Filed FTC report (12 minutes). Got confirmation number. Tuesday: Filed IC3 complaint (22 minutes). Uploaded screenshots. Wednesday: Called Elder Fraud Hotline (833-372-8311) for help with the IC3 follow-up questions I wasn’t sure about. Thursday: Called local police non-emergency line, filed report, got case number. Friday: Reported profile on the dating app. Emailed state AG consumer protection form.

Your version (plan your own sequence):

Day 1: _______________ Day 2: _______________ Day 3: _______________ Day 4: _______________ Day 5: _______________

You do not need to do this in five days. You do not need to do it in order. The example above is one reader’s pace — yours might be two days or two weeks. What matters is that the reports exist, not that they happened quickly.

Filing Step by Step

FTC (ReportFraud.ftc.gov)

Go to ReportFraud.ftc.gov and select “Report Now.” You will choose a category (select “Romance scams” or “Online dating”), describe what happened in your own words, and provide the scammer’s contact information if you have it. The form allows anonymous filing — you can provide as little identifying information about yourself as you choose. At the end you receive a confirmation number. Save it.

What the FTC does not do: investigate your individual case or contact you with updates. What it does do: enter your report into a shared database that thousands of law enforcement agencies search when building cases. Your report joins others. That accumulation is the mechanism.

FBI IC3 (ic3.gov)

Go to ic3.gov and select “File a Complaint.” This form is more detailed than the FTC’s. It asks for financial specifics — amounts, dates, account numbers, wallet addresses. It asks for the scammer’s identifiers. It takes 15–25 minutes if you have your evidence gathered.

IC3 is not anonymous. They need your identity to follow up if your report contributes to an active case. The Elder Fraud Hotline at (833) 372-8311 provides free assistance with filing — a real person will walk you through the form if you call Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Eastern. This service exists specifically because the IC3 form can feel overwhelming, particularly for people over 60 who are filing for the first time.

Local police

Call your local police department’s non-emergency number. Tell them you need to file a report for online fraud. Some departments handle this over the phone; others ask you to come in or file online. The resulting police report number is documentation you may need later — some banks require it for formal fraud disputes, and some insurance policies cover fraud losses only with a police report on file.

Do not expect your local police to investigate the scam directly. Most romance scam operations are interstate or international, which puts them outside local jurisdiction. The value of the local report is the paper trail, not the investigation.

Dating platform

Report the profile through the app or website’s built-in reporting tool. Most platforms (Match, OurTime, Bumble, Hinge) have a “Report” option on every profile. Select the reason that fits — usually “Scam” or “Fake profile.” Some platforms also have a dedicated safety or trust email for detailed reports.

Why this matters: the platform can remove the profile before it targets someone else, flag associated phone numbers or payment details, and preserve evidence that law enforcement may later request through legal channels.

State attorney general

Search “[your state] attorney general consumer complaint” to find the online form. Many states have dedicated elder fraud or internet fraud units. Filing takes 10–15 minutes and creates a state-level record that complements your federal filings.

What Happens After You File

Nothing dramatic happens immediately. That is normal and does not mean your reports were ignored.

The FTC sends no follow-up. Your complaint enters the Consumer Sentinel Network and becomes searchable by law enforcement, but you will not receive case updates, phone calls, or resolution notifications. The value is cumulative, not individual.

IC3 may contact you if your report connects to an active investigation, but most filers never hear back. They reach out when they need additional evidence for a case already underway, not to acknowledge receipt.

Local police will give you a case number but rarely investigate romance scams directly. The case number itself is the deliverable. Use it for bank disputes and insurance claims.

This silence is the hardest part of reporting for most people. You did something difficult, and the response is nothing. No confirmation that it mattered. No closure. Just a confirmation number and quiet. It can feel like the system absorbed your pain and gave back a receipt.

I cannot tell you with certainty what percentage of romance scam reports lead to prosecution. The FBI does not publish case-resolution rates broken down by fraud type in a way that answers that honestly. Whether your report leads to enforcement action depends on factors entirely outside your control: how many other victims reported the same operation, whether the funds are traceable, whether the scammer operates in a jurisdiction that cooperates with U.S. law enforcement. What I can say is that IC3 received over 64,000 romance-related complaints in recent years. Those complaints are the raw material. Without them, enforcement has nothing to build on.

A 58-year-old reader from Maryland who filed with both the FTC and IC3 described the afterward plainly: “Nobody called me. For about two months I felt like I’d just shouted into a government database. Then in April I got a letter, not about my money, about the case. They’d connected my complaint to a network operating out of West Africa. I wasn’t going to get anything back financially. But they’d frozen accounts connected to the same group. I don’t know how to explain why that mattered to me. It shouldn’t have made a difference. It wasn’t my money they froze. But knowing my report was part of what stopped them felt like the first thing in six months that didn’t make me feel stupid.”

That outcome is not typical. Most filers never receive that letter. But reporting changed something for her that had nothing to do with money. It moved her from the category of “person who was fooled” to “person who did something about it.” That shift is not nothing, even when the government never calls.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does reporting a romance scam actually lead to anything?

Sometimes, but not in the way most people hope. Individual reports rarely lead to individual money recovery. What reports do is aggregate into patterns that enable enforcement: account freezes, operation shutdowns, and occasionally prosecutions. The FBI’s IC3 builds cases on volume. Your report may be the one that tips an investigation past the threshold for action — or it may sit in a database and contribute to a statistical pattern that informs future enforcement priorities. Both are useful. Neither involves a phone call telling you justice was served.

Can I report a romance scam anonymously?

At the FTC, yes. ReportFraud.ftc.gov allows you to provide as little personal information as you choose. At IC3, no — they require your identity because they may need to contact you if your report contributes to an active investigation. Local police also require your identity for the official report. If anonymity is your primary concern, start with the FTC and the dating platform report (most platforms allow anonymous reporting).

How long does it take to file an IC3 complaint?

Fifteen to twenty-five minutes if you have your evidence already gathered — screenshots, transaction records, the scammer’s identifiers. Longer if you are assembling information while filing. The Elder Fraud Hotline at (833) 372-8311 provides free filing assistance Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Eastern, if the form feels overwhelming or confusing.

What if the scammer was in another country?

File anyway. Most romance scam operations are international, and enforcement agencies expect this. IC3 specifically handles internet crime that crosses borders. Your report contributes to international cooperation agreements — the FBI works with Interpol and foreign law enforcement through legal channels that individual victims cannot access. The scammer’s location does not make your report less useful; it makes coordinated reporting more necessary.

Should I report to local police if the scammer is overseas?

Yes, because the police report number serves a practical purpose beyond investigation. Banks, credit card companies, and some insurance policies require an official police report number before processing fraud claims. Your local police are unlikely to investigate an international scam directly, but the documentation they produce is leverage you need for financial recovery steps. For specific steps on recovering funds by payment method, see our guide on what to do if you sent money to someone you met online.

What Reporting Does Not Require

You do not need to have lost money to file. You do not need to have proof that the person was definitely a scammer. You do not need to feel certain. If you suspect something was wrong, that is enough to report.

You also do not need to have reported immediately. There is no time limit on filing with the FTC or IC3. The financial recovery window may have closed, but the pattern-detection value of your report remains regardless of when you file. A report filed six months after the scam still contributes to case building.

And if you read this entire article and decide not to file — not today, not ever — that is information about where you are right now, not a failure. Some people file the week they realize what happened. Some file months later when the shame has quieted enough to sit with a form. Some never file and find their own way forward. Knowing what reporting involves, what it costs emotionally, and what it can and cannot do is worth having whether or not you use it.