By Fake Review Detector
If you paid a scam website, act in the first hour: freeze or lock your card, screenshot everything, and contact your bank to start a chargeback — Visa and Mastercard allow up to 120 days from the transaction. In the UK, a credit-card purchase of £100 to £30,000 is covered by Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act. PayPal disputes must be opened within 180 days. Follow the nine steps below, in order, and do not wait for the "seller" to reply first.
That sinking feeling — the order confirmation that never arrives, the tracking number that goes nowhere, the customer-service email that bounces — means one thing: the website took your money and has no intention of sending anything back. It happens to millions of shoppers every year, and the shame makes many people do nothing. That is exactly what the scammers count on. Your money is not automatically gone. The payment system has several built-in ways to reverse a scam payment, but almost all of them have deadlines, and the strongest ones start ticking the moment you pay. Work through these steps today, in this order, and keep a record of everything you do.
Step 1: The first hour — freeze the card and stop further charges
Open your banking app right now and lock or freeze the card you paid with. Most banks and card issuers in the US, UK and EU let you do this in seconds, and it stops the scammers taking a second payment — a common trick is to charge a small "shipping fee" or start a subscription a few days after the first payment. Next, check your recent transactions for anything you do not recognise, including small amounts under $5 or €5: scammers often test a card with a tiny charge before a bigger one. If you see anything unfamiliar, flag it in the same call or chat. If you saved the card on the scam site, or used the same password there as anywhere else, change that password now and turn on two-factor authentication on your email and banking apps. Do not click any link in an email from the "seller" offering a refund — refund phishing is a second scam built on the first.
Step 2: Save every piece of evidence before it disappears
Scam websites vanish fast — domains are abandoned, pages are taken down, and social-media ads are deleted within days. Before anything disappears, screenshot or save: the product page and the price you paid, your order confirmation email, the payment receipt and the exact transaction line on your bank statement, any tracking number, and every message you exchanged with the seller, including live-chat transcripts. Save the website's URL, its "About us" and contact pages, and the name that appears on your bank statement — it is often a different company name from the shop name, and your bank will need it. Keep the originals, not just screenshots: download emails as files where you can. Put everything in one folder with today's date on it. This evidence pack is what your bank, PayPal, or a Section 75 claim will be decided on, so build it before you make a single phone call.
Step 3: Contact the seller in writing — once, and keep the proof
Send one written message to the seller — email is best, because it creates a timestamped record — stating the order number, the date, the amount, what you ordered, and that it never arrived or was not as described, and asking for a full refund within 48 hours. Keep it short and factual. Do not threaten, do not negotiate, and do not accept a partial refund, a replacement, or store credit: partial refunds are a stalling tactic that can weaken a later chargeback. If the seller replies offering a refund "in 10 business days" or asks you to return an item you never received, do not wait for it — move to Step 4 immediately. If there is no reply within 48 hours, that silence is itself evidence: note the date you wrote and that no reply came. Your bank will ask whether you tried to resolve it with the merchant first, and this message is your answer.
Step 4: File a chargeback with your bank or card issuer
A chargeback is your bank reversing the payment through the card network, and it is the single most effective recovery route for card payments. Call the fraud or disputes team — not general customer service — or use the "dispute this transaction" option in your banking app, and say the words "fraudulent merchant" and "goods not received" or "not as described". Under US federal law, the Fair Credit Billing Act gives credit-card holders 60 days from the statement date to dispute a billing error (15 USC 1666), but the card networks give you longer: Visa and Mastercard generally allow chargebacks within 120 days of the transaction or expected delivery date. Debit cards have weaker federal protection in the US, so act even faster if you paid by debit. Your bank will ask for your evidence pack from Step 2 and will usually issue a temporary credit while it investigates, which typically takes 30 to 90 days. If the bank rejects your claim, ask for the reason in writing and escalate: banks can re-present a claim with more evidence, and a written rejection is needed for the next step.
Step 5: UK shoppers — use Section 75, the strongest protection you have
If you are in the UK and paid by credit card, Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 makes your card provider jointly liable with the seller when a single item costs between £100 and £30,000 — even if you only paid a £1 deposit on the card. That means you can claim the full amount from your card company, even if the seller has vanished, and you have up to six years to claim (five years in Scotland), far longer than any chargeback window. Tell your card provider in writing that you want to make a Section 75 claim, include your evidence pack, and state that the seller breached the contract by never delivering the goods. Section 75 does not apply if you paid through PayPal or another third-party wallet, because the direct link between you, the seller and the card company is broken — in that case use PayPal's own dispute process in Step 6. If your card provider refuses a Section 75 claim, you can take the case free of charge to the Financial Ombudsman Service. Citizens Advice (citizensadvice.org.uk) has a step-by-step guide to both Section 75 and chargebacks.
Step 6: Paid another way? What works for PayPal, bank transfer, wire and crypto
Your recovery options depend entirely on how you paid. PayPal: open a dispute in the Resolution Centre within 180 days of payment, choose "I have a problem with an item that I purchased", and escalate it to a claim if the seller does not respond — do not close the dispute because the seller promises a refund outside PayPal. Debit card: ask your bank for a chargeback under Visa or Mastercard scheme rules (usually 120 days); the bank is not legally obliged in the same way as with credit, but most will try. Bank transfer or wire transfer: contact your bank immediately and ask for a recall of the funds — once the money has cleared, recovery is difficult, but if you report it the same day, the receiving bank can sometimes freeze it. Gift cards and cryptocurrency: these are almost never recoverable, because the payment is designed to be irreversible — report them anyway (Step 7) and treat any "recovery service" that contacts you afterwards as a second scam. Buy now, pay later: contact the provider (Klarna, Clearpay, Affirm) and raise a dispute — in the UK, Section 75 can also apply to some BNPL purchases over £100.
Step 7: Report the scam so the site gets shut down
Reporting does two things: it creates an official record that strengthens your bank claim, and it helps take the site offline before it scams the next person. In the US, report to the FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov and file a complaint with the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov. In the UK, report to Action Fraud online or on 0300 123 2040, and also report the site to Citizens Advice. In the EU, report through your national consumer protection authority or the European Consumer Centre in your country. Also report the website to Google Safe Browsing and to the domain registrar — you can find the registrar with a free WHOIS lookup — and report any social-media ads that led you to the site. Keep every reference number you are given and add them to your evidence folder. Reporting takes ten minutes, and a site with multiple reports is far more likely to be suspended.
Step 8: The deadlines that decide whether you get your money back
Recovery is a race against four clocks, so put these in your calendar today. First, the card-network chargeback window: 120 days from the transaction or expected delivery date for Visa and Mastercard, and 60 days from the statement date for the US federal dispute right. Second, PayPal: 180 days from payment to open a dispute — after that the button disappears. Third, UK Section 75: up to six years (five in Scotland), which is why it is worth trying even if you paid months ago. Fourth, the EU 14-day cooling-off period: under the Consumer Rights Directive, you can cancel most online purchases within 14 days of delivery for a full refund — but a scam site will ignore this, so treat it as a backup to the chargeback, not a plan. If any deadline has already passed, try anyway: banks sometimes accept late claims, and Section 75 has no 120-day limit at all. The worst outcome of asking is a no.
Frequently asked questions
Can I get my money back if I paid a scam website?
Often, yes — if you paid by credit or debit card, a chargeback can reverse the payment, and in the UK a Section 75 claim covers credit-card purchases of £100 to £30,000. PayPal disputes work within 180 days. Bank transfers, gift cards and crypto are much harder to recover. Act in the first hour and keep all evidence.
How long does a chargeback take?
Your bank usually issues a temporary credit within a few days of accepting the claim, and the full investigation typically takes 30 to 90 days. Visa and Mastercard give merchants about 30 to 45 days to respond, and the bank will tell you the outcome in writing.
What if the scam website has already disappeared?
You can still claim. A chargeback and a Section 75 claim are made against your bank or card provider, not the seller, so the site vanishing does not end your claim — it actually strengthens it. Your screenshots and bank statement are the evidence.
Should I accept a partial refund from the seller?
No. A partial refund is a common stalling tactic, and accepting it can weaken or close your chargeback. Ask for a full refund in writing, give the seller 48 hours, then go to your bank.
I paid with a gift card or cryptocurrency. Is the money gone?
Almost certainly, yes — both are designed to be irreversible, and scammers choose them for that reason. Report the scam to the FTC or Action Fraud anyway, keep your evidence, and never pay a "recovery service" that promises to get it back: that is a follow-on scam.
What to do next
Start with Step 1 right now — freeze the card, then build your evidence folder, then call your bank. Do not wait until tomorrow: the chargeback clock is already running, and every day you wait makes recovery harder. Before you buy from an unfamiliar website again, run it through our website checker and our payment checker first — a 30-second check before you pay beats a nine-step recovery afterwards. And if the site's reviews convinced you to buy, paste the review text into our fake review checker to see whether those five-star reviews were real in the first place.
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